As if the college basketball world doesn’t have enough Feast Week Tournaments, the St. John’s basketball program was presented with the opportunity to play in the newly created Royal Palm Invitational, which will be held in Dubai next season.
The creation of the tournament was first reported on Thursday afternoon by CBS Sports.
However, the Red Storm are not interested in the international travel, Rick Pitino said, and declined the invitation.
“It’s a long, long trip,” Pitino explained at Madison Square Garden on Thursday afternoon as the No. 23 Johnnies (4-3) prepare to host Ole Miss on Saturday night (8:00 p.m. ET, Peacock).
“We have no interest in that.”
St. John’s remains committed to the Players Era Championship in Las Vegas after signing a three-year contract to play in the event, although its head coach wants much more clear and concise information regarding the format of the tournament.
The Red Storm are coming off a 1-2 trip in Vegas last week and didn’t know who its third opponent would be until approximately 9:00 p.m. PT the night before its final game.
“I was a little disturbed by what happened,” Pitino explained about the Players Era Championship schedule.
St. John’s lost to then No. 21 Auburn in its final game, blowing an 11-point second half lead.
The Hall of Famer said that by all metrics and tiebreakers the tournament had expressed in the lead up to the event, the Red Storm mapped out that it would be playing Houston in the finale before the Tigers were sprung on them.
“Something didn’t mesh there,” he said. “We have a contract but they’re going to have to explain the format a lot better than what they did.”
Players Era is planning on its third year of expansion and having 32 teams in the event next November after seeing 18 teams play this year.
“I just want to know who we are playing because we are a big preparation team and our team played very well against Iowa State, played very well against Baylor, and we’re totally not prepared [for Auburn].”
“Now, I will say Auburn wasn’t prepared for us either, so it’s a two-way street.”
Assuming Rick Pitino and St. John’s get more clarity about the Players Era Championship, it’ll be another trip back to Las Vegas next fall for the Red Storm as The Royal Palm Invitational will look elsewhere to fill its field.