Women's Hoops Guru

(Guru's note: This is a local spin story, had there been room in the printed sports section, that might have been written off our deliberations in Indianapolis. In the two posts below, the last of the in-depth reports is written along with a second post with the Guru boasting how well he did in his at-large forecast with his 64-team ballot.)

By Mel Greenberg

INDIANAPOLIS _ Rutgers earned a No. 1 seed, while Temple was one of the last schools selected Friday for the simulated 64-team NCAA women's tournament field selected by a 16-member mock committee composed of coaches and members of the media at the organization's headquarters.

Tennessee, was made the overall No. 1 seed in the Greensboro, Regional, while Connecticut was namde the top seed in the New Orleans regionial. North Carolina was sent West to Spokane, Wash. with the other top seed.

After much deliberation, Temple, one of three Atlantic Ten teams, was given an at-large slot for the Owls' fifth straight NCAA appearance under coach Dawn Staley. George Washington, the preseason favorite, was also given an at-large slot after Charlotte had mythically won the conference tournament as part of the "curve balls" the NCAA tosssed at the mock committee.

The group met for two days, sequestered in a ":war" room with all the computers, data, and help the real women's commitee will use a month from now to produce the 2008 draw.

The mock commitee, because of the compressed amount of time, did not get everything achieved the actual committee has to accomplish, but the panel did get involved in many aspects of the selections and delibrerations that occur.

Rutgers had just beaten top-ranked Connecticut, the Scarlet Knights' major Big East rival, at home Tuesday night in Piscataway, N.J. to bring an end to the last unbeaten record in Division I. Coach C. Vivian Stringer's team will be involved in a rare scheduling moment Monday night when Rutgers plays at Tennessee, likely the new No. 1 ranked team.

In the 32-year history of the Associated Press women's poll. very few schools have played successive top-ranked teams and none have ever beaten both back-to-back

The last team to make an attempt at the feat was Maryland, during its NCAA championship year in 2006, when the Terrapins upset North Carolina, 98-95, in overtime in Chapel Hill on Feb. 9 and then lost to Duke, the new No. 1 team, 90-80, four days later.

Maryland later got both Atlantic Coast rivals back-to-back in the Women's Final Four with the Terrapins wnning the title in Boston in an overtime battle with Duke.

In the real world, Rutgers' NCAA seed would be its first-ever at the top. The mock committee placed the Scarlet Knights in the Oklahoma City regional, where Maryland was sent as a two-seed.

Rutgers rallied to beat the Terrapins in the Jinmmy V game at Rutgers in December.

In filling out the top portion of the bracket, the Greensboro regionial will also have second-seeded Baylor, the mythical Big 12 champion, third-seeded Duke, fourth-seeded Virginia, along with No. 5 George Washington, and No. 6 Arizona State under Tennessee.

Virginia has not been to the field in several years, but it will be like old times if the Cavaliers make a run and catch up with longtime NCAA opponernt Tennessee.

LSU, which will host Connecticut for real in a few weeks, was made the No. 2 seed behind the Huskies. West Virginia, one of eight Big East teams in the field, was named the No. 3 seed, while No. 4 Kansas State, one of six Big 12 scjhools, followed. Old Dominion was made the fifth seed, and Georgia the sixth seed.

Two teams from the Sooners State follow Rutgers and Maryland in No. 3 Oklahoma and No.4 Oklahoma State. Texas, a third Big 12 team in the region, got the fifth seed, and Ohio State was made the sixth seed.

In the West, the Tar Heels were followed by No. 2 Stanford, No. 3 Pittsburgh, and No. 4 California. Vanderbilt got the fifth seed in front of No. 6 Texas A&M.

Temple's draw was unknown as where every game in the first two rounds because the mock group worked in a compressed amount of time compared the four-day marathon sessions held by the real basketball committee.

The Owls were credited with a tough non-conference schedule in which Staley's group played several Top 10 teams. They also had been on a run for recent weeks, tied for the top spot in the Atlantic Ten with George Washington and Xavier, whom the Owls had traveled to play in Cincinnati, Saturday night.

