KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The NABC today announced the formation of the NABC Tournament Advisory Committee, a group of former coaches who will provide season-long feedback and team evaluations to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee.
The NABC Tournament Advisory Committee roster is comprised of eight former head coaches with backgrounds spanning all levels of the Division I landscape. The Committee will meet and provide feedback directly to the NCAA at various checkpoints throughout the season, with a primary focus on evaluating teams potentially warranting consideration for the NCAA Tournament’s first quadrant – the bracket’s top four seed lines.
The NABC Tournament Advisory Committee’s feedback will include rankings submitted to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee immediately prior to its January, February and March meetings.
Former coaches who will serve on the committee for the 2025-26 season are: Scott Davenport (Bellarmine), Ed DeChellis (East Tennessee State, Penn State, Navy), Fran Dunphy (Penn, Temple, La Salle), Jeff Jones (Virginia, American, Old Dominion), Phil Martelli (Saint Joseph’s, Michigan), Norm Roberts (St. John’s), Tubby Smith (Tulsa, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota, Texas Tech, Memphis, High Point), and Gary Waters (Kent State, Rutgers, Cleveland State).
“Coaches are uniquely qualified to contribute valuable qualitative and quantitative perspectives to the process of selecting and accurately seeding teams for the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship,” said NABC Executive Director Craig Robinson. “As other prominent college sports have moved towards greater representation of coaches in their postseason selection processes, we look forward to this new NABC committee supporting the work of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee this season and beyond.”
“For several years, the NABC has identified active coaches who provided feedback to the committee,” said NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt. “While the information they provided was valuable, each coach was only asked to rank 15 teams from the region he represented rather than give a national perspective. This new approach still provides the coaches a voice in the selection room, but with the feedback aligning more closely with the committee’s mission when it comes to seeding the top teams.”
