Dan Leibovitz wants people to associate Southeastern Conference men’s basketball with success.
Leibovitz decided to begin his work last week during the NBA draft. When Craig Pinkerton, the SEC Director of Communications for men’s basketball, tweeted the league had more first-round picks (five) than any other conference, Leibovitz shared that fact.
“I sent it directly to a couple members of national media just to kind of create a little bit of buzz,” Leibovitz said Monday on the SEC’s summer teleconference. “Their reaction was a little bit jaded, a little bit sarcastic. I’m wondering why that is.”
Leibovitz was hired earlier this month as the league’s associate commissioner for men’s basketball. His hire comes on the heels of the hiring of former Big East Conference commissioner and NCAA division I men’s basketball committee veteran Mike Tranghese as a “special advisor to the commissioner for men’s basketball” and Todd Whitehead being hired to coordinate the league’s officials. It is the job of Leibovitz, Tranghese, and Whitehead to get SEC basketball back on track.
Per the conference, “Leibovitz will ensure ongoing communication related to the sport between the SEC Office (sic) and its member institutions and coaches; develop and enact strategies for enhancing and promoting men’s basketball in the SEC; prepare the conference men’s basketball schedules and collaborate with the Special Advisor to the Commissioner (sic) for men’s basketball, Mike Tranghese, to ensure continuous improvement of the sport in the SEC.”
Leibovitz served as head men’s basketball coach at Hartford from 2006-10. He also served on staffs at Temple and Pennsylvania, and worked for the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets.
In the last two years, he worked as the primary administrator for men’s basketball in the American Athletic Conference.
On Monday, Leibovitz listened to all 14 SEC coaches offer suggestions on how to make the league better. In his mind, it’s about promoting the conference and having it work with the schools.
“We’ve got to make good, solid decisions to put our programs in a position to be successful in any way we can as a conference, whether that’s our championship experience, media relations, our non-conference scheduling, and conference scheduling decisions,” Leibovitz said. “We’ve got the SEC Network that gives us a tremendous TV window.”
Earlier this month at the SEC meetings in Destin, Florida, Ron Higgins, of The Times-Picayune, wrote about the SEC’s diminishing returns in men’s basketball. His research showed that for 17 straight seasons from 1991 to 2008, the SEC placed five or six teams in the NCAA tournament field each year, producing five national championships by Kentucky, Florida, and Arkansas and 11 Final Four appearances by five teams (adding LSU and Mississippi State).
In the last eight seasons, Higgins wrote that the SEC has had five teams in the NCAA tournament twice and only three teams in the tournament four times, including three of the last four seasons. Also since 2009, Kentucky is the only league team to win a national championship. Kentucky and Florida are the only teams to advance to the Final Four.
In 2015-16, three teams made the NCAA tournament. Texas A&M advanced to the Sweet 16, Kentucky lost in the round of 32, and Vanderbilt lost to Wichita State in one of the four play-in games.
But the league is working to get better. MSU hired former UCLA coach Ben Howland, Tennessee hired former Texas coach Rick Barnes, Alabama hired NBA veteran Avery Johnson, and Florida hired up-and-coming Michael White last season. After Kevin Stallings left Vanderbilt to become the new coach at Pittsburgh, the Commodores hired Bryce Drew.
“This league has always been strong in basketball,” said Howland, who finished 14-17 in his first season. “I have no doubts it will be strong again like it’s been in the past. Talk about the level of players — not just at Kentucky — but around the league like at Alabama, LSU, Georgia, and Vanderbilt. The success Kevin Stallings had during 17 years at Vanderbilt is very, very special. As a coach from another league, I’ve always had great respect for the SEC in basketball.”
Leibovitz feels like non-conference wins against marquee opponents will help the league’s perception and get it more teams in the NCAA tournament. When it comes to scheduling, he wants the schools to have a good balance.
“You can’t go too heavy on the easy games,” Leibovitz said. “You’ve got to try and schedule up as much as you can. The fans want to see marquee opponents. You’ve got to have between three, four, five, six of those games. Everyone at this level rounds out their schedule with lesser opponents.”
In the AAC, Leibovitz said the top teams didn’t schedule the same way as rebuilding teams. That’s something he would like to see in the SEC. Leibovitz wants every school to commit to basketball so the teams at the bottom of the conference aren’t hurting the teams at the top with low Ratings Percentage Indexes (RPI).
Although he didn’t receive the feedback he wanted to from sharing the SEC’s success in the NBA draft, Leibovitz said he, the SEC, and the schools will continue to build awareness of the league’s accomplishments.
“We’ve got to continue to bang the drum and give them the information and put our best foot forward in terms of perception. It’s going to continue to take time,” Leibovitz said.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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