Liberty League Sport Report

Transcription

1 Liberty League Sport Report Name of Sport: Men s & Women s Basketball Name of Liaison: Sharon Beverly Date: March 27, 2012 I. Meeting/Call Information: The in-person meeting was held at the conference center at the Turning Stone Resort on March 27, 2012 with the following participants: Sarah Lombard, Adam Turner (Bard) Mark Gilbride, John Hampton (Clarkson) Mike Neer, Lindsay Drury (Hobart & William Smith) John Greene, Mike Griffin (Rensselaer) Bob McVean, Amy Reed (RIT) Darren Bennett, Joe Burke (Skidmore) Chris Downs, Dan Roiger (St. Lawrence) Mary Ellen Burt, Bob Montana (Union) Candice Brown, Del Harris (Vassar) Sharon Beverly (Vassar, Sport Liaison) Tracy King (Liberty League Commissioner) II. Championship Results from current year Regular season League champions: Hobart (Men), St. Lawrence (Women) League Tournament champions: Skidmore (Men), Vassar (Women) NCAA Participants: Hobart (Men), Skidmore (Men), Vassar (Women) III. Discussion Items Film Exchange Policy: Current film exchange guidelines were reviewed. Coaches agreed that 48 hours to upload a League game was too much time. Currently games played on Tuesday night do not have to be uploaded until Thursday. Teams playing on Friday would not have adequate time to view games uploaded Thursday night. It was recommended that Tuesday games be uploaded by noon on Wednesday. Uploading Friday games immediately after they are played puts the road team at a disadvantage since it would not have an opportunity to view film prior to Saturday s game. Tracy King (Liberty League) will check with ezxchanges to see if the games uploaded Friday can be blocked until after Saturday s games. If they cannot be blocked, it was recommended that both the Friday and Saturday games be uploaded following the completion of the Saturday games but no later than noon on Sunday. MOTION (Roiger, Burt): to upload Tuesday League games by noon on Wednesday and Friday-Saturday League games no earlier than after Saturday s games and no later than noon on Sunday. PASSED, 18-0.

2 Film Exchange Quality: Games uploaded to ezxchanges using free conversion programs were of inferior quality. Games uploaded using the Elgato conversion program were clearer and of higher quality. The software recommended by ezxchanges can be purchased for $99. In the event of a technical issue where a game cannot be uploaded, coaches should contact the conference so their download access is not blocked. Pre-game Protocol: All teams have not been following the NCAA pre-game introduction protocol for League play and there was support to follow the guidelines. Under NCAA protocol, each starting player should proceed to the center circle after being introduced and should only shake hands with the opposing player. Shaking hands with opposing coaches and fist-bumping officials are not part of the NCAA protocol. Mr. King will include the protocol in the basketball sport guidelines and will issue a reminder to the coaches, game administrators and SIDs prior to the season. Media Timeouts: Darren Bennett (Skidmore) suggested that using media timeouts during League play would better prepare teams for their use during NCAA Tournament play. Media timeouts can affect substitution patterns and coaching strategies. The additional timeouts could also provide schools with time to conduct in-game activities with fans. The suggestion was made to utilize media timeouts only during League Tournament play. MOTION (Brown, Bennett): to utilize media timeouts during the Liberty League Tournament consistent with their implementation during NCAA Tournament play. PASSED, Scheduling: Lengthy travel for Tuesday League games has been difficult. With League play beginning in early January, only 7 weekends are available for League games (12 games). Each team must play 4 midweek games. Coaches were reminded that they could mutually agree to move the Tuesday games to a different date earlier in the season. Some schools could have difficulty opening League play in December due to exams. MOTION (Roiger, Brown): to have men s and women s teams play at opposite sites on Tuesdays (e.g., St. Lawrence men s team would travel to Skidmore while the Skidmore women s team would travel to St. Lawrence on the same day). PASSED, Moved forward as an ACTION item. League Tournament Format: The current Wednesday-Saturday format was discussed. While some coaches felt the Wednesday-Saturday format took away from the single-site Tournament feel, the consensus was that having all games played at home sites resulted in a better atmosphere and experience for the student-athletes than neutral-site games. Tournament Expansion: The coaches unanimously supported the expansion of the League Tournament. It was noted that basketball was one of only three League sports (soccer, women s lacrosse) that had a Tournament field consisting of less than 50 percent of the participating teams. Among similar conferences, the NESCAC and North Coast Athletic Conference have 8-team Tournaments. The Centennial Conference currently has a 5-team Tournament. With the parity in the League, tiebreakers are frequently needed to break ties for the final spots. A larger field would also result in more teams competing for Tournament spots through the end of the regular season. MOTION (Roiger, McVean) to expand the Liberty League Tournament to 6 teams. PASSED, Tuesday- Thursday-Saturday and Tuesday-Friday-Saturday formats were discussed. While the coaches preferred the atmosphere of the home sites for all rounds, the consensus was that the Tuesday-Friday-Saturday format would be better from an academic perspective. Moved forward as an ACTION item. Tournament Tiebreakers: Dan Roiger (St. Lawrence) compiled a set of tiebreakers to determine Tournament seeding. The additional tiebreakers include cumulative record versus all teams above those tied as well as best Liberty League road record. The additional tiebreakers are intended for use of in-

