College basketball rankings: Rick Pitino leads resurgent St. John's into Big East Tournament semifinals

The Friday of Championship Week, otherwise known as Selection Sunday Eve-Eve, is always tremendous. The best of the best are usually playing. Bubble teams are constantly in action. The games start early and end late. It's one of the best days of the year in the sport.

Today will be no different.

Purdue-Michigan State will get things underway at noon. Colorado State-New Mexico won't end until about 14 hours later. In between, it'll be one thrill after another. But nothing, and I mean nothing, will compare to the scene inside Madison Square Garden, just before the sun sets over the Hudson River, when UConn and St. John's take the court for the first of two Big East Tournament semifinals. Naismith Memorial Hall of Famer Rick Pitino will be on one side, future Naismith Memorial Hall of Famer Dan Hurley on the other. In the secondary market, it's the most expensive ticket in American sports on Friday by far.

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"It's an unbelievable feeling, man," said St. John's center Joel Soriano, who finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds in Thursday's 91-72 victory over Seton Hall. "Everybody that I've known from St. John's ... Coach P even said ... 'Playing Friday night at Madison Square Garden, there's no better feeling. There's no other tournament bigger than the Big East Tournament.'"

The fact that St. John's is in this position is remarkable considering where the Red Storm were roughly a month ago — specifically, on a three-game losing streak that prompted Pitino to call his first season back in the Big East the "most unenjoyable experience of my lifetime." Since those words made national headlines, the Red Storm are 6-0 with two Quadrant 1 wins and in the Big East Tournament semifinals for the first time since 2000 -- but extending this winning streak will be difficult considering they're 9.5-point underdogs to UConn, which remains No. 2 in Friday morning's updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings.

Purdue is No. 1 for the 24th straight day.

Houston remains No. 3.

Those three schools are now guaranteed to be the top three seeds (in some order) in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. The fourth No. 1 seed remains up for grabs with North Carolina and Tennessee seemingly serving as the top two candidates, at this point, to secure it.