Ed Cooley tells AP voters they're "blind" for not ranking fellow Big East school

St. John’s (NY) is off to a historic start to the season. Entering the weekend, they were off to their best 18-game start since the 1985-86 season. And after beating Seton Hall on Saturday, improved to 16-3 on the season and 7-1 in conference play. 

Rick Pitino has managed to turn St. John’s around – and seemingly his reputation as well after it plummeted at Louisville thanks to a recruiting scandal. And the Red Storm are now on the brink of being ranked in the AP top 25. 

But for Georgetown coach Ed Cooley, that isn’t good enough. He’s seen the Red Storm, which are on a five-game win streak, and he is convinced they’re one of the countries best. 

“For St. John’s not to be ranked, I don’t know who some of these voters are, you’re blind … That’s one of the best teams we’ve played all year,” Cooley said, Seth Greenberg said during College GameDay on Saturday. “Anyone behind that iron mic who has a vote, wake your ass up.”

St. John’s has been good this year, but it’s not wrong for them to be unranked despite historic start

To an extent, I agree with Cooley. Yes, the Red Storm probably do deserve to be ranked. But I think rankings now don’t really mean much right now. The amount of teams that have rotated in and out of the rankings and fluctuated up and down, it's not a major factor right now. 

Conference play is about a month in and there’s roughly a month-and-a-half left before March Madness. What will matter for St. John’s isn’t what they’re ranked right now, but rather how many Quad 1 and Quad 2 wins they can compile to improve their NCAA Net ranking. 

That should be their priority. Because they’re currently 1-3 versus Quad 1 opponents so far and 3-0 against Quad 2 teams. They’re currently ranked No. 26 in NET rankings, per NCAA.com. That’s the most important ranking for them. 

The Red Storm enter the roughest part of their schedule. As of right now, 10 of their final 12 games are against Quad 1 and 2 teams. If they finish the regular season above .500 against the Quad 1 and 2 opponents, the ranking will take care of itself. 

Pitino is always going to field a dangerous team. It’s one thing Greenberg said makes the Red Storm a dangerous team amid their hot start. In Pitino’s first year at St. John’s, they finished the year 20-13. They’re already on pace to do much better. 

And with the parity this season, they have a chance to get an at-large bid and maybe even a Big East conference title. Either way, the voters may have it wrong to not have St. John’s ranked right now. 

But in the grand scheme of things, what their AP ranking is right now isn’t as important as their NET ranking. If they can pile up the important wins to close the season, the rest of the college basketball world will see Cooley already does.