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NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 12, 2008Tom O'ConnorDAVE WORLOCK: Good afternoon, everyone. We want to thank you for joining us on the call today. We know there are a lot of people waiting to get questions in this, the first of two teleconferences that we're conducting prior to Selection Sunday with Tom O'Connor, who is the director-of-athletics at George Mason University and chair of the Division I Men's Basketball Committee. Tom, the committee met last week in Indianapolis to conduct a selection orientation, and then you attended the two mock selection exercises with media members last Wednesday and Thursday. We'd like to first get your thoughts on those meetings and then, because we're only four weeks from gathering in Indianapolis to begin the selection, seeding and bracketing process, we'd like to ask you for your take on the season so far. TOM O'CONNOR: Thanks, David. On behalf of the Men's Basketball Committee, I want to thank you for taking the time to meet with me as representative of the committee. Let me say as representative what an honor it is to represent the nine committee members which I have the utmost respect for. I also want you to know that the committee really appreciates the time, energy and dedication that the NCAA staff puts forth for this fabulous event. What's really important is that this year has been a great year of college basketball. I truly believe that we've seen so many exciting games that have been played so far. It seems like the casual fan has become the real serious fan, then the real serious fan has become almost the fanatical fan. So this year in college basketball has been just an absolute delight for people to watch and see live on television. I'd also like to comment on the overall effect of the efforts of the student-athletes, coaches and officials for upholding the principles of sportsmanship, as many of you know, we put great emphasis on at the beginning of the season. We have a month to go in the season, so it's premature for me to comment on any team at this point. Once the season and the conference tournaments are complete, we will then be able to do a complete, cumulative assessment of each team's entire portfolio. Last week we had our selection orientation committee meeting and our mock selection exercise for both the print and electronic media. In both of those meetings, there was active discussion. We had a little fun. There was a true understanding of the process. I'd really like to thank and congratulate all those who participated. At this point there seems to be little difference between a good number of teams in the country. Our goal and challenge is to select the 34 best teams. While there will be a number of teams who are very good basketball teams, they may not be selected, but I'm confident the committee will be on target. It is of the utmost importance that we get it right for the student-athletes, the coaches and fans. We have constantly said that we look at who you play, where you play, and how you did. We'll have an entire portfolio of each team at season's end. We do a cumulative assessment after the regular season ends. Remember, we're selecting the 34 best teams, the best, and we're moving towards the national champion. I know that the committee's ready. We're looking over stats. We're going over reports submitted by the various conference offices. We're watching games on TV and in person, and we're talking with solid basketball people. I know that the committee's really excited. I'm really excited. I'm excited about visiting with you today. With that said, feel free to ask me any question that you like. Q. Tom, kind of probably an odd question. One of your committee members, Lynn Hickey is the AD at UT San Antonio. Does that change her role at all at the Final Four? Seems to me it's a bit of a unique situation to have somebody a committee member also from the host institution. TOM O'CONNOR: Let me say this about Lynn. She's been an outstanding member of the committee. We've had two meetings where we talked about the teams and the process. She has just been absolutely outstanding. She's an excellent administrator and knows that she's going to have many hats on with the selection and with being the host school. I don't see any difference with her being on the committee and being part of the host institution process. And also she has the tremendous people of San Antonio, the administration in San Antonio, the host committee to back her up. I know Lynn is in a good place with us and a good place with hosting the tournament. Q. I know you say it's too early to comment on specific teams and their chances. Taking a team like Kentucky, there are several factors that will appear to affect them down the stretch. I wondered if you could comment on those factors. Number one, the injury factor, they've had a lot of injuries, haven't had their whole team together at a certain point this year. Number two, they had some tough early-season losses, non-conference losses at home. How they finish, how big does that play into the process as opposed to throwing in that injury factor and early-season losses, as well? TOM O'CONNOR: As I said, I don't think it's fair to comment on any team. But