6th NCAA Women's Basketball Mock Selection Exercise for me

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Updated: August 23, 2019 -- 9:32 a.m. CT

Posted: August 22, 2019 -- 10:50 a.m. CT

Wednesday, August 21, I participated in my sixth NCAA Mock Selection Exercise (2010, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019) at NCAA Headquarters in Indianapolis, IN. I've participated so many times to connect with other people associated with women's college basketball plus learn something new each year. The Mock Selection Exercise provides coaches, administrators, and members of the media a behind-the-scenes look at how the NCAA Women's Basketball Committee selects the 32 at-large teams (32 automatic qualifiers) and puts together the bracket for the 64-team NCAA Tournament. Yesterday, participants had 8 hours to see what the Committee does in 5 days in March before Selection Monday.

Ten teams of 4 or 5 people on each team representing the 10 committee members. The number of participants was slightly smaller than last year due to schedule conflicts or simply life happening and people couldn't attend this year. However, this year's group of participants was very involved in the discussions and the selection process. They truly prepared / studied the source materials provided and were not simply "happy to be there".

In previous years, we were tasked with selecting and voting on teams under consideration for the final 15 or so spots in the Tournament. However, this year, we were tasked with choosing the "Last Four In" among 8 schools. The conversations among Team Chizer (the team I was on along with three others) were superb. Over and over, we kept saying, "This is really difficult." We tried to rank our top 4 (the last four in) among the 8; and, we looked at Team Sheets and compared stats repeatedly.

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"This team has 5 wins over the top 50; but, the team has a poor non-conference strength of schedule."

"This team has fewer wins over the top 50 but a better non-conference strength of schedule and much better RPI (ratings percentage index)."

The RPI is one of many tools used by the Committee along with Division 1 record; non-conference record; non-conference RPI; conference record; road record; record in last 12 games; record against teams ranked 1-25, 26-50, 51-100, 101-200, 200+ by RPI; etc.

The Committee will evaluate a new metric, the NCAA Evaluation Tool (N.E.T.), for the 2019-'20 season for possible implementation in the near future, and possibly as early as the 2020-21 season. However, the RPI will remain the sole provider of supplemental data for the committee in its evaluation of teams for at-large selection and seeding of the 2020 championship bracket. The N.E.T. was implemented by NCAA men's basketball for the first time in the 2018-'19 season.

"This team beat that team twice head-to-head; but, they didn't win enough games against other common opponents."

"Remember earning an at-large sport in the Tournament is based on the team's complete body of work for the season."

Great conversations.

Once the 64 teams were selected (seems to happen each year, we voted in 1 team who was not in the 2019 NCAA Tournament), the bracket was put together based on "Principles and Procedures".

Balance does not mean equal. Geography continues to play a role in the placement of teams in the bracket.

Personally, I recommend each Division 1 coach participates in a Mock Selection Exercise to get an idea of how the process works. A few coaches I spoke with Wednesday were impressed with all the information available and utilized to complete the bracket as well as the importance of good wins (wins over top 25 / top 50) and bad losses (losses to teams with RPI ranked 200 or more).

With the possibility of the N.E.T. being implemented for the 2020-2021 NCAA women's basketball season, I'll probably attend the 2020 Mock Selection Exercise.

Until next year.

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