Saint Joseph's hoped a 27-1 record and strong schedule would quiet the critics.
Not a chance.
Despite a 20-point loss to end their regular season, the Hawks grabbed a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament Sunday to join Kentucky, Duke and Stanford atop the brackets.
"The body of work was honored," Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli said.
Martelli lashed out at CBS commentator Billy Packer for questioning whether the Hawks deserved to be a top-seeded team, calling him a "jackass."
"He called us out on national TV," Martelli said. "That committee goes into a room and studies it and he's smarter than the committee?"
Packer responded by saying he helped Wake Forest beat Saint Joseph's in the 1962 tournament.
"He needs to learn a little history about the school where he coaches," Packer said.
The NCAA selection committee gave the overall top spot to Kentucky in the St. Louis Regional, followed by Duke in Atlanta, Stanford in Phoenix and Saint Joseph's in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The St. Louis and East Rutherford regional winners will meet in the national semifinals.
Committee chairman Bob Bowlsby said Saint Joseph's earned a No. 1 seed because it played the nation's toughest nonconference schedule.
"They didn't just play a good schedule, but the No. 1 schedule, and I think that's worth something," he said.
Still, there were questions.
Bowlsby acknowledged the committee debated the effect of the Hawks' blowout loss to Xavier in the Atlantic 10 tournament before deciding to keep them as a top seed. He said as many as nine teams were being considered as No. 1s.
Oklahoma State was one team that could have replaced Saint Joseph's, but the Cowboys' Big 12 championship game Sunday, a victory over Texas, began too late to be a factor in the selection.
"People are going to say what they want to say," Hawks guard Jameer Nelson said. "We believe in ourselves. No one else has to believe. Who cares? Let's play."
The tournament begins Tuesday night with the play-in game in Dayton, Ohio, between Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champion Florida A&M (14-16) and Patriot League champion Lehigh (20-10). That winner will play on Friday in Columbus, Ohio, against Kentucky (26-4), the Southeastern Conference champion and a No. 1 seed for the second straight year.
The other top seeds in Kentucky's regional are Gonzaga, Georgia Tech and Kansas.
Martelli, who earlier this season called a fan a "nitwit" and a "moron" during a game, takes Saint Joseph's to Buffalo, New York, to play its opener against Liberty on Thursday. The other top seeds in the regional are Oklahoma State, Pittsburgh and Wake Forest.
Saint Joseph's will play the winner of Texas Tech-Charlotte on Saturday, a game that sends Red Raiders coach Bob Knight back to Buffalo, the site of his final game as Indiana's coach in the 2000 tournament.
Duke (27-5) is a No. 1 seed for the sixth time in seven years. The Blue Devils had been the overall No. 1 until losing to Maryland in overtime in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game, Bowlsby said.
Kentucky won the SEC tournament on Sunday and earned itself pole position for the Big Dance.
Duke opens against Alabama State on Thursday in Raleigh, North Carolina. The No. 2 seed in the Atlanta regional is Mississippi State followed by Texas and Cincinnati.
Pac-10 champ Stanford meets Texas-San Antonio on Thursday in Seattle. The Cardinal are a No. 1 seed for the third time in five years.
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