to your one point, say the last 12 games, that's one factor, or the last few games, but in our case the last 10 games. Each committee member evaluates each of the teams based on their individual performance and how the committee feels in their own mind they should vote. So we take a number of things into consideration, like the last 12 games. We'll take eligibility of players. That can be surrounded by player suspensions, injuries, et cetera. There's so much that goes into the process. We really need to wait till the end of the year so we can have that complete, cumulative assessment before we make any judgments today. We still have a month to go in the season. Again, I think it's unfair to the players and the coaches to comment on any particular team at this point. But I understand what you're saying. Q. Could you comment, update us on the committee's perspective regarding the possibility of future expansion of the tournament. As you well know, several coaches have said there needs to be more teams in the tournament. Jim Boeheim has kind of led that crusade. There's been talk of adding 10 or 12 teams or expanding the opening round. Do you visualize this as something that there will be any kind of study that will be done in the near future? TOM O'CONNOR: Well, you have to appreciate and respect everybody's opinion. But at this time the committee and the NCAA board has deemed that the current bracket is appropriate. We feel, coming out of our meetings this summer, that where we are right now is fine. Q. Do you think if there's similar kinds of controversies this year as there was last year with Syracuse and Drexel, that you would revisit that and look at it again? How to you look at that? TOM O'CONNOR: Well, in all honesty, I'm just looking towards the future and at the end of this year. Two things I've tried to catch myself on is not to look at the past and not to project into a crystal ball for the future. So when March comes around, we'll see who's in the tournament and make all sorts of comments and all sorts of issues surrounding the tournament. But we really do have to wait. Q. You talked about the orientation session a couple weeks ago. What's your early impressions about the competition for future Final Fours? TOM O'CONNOR: The competition for the future Final Fours? We really didn't get into that, quite frankly. We really talked about the process for selecting. We have two new members in Lynn Hickey, the athletic director at the University of Texas, San Antonio, and Jeff Hathaway, the director of athletics at the University of Connecticut. So our focus on that meeting was really to zero in on the process for them, to talk about some of the best measures that some of the committee members take with them to selection. If it was more than three minutes talking about future sites, it was not at that meeting. Q. Tom, I understand from some people who were at the mock bracketing that both you and Greg Shaheen commented on the importance of the conference championship game, that perhaps you're going to tweak the value of that game relative to seeding, obviously getting in if a team wouldn't have gotten in otherwise, but relative to seeding. TOM O'CONNOR: We talked about that and we talked about the conference tournaments and conference championships. And what we zeroed in on is that we don't want to do impulse buying during the conference tournaments, actually, because it's only one or two games, in some cases three games. We still want to look at the cumulative assessment of the entire year and see how a team has done. After thinking about the impulse buying, I guess you have to think about the impulse return, as well. But in this case, it's really impulse buying that we want to avoid, especially during tournament time. As it relates to seed, it would be a factor, how a team ended the year or played in the tournament. But, again, I'm being repetitious. It's really the entire portfolio of the season. Q. To clarify, if you have two teams playing for the same seed, and they have split during the regular season, would that then place an emphasis on the championship game, or if one team had won both games, won the regular season, would they be given the edge regardless of what happened? TOM O'CONNOR: Well, I think if those two teams play during the regular season and they split, then they were to play in the championship game, I remember my old days of growing up, if you win the game in the schoolyard, you continue to play. So that would be my first thought, that you would continue on to play, and that would probably mean that you would potentially be a higher seed. Again, that would just be that one game, and I still have to go back as a committee member, and then the entire committee, to look back at the breadth of the season and see how that went because we'd be putting too much emphasis on that one game, and maybe two other games, three games, of the entire season. I'm not so sure that would be completely fair to those particular institutions that are involved in that, then we're taking a look at all the other institutions in a different way. But the nice part of the committee work is that everybody has a different opinion and everyone has a different way of looking at it. That gives us a consensus in the room. But