Just as in the real world, there were some mild surprises in the field. The Big Ten, which had only one ranked team in the AP poll much of the season in Ohio State, also had conference-tournament winner Minnesota and Purdue in the field with Iowa.

Hartford, which was upset in its simulated America East tournament by Vermont, was given an at-large spot. The Hawks, coached by former UConn star Jen Rizzotti, had two key nonconference wins, beating Virginia in Hawaii and a home win over then-ranked Michigan State.

The once-powerful Southeastern Conference had Georgia, Vanderbilt, and Kentucky in the field besides Tennessee and LSU.

Believed still on the board, but not taken, according to an insider at the sessions, were Xavier, Boston College, Florida, Illinois St., and Florida.

Four former coaches were among the panelists in Theresa Grentz, who left Illinois after last season but now does Big Ten women's telecasts; Marsha Sharp, who led Texas Tech to the 1993 NCAA title. The Red Raiders featured Sheryl Swoopes. Former Auburn coach Joe Ciampi, who does SEC telecasts and led the Tigers to three straight Final Fours in 1988-90, participated as did Carolyn Peck, a former Purdue and WNBA coach who now broadcasts on ESPN.

-- Mel

(Guru's note: The final main story is below this post, and a simnulated local story is above.)

By Mel Greenberg

INDIANAPOLIS _ The Guru can't help but notice how well he did with his original 64-team ballot and the results from the NCAA mock women's tournament committee.

Remember, the command was to produce a list that included some advanced designated automatic qualifiers. Furthermore, the NCAA tossed a curve in that a few were so-called wrong winners as the committee often experiences while producing the draw.

In the Atlantic Ten, for example, we were given that Charlotte had won the confernce tournament -- the 49ers would not have been in the field otherwise. That forced us to make considerations on how many we might pick: George Washington, the projected winner was taken, as was Temple as an at-large. But Xavier, which might have otherwise made the field, was one of the last ones not selected for the field by the group.

Also, remember the Guru used some of his own philosophy, focusing on getting as close to the 33 at-large pick candidates.

The original ballot upper focus had 48 teams, including 17 automatic qualifiers.Additionally, three teams -- Baylor, Utah and Fresno State -- who were on our first-group considerations, got named automatic qualifiers by the NCAA during the exercise.

That left the Guru with 28 names in his upper group for definitive consideration.

In that group, he was high on Hartford, even if the Hawks would not have won the America East. Two more teams, of which he felt would merit a lot of discussion if they were not automatic qualifiers, were Wis.-Green Bay, the simulated regular-season Horizon champ, and Middle Tennessee, although he felt the duo were his weakest but put the team in the upper half, anyway.

Conversely, he felt Temple was a personal strong pick, but dropped the Owls to the second group, fighting for the last spots because he felt they would have mixed support.

Green Bay, the projected Horizon winner, lost out to Cleveland State in simulation and was not taken. The Guru would have thought that would be the case had it been in play that way at the time of his ballot. Middle Tennessee was another, although had he known of the team's loss Wednesday night he would have dropped the team to the general group.

Illinois State was also on the list if the projected Missouri Valley champions faltered and they did in the simulation. They were one of the top just-missed-the-cut teams, but if one less wrong winner had occurred, they might have made the field.

So having mentioned those waggles, the Guru is proud to report the remaining 25 off the prime choices of his 64-ballot all made the simulated field as at-large picks.
They are:
ACC- 4 - North Carolina, Duke, Virginia, Georgia Tech
Amer East 1 - Hartford
A-10 -1 - George Washington
Big Ten 1 - Ohio State.
Big Twelve 6 -- Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Texas, Texas A&M
Big East - 5 - Rutgers, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Notre Dame, Syracuse,
Mountain West - 1 - Wyoming
Pac-Ten - 2 - California, Arizona State
Southeastern - 4- Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Georgia, Auburn,
Total -- 25

Now, out of the next group, to fill the final eight, the Guru would have and did advocated Temple, Iowa, De Paul, Louisville, UTEP, and Southerrn Cal, which brings us to 31.
Xavier did not make it, but was a top also ran.
Lost between the cracks when the Guru was doing some last-minute changing for the blog, were Kentucky and Purdue, which would have been. That gives us 33.

