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RILEY WALLACE TO CHAIR TOURNAMENT SELECTION COMMITTEE

 


 

Feb. 2, 2010

 BOSTON (MA) -- The winningest coach in Hawaii history, Riley Wallace, has been named chairman of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) selection committee.

“I am very pleased to be working with CollegeInsider.com,” said Wallace. “I think speak for countless coaches when I say that CollegeInsider.com has been a major asset to the game of college basketball. This tournament was created to give deserving teams, which would otherwise be overlooked, a chance to compete for a postseason championship. “

The CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament is a single-elimination men’s Division I college basketball tournament. The CIT consists of five rounds, with all five rounds being played at on-campus sites. Those sites will be determined through a seeding process.

Old Dominion defeated Bradley to win the inaugural tournament last year, which included teams from 11 different conferences. Among the highlights of the tournament was a 75-foot buzzer beater, believed to be the longest game winning shot in Division I postseason history.

“Last year’s tournament was a major success,” said Wallace. “Bradley’s 75-footer that beat Oakland will be the lasting moment, but there were a lot of highlights. The goal now is to make the 2010 tournament even better and we have already taken some steps in that direction.”

One such step came last September with the announcement that the Great West Conference would receive an automatic bid to the CIT. The winner of the conference tournament final, which will be played on March 13, will be the first official entrant to the 2010 CIT.

The seven basketball playing league members of the Great West that will be vying for the bid are Chicago State, Houston Baptist, Texas Pan-American, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah Valley and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).

“Giving the Great West an automatic is a great opportunity for the players, coaches and fans for the programs in that conference,” said Wallace. “They are now afforded the same opportunity as teams from other small conferences. They can participate in postseason play.”

Wallace will oversee the entire selection process, which includes an expanded committee of former coaches and administrators. Former DePaul head coach Jerry Wainwright, former UCLA head coach Jim Harrick and former Southern University head coach Ben Jobe are among the new additions to the 17-member selection committee. The process will culminate with the announcement of the 16-team field on Sunday March 14, which will follow the announcement of the 32-team field selected to participate in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT).

“The CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament is a really good thing for college basketball,” said Wallace. “As a former coach I understand that the NIT selection committee has a difficult task in that they have a limited number of invitations they can extend. With so many deserving teams, the CIT provides the opportunity for 16 teams to continue their seasons. I am excited about the future of this tournament.”

Wallace spent most of his 20 seasons as a head coach at the University of Hawaii, winning a school-best 334 games. During his tenure the Rainbow Warriors advanced to the postseason nine times (3 NCAA tournaments, 6 NIT appearances). Prior to his arrival, the program had just one NCAA appearance and two trips to the NIT in its’ history.

CollegeInsider.com, which has been in existence since 1996, has established seven prestigious awards since its inception. The Ben Jobe Award, Hugh Durham Award, Jim Phelan Award, Lefty Driesell, Lou Henson, Lute Olson and Skip Prosser Award are presented annually at the Final Four.


COLLEGEINSIDER.COM POSTSEASON TOURNAMENT SELECTION COMMITTEE

Riley Wallace (Former head coach, University of Hawaii) * CHAIRMAN OF THE SELECTION COMMITTEE
Wallace put Hawaii on the college basketball map. Under his guidance, the Rainbow Warriors went to the NCAA Tournament three times. Nine of the school's 12 postseason appearances came during Wallace's tenure, which included a school-record streak of four from 2001-2004.

Alvin Brooks, Sr. (Former assistant coach, University of Kentucky)
Brooks has 27 years of college coaching experience and has been affiliated with 17 postseason tournament teams as a coach and player. He has tutored 17 players who went on to play in the NBA.

Lefty Driesell (Former head coach, University of Maryland)
Driesell finished his coaching career with an impressive record of 786-394. He took four programs (Davidson, Georgia State, James Madison and Maryland) to the NCAA Tournament and is the only coach in history to win 100 games at four different schools. He is known as the inventor of Midnight Madness and was named the conference coach of the year in four different conferences.

Hugh Durham (Former head coach, University of Georgia, Jacksonville University)
When Durham retired in 2005, he ranked 8th among active Division I coaches in career wins with 633 wins and was the 25th winningest Division I coach in history. He is the only coach in NCAA history to be the all-time winningest coach at three different Division I schools and is one of just 11 coaches to have led two different teams to the NCAA Final Four (Florida State and Georgia).