3 conference criteria prior to consideration of non-conference criteria. MOTION (Roiger, Brown): to adopt proposed tiebreakers for Tournament seeding. PASSED, Moved forward as an ACTION item. Facilities Natural Light in RIT Gym: Coach Bennett indicated that the natural light (sun light) in the RIT gym during day games makes it difficult for shooters to see the basket during the first half. RIT was unaware of the issue, but would explore options for improving the visibility. All-League Voting & Nomination Procedures: Coach Roiger suggested a change to the All-League voting process. Under the current system, a player receiving a vote for the first team would receive 2 points while a player receiving a vote for the second team would get 1 point. There would only be 1 point separating the top player in the League from the 10th-best player. Roiger suggested using a point system where the top 16 players are ranked with the top player receiving 16 points, the second-best player receiving 15 points, etc. This would result in more of a consensus for all-league selection. The coaches were all in favor of the voting process. Roiger also suggested that League-only stats be used as opposed to overall stats so the strength of non-league competition is not a factor in the voting. Mr. King indicated that the point system and the inclusion of League-only stats could both be implemented. King indicated multiple nominations will be accepted from a school for a particular award (e.g., two nominees for defensive player of the year), but it could result in the two players splitting votes and neither being selected. Nominees for weekly awards are submitted by each school and should be coordinated between the SID and coach. Regional Realignment: Mr. King discussed NCAA regional realignment and the proposed changes to selection criteria. Rather than proceed with full-scale realignment, the NCAA Championships Committee is proposing changes to the selection criteria. It is expected that teams will have to play 70 percent of their games against in-region opponents (up from 50 percent). An in-region opponent consists of any conference team, any team in the playing region, any team in the geographic region (New York and Pennsylvania) and any team within a 200-mile radius. Also, the committee will likely consider any game against a Division III opponent as counting toward the primary selection criteria (a game is a game). NCAA Tournament Selection / Pool B: Mr. King suggested to the League administrators that the Liberty League could consider sponsoring legislation to eliminate Pool B from the Tournament selection process. Any team not earning an automatic bid would be considered equally for an at-large selection to the NCAA Tournament. Divisions I and II do not have Pool B as part of their selection process. The coaches were supportive of a discussion. Moved forward as an ACTION item? Sportsmanship: Mary Ellen Burt (Union) voiced that the League have the authority to act in instances of unsportsmanlike behavior. Sharon Beverly (Vassar) suggested the coaches work to develop a code of conduct to define appropriate behavior and outline what is acceptable. Mike Neer (Hobart) and Lindsay Drury (William Smith) offered to research codes of conduct for the NABC and WBCA respectively. Bob McVean (RIT) offered to provide the code of conduct used by the Empire 8. Officials & Evaluations: Only a few coaches are consistently rating officials after each contest. The coaches believed that their ratings have little impact on the assignment of officials. The number and quality of officials in the North Country is lacking, particularly for women s basketball. St. Lawrence has asked the ECAC to consider assigning officials from the Syracuse area. It was not clear who the ECAC was using to assign games for the League. Dr. Beverly stressed the importance of coaches evaluating officials after each contest and asked that Mr. King speak with the ECAC in regards to concerns about the low level of officiating for the League. She also asked Mr. King to reach out to the

