INDIANAPOLIS -- Improvisation has never been the NCAA's best
skill.
This time, the NCAA men's basketball tournament selection
committee had no choice.
The group was in full scramble mode this weekend after a tornado
ripped through Atlanta during the Southeastern Conference
tournament, then sub-.500 teams Georgia and Illinois threatened to
eliminate two at-large spots by making their conference finals.
"This was a crazy weekend in a lot of ways because of the
contingency plans we had to make and because of the very odd
situation for the SEC," said Tom O'Connor, the selection committee
chairman and George Mason athletic director.
Fortunately for the committee, O'Connor had built in some extra
time for selection weekend.
He held conference calls and meetings with committee members
long before they arrived in Indianapolis, and then had committee
members show up in Indy on Tuesday night rather than Wednesday
afternoon, as is the typical protocol.
The reason: O'Connor wanted the committee spending more time
Sunday afternoon working out the logistics of seeding and
bracketing.
Instead, they still found themselves in the same old crush --
with some odd twists.
"All five games played (Sunday) had implications on the
bracket," he said. "We had some extra time to work because we
came in early and massaged a lot of the information before we got
here. It's a good thing."
Even so, there was no flexibility on when they could announce
the pairings. They were up against a 6 p.m. Sunday deadline.
Committee members, who are advised to consider injuries and
suspensions in their evaluations, had no stated policy on how the
impact of moving games, changing hotels or playing two games in one
day should be weighed.
"We wanted to be partners with them (the SEC), but this was a
very different type of situation," O'Connor said.
They decided it had to be part of the evaluation.
O'Connor didn't say whether it had any effect on the final
pairings, or whether it may have helped a bubble team such as
Kentucky, which had its game postponed Friday night and wound up as
an 11th seed in the South Region. Only two at-large teams,
Villanova and Temple, were seeded lower.
Complicating matters were the ongoing games.
Just blocks from the committee's meeting room, Illinois, which
couldn't have even gotten to .500 with its fourth win in four days
Sunday, was playing for the Big Ten title. In Atlanta, the
Bulldogs, who reached .500 by winning twice Saturday, were playing
their third game in less than 28 hours.
If neither won their league titles, they didn't appear to have a
legitimate claim to an at-large bid. Both games were 3:30 p.m.
starts, so if either went into overtime, the committee would have
faced a looming deadline, possibly without knowing the winners.
So the committee put together eight different contingency plans.
In an uncharacteristic candid acknowledgment, O'Connor said the
fate of two teams rested solely in the hands of Georgia and
Illinois. He would not identify those teams.
"We were watching those games closely," he said. "If those
two teams had won, it would have knocked out two other teams. But
only one won, so it knocked out one team."
Afterward, O'Connor said it was the most stressful weekend he
could remember for the committee.
But he recognized it was the teams and their fans, not the
committee, that really had to roll with the changes.
"We feel for them, and a lot of us felt that was odd to have to
change venues, hotels, play two games in one day," O'Connor said.
"At the same time, I want to congratulate Georgia. What a great
story. And maybe it can be somewhat of a rallying point for the
people of Atlanta."