your question is very valid and I thank you for it. Q. Tom, an odd question I suppose here. If your advisory people or an advisor from any part of the country gave information that officiating mistakes in a particular game had played a big impact in the game and you felt certain that was the case, would that ever become a factor in either selection of a team or seeding of a team, or would you parse that closely? TOM O'CONNOR: We're aware of all close games and we're aware of everything that goes on in the games. The NCAA staff does an absolutely tremendous job of giving every statistic that we need. I remember last year one of the teams that was under consideration had travel problems and didn't get to the arena until right before the game, so we talked about that. In relationship to the question that you asked just now, we would be aware of the circumstances surrounding any games. But bottom line is you still have to consider who won the game, and that's the most important part. Q. Tom, just to clarify on the point about the conference championships. Is that a change, impulse buying, from what you've had in the past? TOM O'CONNOR: No, it's not a change at all. Q. Also I understand you guys are going to be coming in a day earlier this year. Can you tell me what you're hoping to gain from that extra day or night? TOM O'CONNOR: We're coming in a day earlier for a number of reasons. One of the reasons why we decided to do that is so we can have more discussion on the selection. I mean, it's very important that we put a lot of time into selection. That's the most important part of the process. The seeding and bracketing are important, but you can't be seeded, you can't be bracketed if you're not selected. That's the obvious. So we want to make sure that we're giving all of the teams under consideration a good look-see, and to get more time is only going to give us that capability. The second point is, quite frankly, we've been a little bit rushed in bracketing, and we really would like to spend a little bit more time on bracketing. When we were at the NCAA convention special meeting in Nashville, we talked about bracketing. Then when we were at meetings in Indianapolis last week, we really went through the nuances of bracketing and spent more time there. So if we can pick up more time in the bracketing phase, I think it's going to be much more help for us in completing the field and giving us a chance to take a deep breath and look back and see what we've done. Q. I hear you talk about criteria, looking at the last 12 games, who you played, how you did. Is there any way to quantify a breakdown there in importance? TOM O'CONNOR: Not necessarily. I say that as one member of the committee. But as the committee as a whole, each person looks at the different criteria, the different data points a little bit different. But with the last 12 games, that's one factor. And each committee member evaluates based on the individual performances. Usually the last 10 games, since you brought that up, it means the team is playing really well, especially if they're winning, and it plays into selection, or on the reverse side the obvious. We're really dealing with what we have in front of us at times. Specifically for selections, I would say that the last 10 games are concerned as a great data point because, as I explained, again, you have the eligibility of the players, you may be looking at the team getting hot or gelling at the right time. Also in there, it could have an effect on the road wins. So winning the last 10 games indicates playing the best basketball of the season and it's worthy of a team. Obviously, the reverse is so: if you're losing, you're losing a lot in the last 12 games, then it's going to tell you something as well. There's nothing wrong with identifying teams that are on a roll as a consideration, as one of the factors for the committee to look at. Q. I look at Davidson, who has been doing great in their conference play, had a good strength of schedule non-conference, but couldn't beat anybody. Those last 12 games for them, I'm trying to figure out how it would balance out for them. TOM O'CONNOR: That's an interesting question, a fair question, but it's not fair to comment on a particular team as I mentioned at the opening at this point because there's a lot of games to be played and you can't have a crystal ball into the remaining games. However, what I can say is that there is no mathematical line of demarcation in all of this that governs whether a team is selected or not. A team's regular-season record is only one of the many facets. I mean, the obvious is the obvious: winning games is very important. We examine each team very, very closely. The selection is a compilation of the subjective opinion of all the committee members. It goes back to winning games. When we have all the data, when we have that complete portfolio, then we can make some decisions. As I said at the beginning, it's really not fair because we have a month left to go in the season and we can't have a crystal ball and tell what teams are doing. Q. What kind of impact do you think your school, George Mason's success a year ago, had on how maybe people look at mid-majors? TOM O'CONNOR: I'm going to keep my committee hat on. Any team that's