NCAA Selection Committee

[mufan2003]

Plenty of sentiment that this committee did one of the poorer jobs in quite some time. Joe Lunardi with plenty of criticism:

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/112470/the-committee-got-so-much-wrong-and-here-is-how



"The committee is clearly protecting North Carolina from a potential regional final against Villanova (in Philadelphia) by moving the Wildcats to the South and Xavier to the East. Haven’t we been told for years that the committee doesn’t project matchups? So Michigan State gets desired placement as a No. 2 seed, but the top Big East seeds don't. I don’t get it, unless Rich Kotite got the committee’s mileage chart wet. (Aside: If Michigan State was a No. 1 seed, the committee wouldn’t be stuck flying the Southern/Holy Cross First Four winner to Spokane, Washington, as St. Louis would have been an available and a far more sensible alternative."


"Further down the bracket, two of the questionable at-large choices -- Vanderbilt (RPI of 61) and Syracuse (RPI of 71) -- won only six of 23 road games combined, including 1-9 against Top 50 teams. That’s not counting the eggs they laid in their respective conference tournaments or their aggregate 6-16 record against the field. Even without player (Vandy) or coach (Syracuse) absences, it’d be asking a lot to turn those records into something respectable. (Another aside: Even with all the known weaknesses of the RPI, do you know how hard it is to have the number Syracuse had given their decent nonconference schedule and an ACC slate? The only way to do it is to lose too many games to the wrong teams. That’s why William & Mary, Stony Brook, Hofstra, Chattanooga, Valparaiso, Little Rock, UNC Wilmington, Yale, Princeton, Akron and, yes, Monmouth all had better RPIs than the Orange. I can only hope this was a case of poor judgment and not power-conference politics -- although neither is a very acceptable answer."

[Nukem2]

Yes, some weird choices.

[mufan2003]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2624415-march-madness-2016-who-got-screwed-in-the-ncaa-bracket/page/4

[Litehouse]

It certainly seems Lunardi puts more thought into this process than the selection committee.

[IWB]

WarriorFan4Life - I know in the past your group had explained how in a bad selection year, members of the selection committee were tied to certain schools. Do you know who was all on the committee this year and possible ties to the ACC & Syracuse?

[Litehouse]

http://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/2016-03-13/selection-sunday-2016-when-it-what-it-and-everything

2015-16 Committee Member Profiles

JOE ALLEVA, NCAA men's basketball selection committee
JOE ALLEVA
Joe was named LSU’s director of athletics June 1, 2008 and 14 months later was promoted to vice chancellor. He went to LSU after spending the previous 32 years at Duke University, starting in the athletic department in Durham in 1980 before being named assistant director of athletics, then associate director of athletics and then athletics business manager. He was named director of athletics at Duke in 1998, overseeing each of the university’s 26 sports as well as the school’s Health, Physical Education and Recreation department. Joe began his service to the committee in September 2011.

Joe Castiglione, NCAA men's basketball selection committee
JOE CASTIGLIONE
Joe became the director of athletics at the University of Oklahoma on April 30, 1998, after serving as athletics director at Missouri for 17 years. A 1979 Maryland graduate, Castiglione received the University’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in April 2007. He began his career as the sports promotions director at Rice University. He then worked a year as director of athletic fund-raising at Georgetown before being hired in 1981 at Missouri as director of communications and marketing. He chairs the NCAA’s Football Academic Progress Rate (APR) Working Group and is currently serving on the Gatorade Collegiate Advisory Board, the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame Board of Directors, the NCAA Bowl Licensing Committee and the NCAA Working Group on Collegiate Model-Rules Committee. Joe began his service to the committee in the winter of 2011.

Janet Cone, NCAA men's basketball selection committee
JANET CONE
Janet is in her 10th year as Director of Athletics at UNC Asheville and also serves as the Senior Administrator for University Enterprises. She came to Asheville from Samford University where she served as the first head women's basketball coach in 1996 and coached the Bulldogs for five seasons. In 2002, Cone was named Assistant Athletic Director before being promoted to Associate Athletic Director in 2003. The Summerville, South Carolina native graduated magna cum laude from Furman University and earned her Master's from the University of South Carolina. Cone was named the Division I-AAA Administrator of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators in 2007 and in June 2013, she was one of just 28 Directors of Athletics to be named Under Armour AD of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. Janet’s service to the committee began September 1, 2014.

Tom Holmoe, NCAA men's basketball selection committee
TOM HOLMOE
Tom Holmoe was named Director of Athletics at Brigham Young University on March 1, 2005. Under his tutelage, the men's basketball program put together a string of six consecutive 25-win seasons and has made the postseason every season, including a NCAA Sweet-16 run in 2011. A native of La Crescenta, California, Holmoe came to BYU on a football scholarship in 1978. Holmoe earned first-team All-WAC honors as a senior in 1982 and was selected in the fourth round of the 1983 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers. Over a seven-year NFL career, he played on three Super Bowl championship teams with the 49ers in 1984, 1988 and 1989. A former Cougar defensive back from 1978-82, Holmoe returned to BYU in July 2001 as Associate Athletics Director for Development. Holmoe graduated from BYU with a degree in Zoology in 1983 and received a master's degree from BYU in Athletic Administration in 1995. He and his wife, Lori, have four children and two grandchildren. Tom service to the committee began September 1, 2014.