Depending how wants to score the Guru on the last two, his only at-large strikeouts were Xavier (which might have made it without the Charlotte simulation), and Illinois State, although with no strong emotion going in, might have just gotten the perfect score with the aforementioned Purdue and Kentucky.

-- Mel

(Guru's Note: Having just discovered the Guru's original ballot prior to arrival in Indy, we feel good enough to do a little boasting. A sidebar to this is in the post above showing how the Guru fared.

There will also be a locally-targeted mock story that simulates the local ncaa story for Philly as if the mock committee's work had been real.)

By Mel Greenberg

Having had a "subcommittee" session in the hotel sports bar Thursday night, aka. The Champions Subcommittee, to get a jump start on Friday, the 16-member mock committee group returned to NCAA headquarters to finish the seeding and bracketing, as time allowed.

Incidentally, several mock committee members, especially TV types, fell in love with some of the software and ratings terminology as we went through the process.

"Toggle," "Tiling," and especially, "Nitty Gritty," were phrases that might come up during braodcast games the next several days from Debbiie Antonelli, Theresa Grentz (who now broadcasts Big Ten action,) Carolyn Peck, and Beth Mowins.

The Nitty Gritty, besides being a '60s song by Shirley Ellis, is also the readout of component numbers that help create the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI).

Several questions were answered from the NCAA staff as we went through team and seed selection: The format that determines which referees will work the tournament was explained as was the nominating process that results in individuals getting named to the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament Committee.

Mechelle Voepel will probably have more detail on these subjects in her report at ESPN.com.

Speaking of ESPN, there is a chance if another mock session is held next year, the sports network that covers the tournament might bring TV cameras in to film the work of the group.

It was noted in a previous blog that conference quotas are never addressed in deliberations. The other "never" is whatever happen last year or previous in past has no relation to the current deliberations.

It was clarified that we can report on the deliberations as they occurred but the specifics of the data in conference reports and regional rankings profiles were restricted for several reasons.

It was a little interesting in that real committee Jane Meyer of Iowa and Heather Gores of Gonzaga sat and listened to our deliberations, which included focused discussions on both of their teams.

The 33 at-large teams that were on the board when we frinished Thursday's work remained as such, although challenges were made by a late arrival due to a TV broadcast assignment on the listing of Iowa and Temple.

Those two were then revisited along with several other teams -- some just in and some just out.

Each of us were then assigned to drill down on a particular team from the data and offer five good reasons the team should be included and five more why the team should not.

Voepel and the Guru were partnered on Florida, which was one of the top also rans.

In discussing Temple's qualities, the Guru's name, by virtual local coverage, was invoked by other panel members.

The Owls situation enabled an NCAA official to point out in evaluating schedules, rememver some teams are "locked" into certain games, such as The Big Five, which in other years have offered higher opposition values, but not as much recently.

CSTV's Greg Amsinger noted how in producing the 33 at-large we had not really talked about specific RPI numbers, as such. The Guru noted that in researching 2007 men's mock meeting coverage, that group, too, discovered that the specific RPI number of teams were not discussed.

That's because RPIs are the results of a lot of organized information and we spent more time on the components.

So, what's most important in terms of splitting hairs to find teams? Strength of schedule?

The answer is there is no one specific and members of the committee will use different emphasis to vote for teams. Thus, a team's inclusion comes from the consensus nomination, even though that consensus is reached through different emphasis from each member.

To speed the simulation along, all the automatic qualifiers were pre-determined for the purpose of the exercise and entered into the tournament.

