(Having discovered the Guru can still post at this site, here is a report of Thursday's actiivites.)
By Mel Greenberg
INDIANAPOLIS -- The first portion of the second annual seminar spread across two days at NCAA headquarters involving the Tournament Committee Mock Bracketing Exercise featured selecting the teams and seeding the first four lines in the draw
Since NCAA.com was doing its own blog, a description of our deliberations can be found over there..
Meanwhile, the Guru would like to note that he arrived at a fabulous new airport in Indy and is writing this using the Hi-Def TV screen in the Marriott hotel room as a monitor.
The dynamic was much different than a year ago involving teams because of the way the season played out.
Although there is a month left before the real selection, the simulation with the available had us preten d it was really mid-March instead of early February.
Thus, Villanova, at 6-2, in the Big East made the field even though the Wildcats have yet to play such conference powers as Connecticut, Louisville, and DePaul.
Temple was left on the table but the Owls control their destiny in the real world and could very well be an at-large team if they rise near the top of the jumbled conference race.
Having current coaches in our group participate this year allowed for good reference point discussions on teams under consideration.
On Friday we will go through the actual bracketing before finishing up around noon.
The NCAA overnight is completing the entire field seed process because we are working in a compressed time frame and not in the four-day format the real committee deliberates.
The Guru will summarize what was done upon his return to Philadelphia after Friday night's desk shift.
-- Mel
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