Mark Hollis, NCAA men's basketball selection committee
MARK HOLLIS
Mark earned his undergraduate degree from Michigan State University in 1985, serving as student manager for the Spartan men’s basketball team under legendary coach Jud Heathcote. He earned a master’s degree from the University of Colorado in 1992 and then joined the staff at the Western Athletic Conference. He then spent two years as assistant and associate athletics director at the University of Pittsburgh before returning to Michigan State in 1995. As senior associate athletics director, Hollis oversaw all external operations, including marketing and promotions, community relations, fundraising for special events, sports information, ticket operations, spirit groups, broadcast services and corporate sponsorships. He was named the director of athletics in 2008. Mark began his service on the committee in the fall of 2012.

Bernard Muir, NCAA men's basketball selection committee
BERNARD MUIR
Bernard Muir was named Stanford’s Jaquish & Kenninger Director of Athletics on July 27, 2012. Under Muir’s guidance in 2012-13, Stanford kept alive two of the most unfathomable streaks in college athletics. Stanford won its 19th consecutive Directors’ Cup trophy as the top overall athletic program in the country and extended its streak of having won at least one NCAA national championship annually for the past 37 years, the longest such streak in the nation. He brought nearly 25 years of athletic administrative experience to Stanford, with stops at Delaware, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Butler, Auburn and the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA). As an undergraduate at Brown University, Muir was a four-year letter winner in basketball, and he serves as a member of the board of directors of USA Basketball. Bernard has a bachelor’s degree in organizational behavior and management from Brown University earned in 1990 and a master’s degree in sports administration from Ohio University earned in 1992. He began his service with the committee on September 1, 2014.

Bruce Rasmussen, NCAA men's basketball selection committee
BRUCE RASMUSSEN
Bruce has been at Creighton University for better than three decades, including 12 years as the women’s basketball coach, guiding the Bluejays to the NCAA tournament and a Western Athletic Conference championship in his final season. After serving as the associate athletics director for two years, Bruce was elevated to his current position of Director of Athletics. A 2008 inductee to the Omaha Sports Hall of Fame, Rasmussen’s oversees Creighton’s role as the host institution for the Men’s College World Series each June in Omaha. He also was part of Creighton’s recent transition from the Missouri Valley Conference to the new Big East Conference. Bruce began service on the committee on September 1, 2013.

Peter Roby, NCAA men's basketball selection committee
PETER ROBY
Peter Roby was named Northeastern University’s ninth athletics director on June 21, 2007. Prior to being named athletics director, Roby served as associate athletics director for student-athlete welfare during the 2005-06 season, in addition to his duties as the director of Sport in Society. Roby’s opinion pieces have been published on the editorial pages of the Boston Globe, the Indianapolis Star, the Dallas Morning News and the Oregonian. In October of 2007, Roby was named one of the 100 Most Influential Sports Educators in America by the Institute of International Sport. Prior to assuming his post at Sport in Society, Roby was the vice president of U.S. marketing at Reebok. Roby is a 1979 graduate of Dartmouth College, where he earned a bachelor's degree in government. He also holds a master's degree in leadership from Northeastern, which was conferred in 2008. A native of New Britain, Conn., Roby lives with his wife, Sandra in Newton, Massachusetts. Peter began his service to the committee in September 2012.

Jim Schaus, NCAA men's basketball selection committee
JIM SCHAUS
Jim Schaus was named Ohio University’s director of Athletics in April, 2008 after spending nine years leading the athletic department at Wichita State University. Schaus’ nearly quarter century of experience in intercollegiate athletics includes stops at the University of Oregon, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Texas at El Paso and Northern Illinois University. Schaus was a member of the initial NCAA Division I Committee on Academic Performance and has served men’s basketball as a member of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee. A 1983 Purdue University graduate, Schaus went on to earn a master’s degree from West Virginia University where he was recently honored as a distinguished alumnus by the institution. Jim and his wife Priscilla have three children: Kevin, Diane, and Laura. Jim began his service to the committee in September 2015.

Kevin White, NCAA men's basketball selection committee
KEVIN WHITE
White has been the director of athletics at Duke University for the past six years. Prior to arriving in Durham, White was the director of athletics at the University of Notre Dame from 2000-08. White’s distinguished career in athletic administration also includes stints as director of athletics at Arizona State University, Tulane University, the University of Maine and Loras College, where he originated the National Catholic Basketball Tournament. White has served on numerous NCAA committees, including the NCAA Council, formerly the NCAA’s highest governing body. White earned a master’s degree from Central Michigan University, and completed postdoctoral work at Harvard University after he completed his Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1983. His son Michael is the head men’s basketball coach at Louisiana Tech, while another son, Danny, is the director of athletics at the University of Buffalo and played at Towson and Notre Dame. Kevin began his service to the committee in September 2015.