That said, here's who made the field of 64, with a few Guru notations.: To keep a running count, teams listed that are sent to at-large candidates due to wrong winners, and teams that come off at-large pile due to automatic qualifiers will be listed in parentheseis.Also, to keep a total, every time am automatic qualifier frrom a low conference is inserted, that will also cause a running count to see how the Guru's original ballot was impacted.

Click the link here to go to the "jump" page to keep reading.

By Mel Greenberg

INDIANAPOLIS _ Day One of the 16-member NCAA Mock Women's Basketball Tournament Committee was quite an education Thursday in terms of the intensity in attempting to produce a 64-team simulated bracket using the same principles and procedures the real committee will use a month from now.

As we headed out of our hotel to the bus to take us to NCAA headquarters, the Guru mused to ESPN's Carol Stiff and Carolyn Peck, `Gee I thought you would have TV cameras on the sidewalk with a reporter broadcasting, `And there they go leaving the hotel to be sequestered for the rest of the day and tomorrow to produce the components of this season's Big Dance."

We arrived and were escorted to the "war room," where an array of TV screens and computers along with NCAA staff were assembled to give us a sense of everything the real committee undergoes.

And believe it or not, the real committee was on hand to observe us after having had its own private session earlier to get a head start on the women's scene entering the stretch drive.

We got under way at around 2:30 p.m. and by 9:30 p.m. had somehow produced, but not officially signed off, the 64-team field that will compete.

The next major steps to complete the sessions will occur very early Friday morning when we seed the teams and then place them into the bracket.

Each of us took the role of a real committee member, thus not being allowed to discuss certain teams, and also given resonsibilities on balancing the bracket when we get to that phase of the simulation.

On Wednesday, the Guru's report showed how he deliiberated his individual 64-team ballot.

Aware of the "role playing" involved, he was going to jokingly remark, ``With my luck, they'll make me be Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference commissioner Richard Ensor," who is on the real committee.

The Guru has known the MAAC commissioner for a long time.

Upon taking my seat, you'll never guess what name was assigned to the Guru?

"Gee, I can't wait to tell my mother Mel Greenberg was me," Ensor joked. Former Texas Tech coach Marsha Sharp served as a chair along with ESPN's Stiff at the head of the table.

A giant TV screen at one end of the room enabled us to "watch" several games at once and also get a line on the news of the world.

The NCAA staff filled the room with snacks and drinks for us, the way it would for the real committee and we also took our dinner at headquarters.

Several introductory remarks were made by different NCAA officials and then, with the help of the staff, we were guided into the software programs in the laptops in front of us that had all the team data and voting mechanisms for us to operate.

The ground rules as the Guru understands them is we can't share our approach to specific teams with specific data, but we can talk about the experience of the deliberations in a general sense.

As we deliberated, we were able to run team profiles side-by-side, and go through the various steps in placing at-large candidates into the tournament.

Nmber of teams out of a conference were not allowed to be discussed because the issue is never addressed in the real deliberations.

We also simulated that the season had ended right before we arrived here. Thus, as mentioned earlier, we had some automatic qualifiers -- including some who gained the distinction with upsets,

We were given updated results from the night before. Some eye-catchers were Temple's win over Charlotte in the Atlantic Ten and a loss by Western Kentucky in the Sun Belt.

It will be interesting Friday morning to see if the hyper-extended knee injury to Tennessee's Candace Parker Thursday night becomes part of our discussion.

To return to the narrative, after we were given a "tour" of the laptop software, we each entered our 64-team ballot into our computers. Any team that received seven votes went into the field.

Some teams we put on the board would ultimately move off the at-large group into the automatic qualifier contingent if they would go on and win their conference tournaments.

Seventeen of the 31 titles will be decided by the time the real committee gets to work here.

The NCAA magically created a number of automatic qualifiers as part of the simulation. Some of this is discussed in the previous post about this exercise.

One piece of data not mentioned much in the media, but of critical importance, is the monthly regional rankings by advisory panels of coaches. A specific team can be tracked as to how its regional coaches ranked it early in the season, in the middle of the season, and just before the tournament discussions get under way.

