NCAA 2022 BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 13, 2022

Dave Worlock

Tom Burnett

News Conference

DAVE WORLOCK: Good evening, everyone. We appreciate your time tonight on this late Sunday evening, the night of selections for the 2022 Division I Men's Basketball Championship.

Certainly an exciting night. We know you have questions for our chair Tom Burnett.

TOM BURNETT: Good evening, everyone. Hope everyone's well. I was able to speak to some of you perhaps earlier this week when we had our media conference call prior to our selections.

And again sitting here in the selection room tonight, we're obviously through the end of our process for the 2022 Division I Men's Basketball Championship. And I will report that our committee has done great work this week.

And I feel very good about the product, perhaps, that we have worked on this week and throughout the season and very proud that we will be beginning March Madness in less than 48 hours.

And as I noted in my earlier call this week, one of the main focuses of our basketball committee is to put this tournament back on track after the unfortunate stoppage in 2020, with COVID. Of course we made great strides with a controlled environment here in Indianapolis in 2021.

But it's really exciting for our committee, and we hope people around the country, that we're going back on the road and we're going to play at 14 traditional sites beginning, again, in two days in Dayton, at the First Four, and of course concluding at the Final Four in New Orleans.

Just wanted to reiterate that. Due to the lateness of the hour, certainly happy to get to any questions you might have of our work here this week.

Q. Can you take us through specifically Houston? Was there much consideration for that 4 line and there was a lot of talk about a lack of quadrant one wins. Was that sort of the case against them when it came time between a possible 4 and eventually being a 5?

TOM BURNETT: I don't know that I would certainly deny that, I think we've talked about that as it relates to Houston through the season. There has been certainly comments and observations that is somewhat out of maybe Houston's control.

But their schedule kind of didn't play out with a lot of Quad 1 opportunities. So we have touched on that before. I think that certainly came into play.

I would acknowledge, though, that the Cougars have some outstanding numbers. Certainly their win/loss record, the work that Coach Sampson has done this year. They rate very well in the metrics that we look at, both results-based and predictive. And all that comes into play.

So I don't know that I would tell you kind of where Houston was as it relates to the 4-seed line, perhaps, but I think when the committee went through its scrubbing process, which is the direct comparison with teams next to them in the seed line, that 18 overall seed, that fifth seed line is where the Cougars landed.

Q. Where did Texas A&M kind of not stack up to meet the criteria for an at-large bid in the alt line? And, secondly, on the Big 12, kind of a 6-bid league, kind of, how much consideration did OU get? And based on their net rankings as being considered one of the top conferences in the country?

TOM BURNETT: I'll take the Aggies first. Certainly Texas A&M was in our conversations throughout the week, and obviously we've been watching them throughout the year, as well. We watched with great interest the run they made in the SEC Tournament as well.

I think, as you may have heard from the committee before, we're looking at an entire body of work. And that's the entire season. That starts in November. That's not just a week in March.

And certainly an acknowledgment that as well as this run has been by A&M here this week and over the last week or two of the season, the committee, it's hard for the committee to ignore maybe a rough patch that the team had back in January, maybe into the first half of February.

So the total sum of what we've seen, what we've been monitoring throughout the year, as well. The committee is looking for beating good teams on a regular basis and taking advantages of the opportunities that a team may have.

And I think as we looked at A&M this week, they had four quad wins and about 14 opportunities. So that was in the mix and the shakeout, so to speak. But A&M one of the first few teams out of the tournament.

You mentioned Oklahoma as well. And I'll reference that. Been watching Oklahoma throughout the year as well. And again somewhat similarly, a lot of opportunities for the Sooners in Quad 1. I believe 16 total. They won four of those. Certainly those were some great wins as well.

I think the committee also acknowledged that Oklahoma was 3 and 8 on the road this year away from Norman. So everything factors in. And again, Oklahoma right behind A&M on the list of teams that are just out of the tournament.

Q. I wanted to ask about Tennessee. They had the second-most Quadrant 1 wins in the country. Metrics are really good across the board. Was there consideration on moving them to the 2? I think just compared to an Auburn or a Duke, they're Quadrant 1 wins and their metrics compare pretty favorably. What kept them off the 2 line; what kept them behind some of the teams ahead of them?

TOM BURNETT: I would say certainly watching Tennessee have a fantastic season this year for Coach Barnes and his crew. I would offer that we're not able to look at any one team by itself in a vacuum, so to speak.

We have to look at what's around them, certainly in our principles and procedures. We develop a seed list, and then we scrub teams against others on that seed list in their neighborhood, so to speak.

So when you look at the national seed list, the committee landed on having Tennessee just behind Wisconsin. That was not because that was the final position they thought at the beginning of the week, there was a chance to review.

And I would say that Tennessee did move up the initial seed list during the weekend due to their success in the SEC Tournament. However, when we got to scrubbing Tennessee against Wisconsin, the Big Ten regular season co-champs who were 16-5 themselves in Quads 1 and 2, and 9 and 2 road record, we felt it was slightly better than Tennessee at this time.

Q. A nonbracket question for you. Can you expound on what you said in the beginning about bringing this back to normalcy, what that means to you and the committee, now that you're looking forward to having sold-out arenas compared to the last two years and what that really means as a whole for college basketball?

TOM BURNETT: I would say having gone through this process and been in the selection room with other committee members and the NCAA staff in 2020, that dreadful day on March 12th, 2020, when, again, much bigger than just college basketball, our whole society shut down, it was devastating for our enterprise.

And certainly to rebound from that, whether it was that intermediate step last year here at Indy in a controlled environment, where NCAA staff and this community really moved mountains to make that happen.

But now to go back to where we were, say, in 2019 and before, playing at the 14 sites, first four next week, the first and second round sites around the country, the regionals, of course. And hopefully a great celebration in New Orleans.

All of these arenas filled, it's just going to be a wonderful experience and it's just a great piece of normalcy, so to speak, to get back into our lives.

Just really proud to be associated with this event and what it means to people around the country.