selected for the 34 at-large teams must be a pretty good basketball team. Q. Davidson was just mentioned a bit ago. They've twice been left out after they've gone undefeated in the regular season conference schedule. In those one-bid leagues, does the committee even look at what those type of schools did in the regular season in their conference? TOM O'CONNOR: First of all, I don't think there's anything at all as a one-bid league. I used the example in the mock selection of Vermont a couple years ago. If you remember, Vermont had the big player, Coppenrath, they had a very good season, they were playing in their championship game. If they had not won that championship game, they would have been on the board as one of those teams that would have been talked about. So I don't think it can be categorized as a one-bid league. Again, I really don't think it's fair to comment on any particular team at this point. Q. The committee's schedule, with you guys getting started a day earlier, when exactly do you get in? Do you still have the same kind of schedule, you start off with some of the housekeeping stuff as far as selecting the officials and that sort of thing? Is the extra day sort of to help you in the middle of the timeline to have that extra time to discuss teams? TOM O'CONNOR: Yes, it does. What we're going to try to do is take care of many of the administrative issues in advance by conference call. We may talk about some conference monitoring a week in advance. We've asked the subcommittee on officiating to meet with Hank Nichols and talk about the officiating issues. So what we plan to do is to come on Tuesday night for those of us who can make it there, and I believe just about right now everyone will be able to get in on Tuesday night, and then hit the ground running on Wednesday. We're also going to speed up the process by having our initial ballots in a little bit earlier. The whole timing is based on we just want to have more time to talk. There are a lot of good teams out there. We need to synthesize all the information and have good, solid discussion. Then, like I said, the bracketing is important. So if we can pick up a day here, an hour there, a half hour there, it's only going to make for a better final product. Q. Basically you guys are trying to clear the table as far as having all the stuff out of the way so basically when you are in Indianapolis it can almost be totally about the selection of the at-large teams and that sort of thing, right? TOM O'CONNOR: I think you put it the right way: almost. There are certain things we do need to talk about while we're there. But we really want to hit the ground running when we get to Indianapolis and put all our thoughts and efforts into selecting the 34 teams. Q. Tom, can two No. 1 seeds be assigned to the same first and second round sites? TOM O'CONNOR: Yes. DAVE WORLOCK: They can be assigned to the same site, but if they're from the same conference they can't be assigned to the same region. It's important to note that the top four lines are seeded by region first. TOM O'CONNOR: Right. The same conference, they can only meet in the regional final. Some of the other issues concerning that on bracketing and meeting is the host institution can't play in the arena that they play in in the regular season. Certainly a team can't play in a site where they played three games. And the first three teams from a conference are placed in a different region. The principles and procedures are online on NCAASports.com for everyone to read. Q. What was the reason behind the change from going from looking at the last 10 games to now the last 12? TOM O'CONNOR: It's really a simple answer. With the number of exempt games that we took a look at last year, and this year there may be even more exempt games, there are more exempt games, we just felt that that was a clearer picture of what was happening. DAVE WORLOCK: We appreciate everyone listening in and joining today. Tom, would you like to make some closing remarks. TOM O'CONNOR: The one thing I would say about the mock media is that it was really focused. Again, I really appreciate all the time that the media put into that. 12 hours a day is a long time. I think there was a deep appreciation of what we go through in the committee room. I also want to say that it was kind of neat to get to know those people that were in the room from a personal standpoint because we don't always get to do that. We had some fun. We had a couple laughs. But it was focused at the same time. I hope to see you all in San Antonio. If you have any questions during the year other than conference calls, please go through Dave and I'd be more than happy to entertain your questions. DAVE WORLOCK: Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thanks to everyone who participated or listened to today's call. We'd also like to take this opportunity to remind you the next call will take place on Wednesday, March 12th, at 11 a.m. eastern time. We'll be right inside the selection room that morning. Tom will take your questions from there and I'll be sending out a notice with phone numbers and pass codes so you can participate on that call. Thanks again, everyone, and good-bye. End of FastScripts |
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