Time-Out Feature: Q&A With NABC Executive Director Jim Haney

The following interview with NABC Executive Director Jim Haney appears in the Convention 2017 edition of NABC Time-Out Magazine. To read the full Convention 2017 issue, click here.
The NABC Foundation Court of Honor Gala is honoring Mike Krzyzewski of Duke.  Save-the-date cards have been sent out.  What can you share about that Gala?
“This event to honor Coach K is focused on his 11 years as national coach of USA Basketball’s Senior National Team.  He is the only men’s head coach in Olympic history to lead teams to gold medals in three Olympic Games.  The fact that he did so is also special because Mike, as a college coach, was selected to coach NBA players in the aftermath of a series of less than successful efforts by previous USA Basketball teams to win at the World Championships and Olympic Games.  It is my hope that another college coach has the opportunity to be a head coach on our senior national team but Coach K was the first.  His success represented all collegiate coaches and brought added respect to our collegiate game.  The Gala will be held in New York City June 21 to celebrate his success as national coach but also USA Basketball and its success during his years as head coach.  It will be a special evening.  We encourage our NABC coaches to attend.  Additional information can be found on the Gala website, www.courtofhonorgala.com.”
 
There has been media attention paid to the recommendations of the NABC Ad Hoc Group on NCAA Tournament Selections, Seeding and Bracketing.  What can you share regarding the Ad Hoc Group’s recommendations.
“The Ad Hoc Group initially made 10 recommendations to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball committee in early July, 2016.  The members of the committee were quite gracious in receiving those recommendations and charted a course of action to address many of the proposals during the 2016-17 academic year.  It is important to add that the Ad Hoc Group acknowledged the vital role the committee has played and continues to play in growing the popularity of men’s college basketball and specifically the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship.  The Ad Hoc Group believed its proposals would enhance what is already an outstanding event.” 
“Among the Ad Hoc Group’s recommendations was a proposal for the committee to reevaluate its use of advanced metrics during the selection and seeding process. The NCAA recently held an “analytics summit” in Indianapolis that brought together Ken Pomeroy of KenPom.com, Jeff Sagarin of USA Today, Kevin Pauga of KPIsports.net, Ben Alamar of ESPN’s analytics department, Jerry Palm of CBS Sports, Mike Decourcy of The Sporting News, and Andy Glockner, author of the analytics book ‘Chasing Perfection’.  NABC staff member Eric Wieberg represented the NABC and the Ad Hoc Group at the meeting.” 
“To better understand the challenge these experts were addressing, we must first provide some context as to how the committee uses analytics now.  The RPI rating has been used by the NCAA since 1981. While the RPI is not the sole evaluation tool utilized to select and seed teams, it is the only metric currently used when sorting data and results on teams’ resumes. For example, RPI is used to determine criteria such as top-50 wins and strength of schedule. More advanced metrics are available to the committee, but only the RPI has historically been visible on the official Team Sheets.”
“The Ad Hoc Group recommended a change to this protocol, proposing that the RPI be replaced by a composite ranking of various advanced metrics. The composite would include both results-based metrics that judge teams based on wins and losses, and predictive metrics that judge teams based on criteria such as offensive/defensive efficiency and scoring margin. In short, results-based metrics measure “best resume,” while predictive metrics measure “best team.”
 
There have been some articles regarding the analytics discussions with the NCAA that there should be a rethinking of the cut lines of top-50, top-100, top-200, etc.  What is the thinking behind this?
“Included in the Ad Hoc Group’s recommendation to reevaluate analytics was an observation that the current process undervalues road performance. Historically, wins against the RPI top-50 have been a common reference point for the committee to define quality wins. However, home wins over the top-50 and road wins over the top-50 were essentially treated as equals. The Ad Hoc Group felt that quality wins on the road should extend beyond the top-50. For example, a quality win might be better defined as a home win over the top-50, neutral win over the top-75, or road win over the top-100. One could even make the case that road conference wins should have an even broader definition of quality, given the difficulty of playing at league opponents. January’s analytics summit addressed this topic, and the NCAA plans to work alongside the Ad Hoc Group in determining the appropriate adjustments.”
 
How are these discussions taking place?  Who is involved in these discussions?
“NCAA personnel led by Senior Vice President Dan Gavitt and Director of Media Coordination and Statistics Dave Worlock are working alongside NABC staff. There is also an eight-member working group – headed by Men’s Basketball Committee member Jim Schaus – that features four committee members and four Ad Hoc Group members (Phil Martelli, Ron Hunter, Mark Few and Bob Huggins.) These parties meet regularly via conference call, with the hope that the composite ranking and the home/neutral/road adjustments can be implemented for the 2017-18 season.”
 
What are your thoughts on the NCAA March Madness Bracket Preview Show on CBS?
“The NABC Ad Hoc Group recommended that there be such a show where the top 16 teams were identified as of the date of the airing of the bracket preview show.  The recommendation included that the show needed to be televised with the appropriate presentation commensurate with the prestige of the men’s basketball championship and the Final Four.   With CBS airing the show and Greg Gumbel, Clark Kellogg and Seth Davis being the talent on the show, I believe that high level presentation was achieved.  Obviously, there are many “experts” providing their insights into who the best teams are in the country and who should be in the 68-team field.  The Ad Hoc Group believed that a show reflecting the thoughts of the Men’s Basketball Committee, the committee whose decisions really matter, as of a date in early February with a month or more of the regular season and conference tournaments left to be played would be insightful.   The Ad Hoc Group did not favor the Basketball Committee projecting the entire tournament field believing it would not be in the best interest of student-athletes and coaches who are competing to make the tournament as an at-large team or as an automatic qualifier.”
 
Any final thoughts?
“There is a real collaboration involving the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee, the NABC and the NABC’s Ad Hoc Group on working together for the best interests of the student-athletes, coaches and the game.  We believe we are making meaningful progress and look forward to the future recommendations that will come forth from this collaboration.”