It was also noted that as the shufflings on and off the board get down to the last few teams being placed in the tournament, one should step back from the computer and the numbers and go to the reality: Which of these (remaining) teams absolutely belong in the field?

There were several differenting groupings in attempting to get the 33 at-large teams identified. From a large "nomination" category, a consensus number would propel anywhere from four to eight teams into the "holding" column and then from there we would rank those teams in another vote. The ones with the best consensus would move.

There were moments when we pulled teams from the board in favor of other teams.

In one surprise, there was a conference that didn't have a high regard from media members as the deliberations got under way, but it ultimately fared better when individual teams would be compared.

Besides the data on teams, when several would be real close in the comparisons, different mock panelists would be allowed to address positives on teams from their own area to the rest of the group. Thus, Midwest panelists discussed teams in the Chicago area, while the Guru was asked about one of his local teams that was being compared with others in the voting.

The NCAA staff helped the mock committee in its deliberations to speed things up, but it was noted that in the real committee discussions, the same topic might be on the table for several hours while data comparsions were made.

Injury situations played a role in our moving teams on and off the board depending on whether a candidate had been able to prove it could still operate at a high standard after a player or players had dropped off the active roster.

So now it's time to get some shuteye for the early wakeup -- Associated Press national women's writer Doug Feinberg noted we were going to be arisen at a time when some of us usually go to sleep.

Besides these reports, Steve Tucker is giving his take at the Chicago Sun's web site, Doug will be writing the wire story in the next day or so, and Mechelle Voepel will be writing at ESPN.com and the Kansas City Star.

Incidentally, a large chunk of the Guru's personal 64-team ballot made the field, as it stands.

In fact, very early on when we began deliberations we were a little stuck because Voepel and I believed much of what went up on the board from the get-to was going to find its way into the real field.

However, every team standing when we left headquarters Thursday night is still susceptible to being taken off the board and replaced until we sign off on our final bracket.

-- Mel

(Revised for any of you non first-time readers with insomonia who saw this earlier, as well as you new arrivals, before and after the Guru needed to make corrections when looking at the actual ballot instructions that had a few purposefully intended curve balls.

By Mel Greenberg

And so a wild ride simulating the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament Committee's assembling the 64-team bracket is about to begin for the 16 of us on the panel at the organization's headquarters in Indianapolis.

In our simulated world, the regular season ended Wednesday night, not a month from now. Make-believe conference tournaments leading to 31 automatic bids have already been decided in simulation in some instances and some purposefully with "wrong winners" -- (teams we would not have necessarily considered otherwise). All real data existing as of Wednesday night will be available to us when we arrive Thursday afternoon.

Thus, the Rutgers win over Connecticut Tuesday night is part of our mathematics. But Monday's forthcoming game featuring the Scarlet Knights against Tennessee is not. However, in simulation, Connecticut has already won the Big East tournament for the purpose of the exercise.

The first order of business, as to what each member of the real committee would do, is to produce a list of 64 teams to submit to the NCAA staff on Thursday. The NCAA's simulated conference qualifiers are to be considered part of the list. Otherwise, if not yet designated as having produced representatives, entire leagues can be left out. There are eight of those on the Guru's non-list but their winners will ultimately gain tournament access as automastic qualifiers, thus forcing the Guru and others to bump eight teams from each of their ballots.
In correcting the pre-determined eight simulated winners through upsets or otherwise, the Guru had to alter some of his original choices.

It is at this point that the Guru must briefly pause before taking you all on a personal tour of his mind as he deliberates his ballot.

In projecting the 33 at-large teams in recent years, the Guru has always skipped to the real chase several steps ahead of the committee's actions, although this has ultmately resulted in some surprises once the bracket has been produced.

In our little media world, we usually begin to get to a discussion of "locks," which are teams that are absolutely in the field, and "bubbles," teams that don't have as great criteria, but are needed to get to the field. Some years, the bubble list is large enough that getting rid of teams has been emphasized over finding teams.