Pat Flannery (Former head coach, Bucknell University)
Flannery led Bucknell to new heights. In 2004-05, the Bisons finished the season with a 24-9 record, captured the Patriot League championship and defeated Kansas in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. The following season, Bucknell won a school record 27 wins and was ranked in the Top 25 for the first time in school history.

Jim Harrick (Former head coach, UCLA, Georgia, Rhode Island)
Jim Harrick is owner of an overall career coaching record of 470-235 including 1 national championship, 3 Elite Eights, 4 Sweet Sixteens, 16 NCAA Tournaments appearances and 9 Conference Championships.

Lou Henson (Former head coach, University of Illinois, New Mexico State University)
Upon his retirement in 2005, Henson was the sixth all-time winningest coach in career wins with 779 and is the all-time winningest at New Mexico State University with 289 wins. He is one of only 11 coaches to take two different schools to the NCAA Final Four (New Mexico State and Illinois.

Ben Jobe (Former head coach, Southern University)
In 12 years at Southern, Jobe compiled a 209-141 record, led the Jaguars to the NCAA tournament four times, went to the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) once, won five Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships, won 11 Southwestern Athletic Conference Championships, and won two NAIA Tournament Championships.

Jim Kerwin (Former head coach, Western Illinois University)
The 1998-99 Mid-Continent Conference Coach of the Year led Western Illinois to three consecutive top-three regular-season finishes and three consecutive Mid-Continent Conference tournament title games (1995-97). Kerwin led Western Illinois to its first 20-win season in 12 years. He began his career as an assistant at the University of Oklahoma (1984-89), helping the Sooners to six NCAA Tournaments.

Larry Little (Former head coach, University of Hawaii, Centenary College)
Little won 203 games in 14 seasons as a head coach at Hawaii and Centenary College. He averaged 20 wins a season during his time at Centenary. His 1974-75 team, which included future Basketball Hall of Famer, Robert Parish, finished 25-4.

Kyle Macy (Former head coach, Morehead State University)
Macy coached Morehead State University for nine seasons, leading the program to its most wins (20) in 19 seasons in 2003. A three-time All-America selection, he became the first Kentucky player ever to be named consensus Southeastern Conference (SEC) Player of the Year.

Steve Merfeld (Former head coach, University of Evansville, Hampton University)
In 10 seasons as a head coach he won 144 games and took Hampton to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments. In 2001 his #15 seed Hampton squad claimed one of the great NCAA Tournament moments of all-time, upsetting #2 seed Iowa State (58-57).

Jim Phelan (Former head coach, Mount Saint Mary's University)
Phelan coached for 49 seasons, all of them at Mount St. Mary's University, and became just the fourth coach in NCAA history to eclipse the 800-win plateau. During his career, his teams won 830 games. He is the all-time leader in games coached with 1,354 across all NCAA divisions.

Art Santo Domingo (President of Cable Car Classic)
Santo Domingo founded the Cable Car Classic in 1967 with Harry Jupiter. The Cable Car Classic is the longest running holiday tournament in the nation.

Jerry Wainwright (Former head coach, DePaul University)
With coaching stops at DePaul, Richmond, and UNC – Wilmington, Wainwright has accumulated 245 Division I wins in his career as well as five Colonial Athletic Conference regular season and tournament titles and seven NCAA and NIT appearances.

Perry Watson (Former head coach, University of Detroit Mercy)
The second-winningest coach in Detroit Mercy history, Watson posted nine consecutive winning seasons (1996-2004). His teams claimed three regular-season conference titles and two NCAA Tournament berths, posting wins over St. John's University (1998) and UCLA (1999). The Titans' four consecutive 20-win seasons (1998-2001) is a school record.

Rich Zvosec (Former head coach, University of Missouri-Kansas City)
Rich Zvosec, the author of the book "Birds, Dogs & Kangaroos: Life on the Back Roads of College Basketball," created a reputation as a coach that rebuilds programs. He is the all-time winningest coach at UMKC and was named Mid-Continent Conference Coach of the Year in 2005.



 
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