[Goose85]

So one guy coached women's basketball, and from what I can tell none coached NCAA men's basketball. Did any ever play NCAA D1 basketball. I know Holmoe played football.

Would a couple former coaches be too biased to have on the committee?

[mufan2003]

Also interesting to read Lunardi calling for Greg Shaheen to return to the committee..."and beg for the return of Greg Shaheen to the selection process. All the committee members and staff are dedicated, but a good team is never great without its best player." Greg said he could not understand why Villanova is not in the East region, given how strong of a season they had and were the #7 overall seed, ahead of Xavier as the #8 overall seed.

[Litehouse]

JOE ALLEVA
32 years at Duke before going to LSU in 2008.

JOE CASTIGLIONE
No ACC ties, but he looks like a football guy, and he's the one that made the comments about taking into consideration which games Boeheim missed.

JANET CONE
Mostly a mid-major background.

TOM HOLMOE
BYU lifer, no ACC ties.

MARK HOLLIS
MSU AD, been on the committee since 2012.

BERNARD MUIR
Stanford AD, played basketball at Brown, no real ACC ties.

BRUCE RASMUSSEN
Creighton AD and 12 years as the women’s basketball coach.

PETER ROBY
Northeastern AD

JIM SCHAUS
Ohio University AD

KEVIN WHITE
Duke AD, was Notre Dame AD from 2000-08.

[IWB]

Just an FYI, the reason why I asked Zuch aka "WarriorFan4Life" is because his group knew the ties. When his group broke it out one year, it was crazy...

Example: While one guy may not have had ties to ACC or Syracuse, he may have at one time been hired by the AD at Syracuse who gave him his first shot at XYZ State. And then his next job he was hired by the guy that is now the associate commissioner of the ACC. It was stuff like that, that no one would ever have tied together.


Also, one thing of note: I like the mention in Kevin White's bio of..... Loras College. Yes, When I was a senior at Marquette High, the two people that came from Loras to recruit me were then AD Kevin White, and Assistant Coach Tim Van Alstine who is now the AD at Cardinal Stritch after stops at Western Ill, Ohio and Wisconsin.

[warriorfan4life]

WarriorFan4Life - I know in the past your group had explained how in a bad selection year, members of the selection committee were tied to certain schools. Do you know who was all on the committee this year and possible ties to the ACC & Syracuse?

All the power conferences had someone on the committee, but I do not believe this was a case of committee politicking. What I will say is that I feel like conference tournaments were basically ignored, especially as you got further down the bracket. I thought that Tulsa was right on the border before the American tournament, but getting housed by a crappy Memphis team had definitively knocked them out of the field.

[IWB]

I have always been with the mindset that a conference tournament could help you, but not hurt you. Guess not.

[warriorfan4life]

I have always been with the mindset that a conference tournament could help you, but not hurt you. Guess not.

It clearly did not hurt Vandy or Tulsa. I actually championed Vandy on our mock committee, as I believed that they had been pretty decent when fully healthy and ranked highly in all of the advanced metrics. Putting them in a First Four game is a decent compromise.

I was very surprised that Hall was the last 6th seed, as I thought they had a reasonable argument to be a 4 seed and expected no lower then a five. I had them at 24th overall entering the week, and figured that neutral court wins over Xavier and Seton Hall should have vaulted them up a couple of seed lines.

[MU_Iceman]

I have always been with the mindset that a conference tournament could help you, but not hurt you. Guess not.

It certainly didn't hurt UW and their crappy loss to Nebraska...how the hell were they the top 7 seed, and placed in STL?? I thought an 8 seed at best. not only were they a 7, but the top 7, so almost a 6?? That's not much protection for Xavier. As Madison and Xavier are within a mile of each other as far as distance from St. Louis. What a gift that was for UW. They always seem to get treated well by the committee.

[MUMac]

Just an FYI, the reason why I asked Zuch aka "WarriorFan4Life" is because his group knew the ties. When his group broke it out one year, it was crazy...

Example: While one guy may not have had ties to ACC or Syracuse, he may have at one time been hired by the AD at Syracuse who gave him his first shot at XYZ State. And then his next job he was hired by the guy that is now the associate commissioner of the ACC. It was stuff like that, that no one would ever have tied together.


Also, one thing of note: I like the mention in Kevin White's bio of..... Loras College. Yes, When I was a senior at Marquette High, the two people that came from Loras to recruit me were then AD Kevin White, and Assistant Coach Tim Van Alstine who is now the AD at Cardinal Stritch after stops at Western Ill, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Tim Van Alstine? Ha, I played HS football with Tim. His dad, Larry, was a longtime Assistant Coach at St. Norbert and took the head job when Howie Kolstad retired. Tim played for his dad at SNC.