Usually, scary as it may seem, using our own data and the thinking of individual committee members over the years, we could foresee a situation where maybe only six spots had to be filled and there were only 12 teams with good enough critieria for consideration.

But in other times, we could foresee a bunch of slots available and a ton of contenders with the same data. How to separate to get the very best of the mob becomes problematic.

Most of that dynamic, however, has to be put aside in performing the mock exercise with the simulated committee. Incidentally, the visit will include the Guru getting his problematic laptop checked out by an NCAA techie. You get your perks where you can.

However, the Guru does not wish to totally abandon his focus on who might ultimately become the 33 at-large teams. So while 64 is the starting element, 33 will be in our subset.

Atlhough at some point conference affilation will become mixed, it's important now from an organizational standpoint to put the names on a piece of paper.

The Guru used the Real-Time RPI website as a guide because (a.) sunrise will be too late to wait for data at another site, as will next week from yet another. Once in Indy, we'll be working with NCAA numbers. But all these RPIs are in the same ballpark.

Mathematically, the Guru worked it this way as he looked at each conference, and you'll be treated shortly to that adventure. "Definitely," went into the first column on the Guru's worksheet, which also included the NCAA simulated declared qualifier. That total came very near the magic 33 at 30, plus the 17 predetermined auto qualifiers for a total of 47 on the prime list. In that elite group, without regard to wrong upsets, eight of the Guru's orginal teams became conference winners with automatic bids. That means more must be found from "the next" group and once the ignored conferences come into play, it means the Guru will be trying to name three of 16 choices to complete the at-large slots.

Some kind of bubble fun, eh?

As the Guru looked at each conference, after submitting the absolutes, he tossed other teams into the deliberation pile, knowing he had to grow a list to 64.

There were also 11 conferences that did not merit consideration of their members in comparison, orginally, on the Guru's ballot until he noticed the NCAA had already predetermined five of champions from that group, which had to be inserted into the elite "in the tournament" field. That knocked some of the original "second" group off the list.

However, since the Guru struggled to get to 64, there were not many tears shed in thinking who might be gone in a matter of hours.

However, Temple and/or Xavier becomes at-risk from the Guru's list because Charlotte had been made a wrong winner frrom the Atlantic Ten.

When it comes actually determining at-large teams in commitee talk, the Guru will be very attentive to someone making a "basketball visual argument" like, for example, in talking up UCLA. But in terms of pure data on the Bruins from the Guru's perspective, an 11-11 record overall, along with an RPI of 101 on a schedule strength of 66 just doesn't cut it.

And speaking of numbers, there used to be a belief, although it was more myth, that 20 wins was a magic total to get in the field. The Guru did not look at total wins from any teams, especially since a recent increase of two games on schedules make 20 wins a common achievement.

So with all that said, click the link to the jump page and join a step-by-step tour of the Guru's considerations.

By Mel Greenberg

A year ago, members of the United States Basketball Writers Association were invited to NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis to simulate the bracketing experience the men's tournament committee undergoes, but doling it in a compressed amount of time.

Later this week, the NCAA is hosting an similar experience on the women's side and your Guru will be part of a 16-member group who will pretend to be this year's NCAA women's committee on Thursday and Friday.

A check with the NCAA learned "everything is fair game," so yoiur Guru will spend different sessions taking you through the experience. Other media members of the group will probably do likewise.It may get so hectic, however, that we may not get around to reporting until after the sessions, end.

We will begin Thursday afternoon and finish Friday afternoon using "live" data through Wednesday night's games. Obviously, we cannot project the future, and will be operating with what the nation is right now. For example, Rutgers-UConn on Tuesday night, will count, but Rutgers'Tennessee next week will not.

A little googling action on the internet Monday night resulted in reading some of the experiences by the men's group last year. Some of their highlights were they blew the deadline for the CBS broadcast, they were served the same snacks, sandwiches, etc., the committee gets in the war room, conference quotes were not in play, and, yes, it was a bear getting the last teams into the draw.

