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NABC committee to study NCAA tournament principles

John Calipari

AP

AP

A group of basketball coaches representing all levels of Division I will meet several times over the summer to discuss issues surrounding the NCAA tournament.

The National Association of Basketball Coaches has formed an ad hoc committee to discuss the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Specifically, they will be going over the selection, the seeding and the bracketing principles that the selection committee uses to turn a pool of 351 college basketball teams into a 68 team bracket.

The committee itself includes head coaches from all levels of the sport as well as administrators that have served on the committee. NABC Executive Director Jim Haney and former SEC Commissioner Mike Slive, himself a former chair of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee, are co-chairs of the committee.

This is the third time that the NABC has put together an ad hoc committee like this. The first was in regards to the early entry deadline, and the result was that the NCAA opted to move the deadline to withdraw from the draft back six weeks. They also put together a committee to discuss time demands on student-athletes.

One interesting note here: Kentucky head coach John Calipari is on the committee. He’s been vocal since Selection Sunday about the issues regarding having conference tournament title games on Selection Sunday. His Kentucky team beat Texas A&M for the SEC tournament title in March, but the Wildcats were given a No. 4 seed while the Aggies received a No. 3 seed. He even proposed moving the SEC tournament to November earlier this month at the SEC meetings.

This ad hoc committee also includes the following coaches:

John Calipari, Kentucky (Southeastern Conference)
Bill Coen, Northeastern (Colonial Athletic Association)
Mark Few, Gonzaga (West Coast Conference)
Steve Fisher, San Diego State (Mountain West Conference)
Mark Gottfried, North Carolina State (Atlantic Coast Conference)
Bob Huggins, West Virginia (Big 12 Conference)
Ron Hunter, Georgia State (Sun Belt Conference)
James Jones, Yale (Ivy League)
Jeff Jones, Old Dominion (Conference USA)
Phil Martelli, Saint Joseph’s (Atlantic 10 Conference)
John Thompson III, Georgetown (Big East Conference)
Mark Turgeon, Maryland (Big Ten Conference)
Gary Waters, Cleveland State (Horizon League)

Administrators (both former NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee Members):

Doug Elgin, Commissioner (Missouri Valley Conference)
Dan Guerrero, UCLA AD (PAC-12)

Consultants:

Dan Gavitt, Vice President for Men’s Basketball (NCAA)
Reggie Minton, Deputy Executive Director (NABC)