Get ready for Selection Sunday
Mike Slive will be the man in the cross-hairs this weekend.
He is the chair of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee. That means he oversees the selection committee for the NCAA Tournament.
Hence, the cross-hairs.
Slive answered questions earlier this week as part of a teleconference with media from across the country. Here are some interesting excerpts from it:
About the selection process: The conference tournaments determine 30 of the 31 automatic qualifiers and provide a chance for any of the 322 teams in Division I to make the championships. Everyone has a shot of making it to the Dance.
It is also a chance for teams to add meaningful wins to what they have already accomplished throughout the season. I emphasize the words ‘through the season’. A couple of wins this week can’t hurt, but it is certainly important that we look at the entire body of work for a team.
Wins in November and December count. Losses in November and December count, just as they do in January, February and March.
I commented earlier that the committee has put in the work to be prepared for this week. So have our coaches, whose input through the Regional Advisory Committee is one of the many tools we have to evaluate teams. So have conference offices, who provide us with an incredible amount of useful information that we have had access to throughout the season as part of our conference monitoring program.
We will take into consideration every piece of information that we have available and is relevant. That includes injuries and the status of injured players. It includes close losses, quality wins and a wide variety of circumstances that possibly could have affected results.
But, again, we are reviewing results from the entire season. Conference tournaments are exciting and serve a purpose. But it is important for the committee to not get so caught up in what a team does this week and overlook what it has done over the course of the last four months. That perspective is essential to right decisions.
It is our charge to pick the best 34 at‑large teams, regardless of conference affiliation. And that’s what we are here to do.
I have said it before, and it’s worth pointing out again. We look to answers to the three Ws and an H: Who you play, where you play, with whom did you play, and how you played.
If there’s one thing that’s been obvious about this season, it’s that there are a number of quality teams playing. Just looking at the coaches and media polls throughout the season, we have seen a revolving door, not only at the top, but throughout the top 25.
What that means is there are many good teams capable of beating other good teams, and that’s going to make the tournament as exciting as ever. It’s shaping up to be a memorable championship from start to finish. It is also shaping up to be a stressful week for the committee because we have a lot of tough decisions ahead of us. But we’re ready.
One final but important thought about the economy and its effect on the upcoming championships. These are trying times for all us here, for all of you on the call, and for the millions around the country. There’s no safe harbor from the effects of the current financial situation.
As we head into this selection weekend, we are reminded of the changes we implemented in 2002, which places teams, to the greatest extent possible, close to their national geographic area. Since that time, most teams and their fans are traveling shorter distances for tournament games. A savings in costs and missed class time.
We fully recognize that this is a national championship. Our 330 Division I member institutions are located throughout the country. The committee remains committed to this principle to the extent it does not adversely impact fair competition.
About evaluating a team who has had a key player injured: What we are going to do for all teams who have injuries, we will evaluate the team before the injury; we will evaluate the team during the injury; and if a player happens to return, we’ll make every effort to evaluate the team at that time.
But it’s the whole body of work and the quality of the team as it moves towards tournament time. We will continually, throughout the weekend, on any teams that have players that have been injured or who currently get injured, we will maintain constant contact with institutions and the conferences to make sure that we know exactly the current status of the student‑athlete at that particular time.
About the selection committee only having four members who’ve played or coached Division-I basketball: I think what you have is a group of committed, dedicated, knowledgeable, experienced administrators, some of whom have coached, some of whom have created basketball leagues, some of whom have spent their lives in one form or another related to the game, who appreciate the game, who love the game, and know it, and who can bring ‑ by virtue of observation, study and analysis ‑ just what is needed to create the kind of field that makes this tournament great.
It’s evolved from a small tournament to one of the world’s premiere athletic events with these same kinds of people, the same composition of people throughout the country. This year’s committee is the same committee we had last year with only one change. I think the world was pretty happy with last year’s tournament, with the exception of a few teams who didn’t make it.
The other thing is that we have access to a lot of people, a lot of expertise, people who have been in the game, people who have coached the game. We get input from 31 coaches from around the country with their regional advisory groups.
I can tell you this. If you spend time with any one of us or all 10 of us in this room, you would have no doubt about the level of basketball expertise and knowledge that’s going to create this year’s tournament.
About being concerned as the committee chair that something will slip through, ala BYU a few years ago: We have a bracketing mantra. You remember the old saying: ‘Remember the Alamo.’ Here instead of the Alamo, it’s ‘Remember BYU’
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