INDIANAPOLIS – Southeastern Louisiana head women's basketball coach
Lori Davis Jones is one of 19 head women's basketball coaches from NCAA Division I institutions, along with two Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) administrators that will participate in a "mock" selection exercise hosted by the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Committee and members of the NCAA staff on July 16-17 at The Westin Indianapolis Hotel.
Fans can follow the exercise via a
Cover It Live blog on www.NCAA.org on Friday, July 16 and on Saturday, July 17, with both blog sessions beginning at 9 a.m. Accounts of the exercise will also be provided on the women's basketball championship
Facebook and
Twitter pages. Jones will also be tweeting her own thoughts on
the official Twitter page of Southeastern women's basketball.
The exercise will give participants an interactive role in the selection, seeding and bracketing process that the Division I Women's Basketball Committee goes through annually. “Mock” selection attendees will have access to all the tools available to the committee, will follow the same process for selecting and seeding the teams and apply the same principles and procedures the committee uses when it “builds” the championship bracket. The NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship staff will conduct the "mock" session, with members of the Division I Women's Basketball Committee providing assistance and insight into the process.
“The exercise provides a great hands-on opportunity for coaches and media from across the country to learn more about the selection, seeding and bracketing process,” said Jane Meyer, chair of the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Committee and senior associate director of athletics at the University of Iowa. “We have made a concerted effort to provide this opportunity for coaches from all 31 conferences to participate in the 'mock' exercise over the years and when we conclude this exercise, we will be extremely close to achieving that goal.”
Jones will be joined by fellow coaches Karen Aston (Charlotte), Kim Barnes-Arico (St. John's), Agnus Berenato (Pittsburgh), Tony Bozzella (Iona), Debra Clark (Norfolk State), Beth Couture (Butler), Jim Flanery (Creighton), Susan Robinson-Fruchtl (Saint Francis), Bill Gibbons (Holy Cross) and Bonnie Henrickson (Kansas).
Other coaches participating are Laurie Kely (Northern Arizona), Paul Nixon (Columbia), Raegan Pebley (Utah State), Sue Semrau (Florida State), Sandy Simpson (UC-Davis), Denise Taylor (Jackson State), Charli Turner Thorne (Arizona Stae) and Julie Wilhoit (Loyola Marymount). WBCA CEO Beth Bass and WBCA consultant Betty Jaynes will also take part in the exercise.
Both the Division I women's and men's basketball staffs began conducting mock selections with national print and electronic media members in 2007 in an attempt to clarify the process that the respective 10-person basketball committees experience each March when the championship brackets are constructed and announced. This is the second time the “mock” attendees will consist entirely of coaches and Women's Basketball Coaches Association administrators.