4 St. Lawrence and Clarkson ADs to inquire if they believed the League could help in any way with the concerns raised about assignments in their area. IV. Action Items: to be voted upon by the Athletics Directors Film Exchange Policy: to amend the current web-based exchange policy to specify that Tuesday League games shall be uploaded by noon on Wednesday and Friday-Saturday League games shall be uploaded no earlier than after Saturday s games and no later than noon on Sunday. (PASSED, 18-0). Effective Date: Season. Rationale: Coaches believed that 48 hours was too much time to upload League games. A Tuesday game uploaded Thursday evening did not provide coaches with sufficient time to review in advance of games on Friday. Friday games that were uploaded immediately following the game gave the home teams on Saturday an advantage by allowing them to review the Friday game. The traveling team would not be able to watch film from the Friday game. Impact: No impact on budget, scheduling, missed class time or other programs. Media Timeouts: to implement the use of media timeouts during League Tournament play, consistent with their use in the NCAA Tournament. (PASSED, 15-3). Effective Date: 2013 Liberty League Tournament. Rationale: With media timeouts being used during all rounds of NCAA Tournament play, using media timeouts during League Tournament play will better prepare coaches and teams for managing the game during the NCAA Tournament. Media timeouts can impact substitution patterns as well as coaching strategy. Their implementation during the League Tournament is consistent with the League s adherence to NCAA protocol in postseason play. Impact: No impact on budget, scheduling missed class time or other programs. Could lengthen games slightly. Scheduling: to have men s and women s teams play at opposite sites on Tuesdays. (PASSED, ). Effective Date: Season. Rationale: Having men s and women s teams play at opposite sites on Tuesdays will shorten the trip for both teams, will keep student-athletes in class longer on Tuesdays and will get student-athletes back to campus earlier. Impact: Schools will have to staff home games on four Tuesdays as opposed to two, although there will only be one game per night rather than two. This may limit facility availability for other groups that use the facilities (i.e., intramurals, recreation, outside groups). Schools that have the men and women travel together would have to pay for 2 extra buses. It was felt that this could result in fewer missed classes on Tuesdays. Note: Schools are already permitted to move Tuesday games by mutual agreement. The current policy may already provide for this flexibility if schools wish to use it.

5 League Tournament Expansion: to expand the Liberty League men s and women s Basketball Tournaments from 4 teams to 6. (PASSED, 18-0) Effective Date: 2013 Liberty League Tournament. Rationale: Liberty League basketball is one of three League sports (soccer, women s lacrosse) in which fewer than half of the teams (44%) compete in the League Tournament. Two additional spots would provide a ratio comparable to other League sports (softball = 67%; field hockey, men s lacrosse, volleyball = 57%; tennis = 100%). Among Division III conferences the average size of a Tournament field for a Division III conference Tournament is approximately 6.25 teams. With parity in the League, 2 teams have tied for fourth place 8 times (5 on the women s side, 3 on the men s side) in the last 9 years. League tiebreakers have been needed to break the tie and eliminate one of the teams. An expanded Tournament field could create more meaningful regular-season games toward the end of the season, while allowing for more equity in participation amongst sports. Impact: An expanded Tournament would create two additional games, which would be quarterfinal games hosted by higher-seeded teams. Budget implications include transportation costs for traveling teams and officiating and staffing costs for home teams. The expanded Tournament would not alter the League schedule. The coaches favored a Tuesday-Friday-Saturday format and were amenable to a Tues/Wed, Saturday-Sunday format to minimize the impact on missed class time. A lower-seeded team (visiting team) advancing on Tuesday might also miss classes on Friday. Tournament Tiebreakers: to adopt the Tournament tiebreakers as proposed in the attachment below. (PASSED, 18-0). Effective Date: Seasons. Rationale: The added tiebreakers (Cumulative record against all teams above those who are tied; Best LL road record) would consider results in League play prior to results in non-league competition. Teams are rewarded for winning the most difficult games. Impact: No impact on budget, scheduling, or missed class time. Tiebreakers might not apply for other sports that do not have double round-robin play. When comparing best Liberty League road record, teams in single round-robin play could have different home/away schedules. V. Timeline: all reports should be sent to the commissioner by May 15. The group expressed thanks to the Dr. Beverly and Mr. King, for facilitating an in-person meeting at Turning Stone and suggested possibly an activity for them to further connect during the day in future meetings (i.e. golf). Liaison report back to Sport Group: include voting results and rationale for decisions

6 Liberty League Tiebreaker Procedures for MBB and WBB Proposed Tie-Breaking Procedures: Basketball teams will be seeded for the Tournament by the following guidelines below. In the event of a multiple team tie, once the criteria outlined below eliminates a team, you return to tiebreaker (a) with the remaining teams. Winning percentage of Liberty League games Tie Breaking Procedure 1. Head-to-head records cumulative with all tied teams 2. Cumulative record against all teams above those who are tied 3. Record versus teams in LL standings in descending order of finish 4. Best LL road record 5. Coin flip conducted by the commissioner Criteria 2 and 4 are additional criteria based on LL results rather than immediately going to non-conference games. Criteria 2 factors in how the tied teams did against all the better teams in the League, i.e., you are rewarding the team that does best against the best competition. Criteria 4 rewards the teams that have won the most difficult games. If we want, we can continue with Criteria 5, 6, and 7 with non-conference games 5. Winning percentage vs. common opponents in non-conference play; 6. Winning percentage vs. all opponents with an end-of-season record of.500 or above; 7. Winning percentage vs. all opponents with an end-of-season record of below.500, and 8. Coin Flip