Also, someone, as last year, will be named the chair to take the heat on a simulated announcement broadcast. The Guru is not campaigning.

I've added the NCAA mock committee category to this blog so you can filter coverage from the normal course of news and events.

Three component categories will have representatives -- Media (11), Coaches (3), and WBCA (2), who will be Beth Bass and Betty Jaynes.

The three former coaches are Joe Ciampi (Auburn), Marsha Sharp (Texas Tech), and Theresa Grentz (St. Joseph's, Rutgers, Illinois).

Upon learning this when the agenda arrived last week, the Guru, who had just interviewed Grentz for her appearance at the Philadelphia Sportswriters' Association Dinner, noted to her in a subsequent phone call that Ciampi went to three Final Fours or knew he was going to rub up somewhere against Tennessee.

Marsha Sharp was usually somewhere at the top of the bracket with Texas Tech, thanks to Sheryl Swoopes getting things started in Lubbock, and Grentz always had the Guru to explain it all to her.

"Anyone else complained so much, the NCAA wasn't interested in giviing them an invite."

The media group, besides yours truly, will be represented from the print side by the Lafayette Journal-Courier's Mike Carmin, who covers Purdue; Steve Tucker of the Chicago Sun Time, who covers DePaul in the Big East, Illinois in the Big Ten, and several other conferences; and, of course, Mechelle Voepel of the Kansas City Star and ESPN.Com.

No, the Guru has not heard of former NCAA chairs campaigning the NCAA to make her the simulated chair so she can be on the other side of criticism she has dealt over the years. Voepel, besides covering national matchups, concentrates on the Big 12 for her newspaper.

Doug Feinberg, the AP national women's basketball writer out of New York, will also be on hand from the print side. Since your Guru and Doug cover a lot of the Big East, the Guru projects that in the simulated sessions we will probably be kicked out of the room when deliberations are made over Rutgers and Connecticut.

So don't blame the two of us if you find yourselves several days from now punching simulated airline tickets to Spokane, Wash., or to play North Carolina in Greensboro, in projected regional finals.

The electronic representatives in the media group are Debbie Antonelli of ESPN/Westwood One, Greg Amsinger of CSTV, Kara Lawson, Carolyn Peck, Beth Mowins. and programming czarina Carol Stiff of ESPN.

I know what you're thinking, you conspiracy theorists. Lawson played at Tennessee, and Peck, who has been a head coach at Purdue, Florida, and in the WNBA, was once a Tennessee assistant. Bass was once a Tennessee graduate assistant SID under the legendary Debbie Jennings. Therefore, even in a mockup, Tennessee's Pat Summitt has influence on the committee.

It is not known if Mowins and Antonelli will do their weekly WBCA podcast live from inside the war room.

The gender makeup is 10 females, six males, but we do not have a list of all the male coaches. Thuds, don't expect to see a "men's bracket," as was an accusation of past committees several years ago.

The nice thing from this group is that during a break, we have a great lineup for pickup basketball, of which your aging guru will only report. Grentz can coach one team with Ciampi and Sharp on her staff -- Grentz has all-America playing experience. Jaynes and Peck coach the other. Bass can establish the traveling budget. Lawson and Antonelli will have to be on opposite sides.

So much at an attempt at pre-dawn comedy.

Our first homework assignment prior to arrival in Indy, as does occur with real committee members, is to compile a ballot of 64 teams without regard to conference champions, etc. Soin theory we can place the entire Big East on the list and none frrom a lesser conference, for example, not that any of us will. On the other hand, with seven ranked teams in the current AP poll ...

And I may vote for Villanova just to have coach Harry Perretta around for entertainment.

So the next installment will offer the Guru's ballot, although I just spent the last several hours feverishly placing want adds in newspapers up and down the West Coast looking for candidates beyond Stanford, California, and, perhaps, Arizona State to put in the field.

-- Mel