Men’s Basketball

Northwestern athletic director Jim Phillips will serve on the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee starting in September, the NCAA announced Friday.

Phillips will serve a five-year term on the 10-member committee, which is responsible for selecting and seeding the field for the NCAA Tournament.

He will be the first administrator from NU to serve on the committee since Waldo Fisher’s term ended a half-century ago.

The Wildcats have never made the NCAA Tournament, although they are projected to make it this season and end their 78-year long drought. Members of the committee cannot be involved in decisions about the selection or seeding of programs they represent.

Phillips, who has served as athletic director since 2008, said in a news release that he was “honored and humbled” to be named to the committee.

“The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament is one of the most thrilling events in all of sports, and earning an invitation is what each of our 351 schools competes so fervently for throughout the winter and spring,” Phillips said in the release.

Phillips launched his career in college athletics as a graduate assistant in the Arizona State men’s basketball program. He also served as a member of the NCAA Division I women’s basketball selection committee before coming to NU.

“Basketball is where my career began in college athletics, and the game holds an incredibly special place in my heart,” Phillips said in the release.

In 2015, Phillips was elected to a two-year term as the inaugural chair of the NCAA Division I Council.

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