Thanks to the graciousness of my good friend Kelly and the kind people at the CBS television network, I just returned from New Orleans where I attended my 11th Final Four in the last 15 years.

In many ways, the Final Four is much like the SHRM Annual Conference:

• Lots of talk about talent - Like SHRM, there is a lot of discussion of talent.  In this case, the teams playing.  Will Kentucky easily dispatch its opponents (YES!).  Who will be loaded next year? Is one and done good for the business?
• There's recruiting - in this case, the Final Four represents a huge market for coaches, as many assistants look to make the jump to a head coaching position
•  The parties - instead of Monster. com throwing a bask with Natasha Beningfield, Turner/CBS threw two private shows with Kid Rock and Sammy hagar
• Celebrity sightings - At SHRM, it might be OMG...there's The Cyncial Girl, Laurie Ruettimann.  At the Final Four, it was Leo DiCaprio in our suite (where he soon was whisked by Kid Rock to the suite next door) or Lil Wayne a few suites down.
• Networking - Like SHRM, the Final Four is an opportunity to catch up and talk with people you may have not seen the event the previous year.

Which brings to Chicago Jerry. 

Who is he?  I don't know.  Why is he called "Chicago Jerry?" Your guess is as good as mine

Does he deal in imports and exports?  Is he a superagent to the stars?  Is he a small businessman from Poughkeepsie who simply loves basketball?  I don't know.  However, much like Bill Brasky, we have come to believe Chicago Jerry "can eat anything, can tolerate any amount of drugs and alcohol, is superhumanly tough, possesses a variety of other superhuman powers, has cheated death on numerous occasions, has no regard for the well-being of others, and has caused the death and maiming of many people."  No one dares talk to him for fear of ruining his near mythic status.

 Since attending my first Final Four in 1999, one of the constants has always been the presence of Chicago Jerry.  In some years, he would be among the first people I'd see as I walked into the hotel lobby.  In other years, it might be a couple of days, but Jerry would inevitably turn up.  This year?  Jerry was absent.  Days had passed and no one had sighted Jerry.  Then, with mere hours to go before heading to the airport, we were merrily cruising down Canal Street and there was Jerry.

Another Final Four is in the books, and it simply wouldn't be the same without Chicago Jerry.  I raise my glass and say, "To Chicago Jerry."

The University of Illinois Men's Basketball program has a long, storied, and successful history with 17 Big Ten championships and 5 trips to the NCAA Final Four, and one national championship (in 1915, though).  Unfortunately, U of I basketball has fallen on some hard times.  Having not advanced to the Sweet 16 since 2005, and not qualifying for the NCAA tournament after a sterling 15-3 start, head coach Bruce Weber was unceremoniously fired at the end of the season.

Among college basketball jobs, finding a replacement should have been a "slam dunk."  Why?

• Low competition statewide - Illinois is perceived as the best program in the state
• Access to talent/recruiting base - the Chicago area is considered fertile recruiting ground, producing such stars as Antoine Walker, Michael Finley, Mark Aguirre, Tim Hardaway, Dwayne Wade, and Derrick Rose.  Current high school players such as Jabari Parker and Cliff Alexander are considered top 10  in the nation
• Tradition and history of success - as noted above, the Illini have had great success to sell applicants
• Fan Support - even being 2 hours away from Chicago, Assembly Hall is almost always sold out with fans decked out in orange.
• Conference Affiliation - Given the Illini are part of the Big 10, any coach will be well-compensated and get plenty of face time on the Big Ten Network, which can promote future recruiting.

No less than Seth Davis, Sports Illustrated and CBS Sports college basketball expert, has declared the Illinois job "one of the top 10 college basketball jobs in America."

If the job is so wonderful, shouldn't applicants from "lesser" programs be knocking down the door?   Further, there is only one other "top notch" job out there competing for candidates - Mississippi State. Yet, at least 5 candidates have already turned down the offer or resisted possible overtures:

• Shaka Smart, who led VCU to the Final Four in 2011, was reportedly guaranteed facility improvements, a long-term contract for as high as 8 years, and a salary comparable to Michigan State's Tom Izzo, who makes more than $3 million a year (Smart makes $1.285 million at VCU)
• Brad Stevens, who led Butler University to consecutive National Championship games in 2010 and 201, turned down a reported 8 year, $21 million salary to remain at his current place of employment
• Anthony Grant of Alabama has expressed no interest
• Leonard Hamilton at Florida State is comfortable in his current position
• Washington's Lorenzo Romar is also staying in his job.

 So, why the resistance?  Among the more public reasons:

• Outdated facilities - Assemby Hall is 49 years old.  Even with major renovations, Illinois remains behind in the "arms race," with competitors such as Michigan State and Ohio State.
• Champaign is not Chicago - enough said
• A major administration shake-up - The Athletic Director, President, and head coach all lost their jobs within 116 days of one another.  That kind of turmoil can make it difficult to attract top notch candidates

Here's the problem for Illinois...when these things hang around and the perception is that you're turned down by guy after guy (or that they "have no interest" in your job), you do damage to the way your program is viewed.  They're theoretically the prettiest girl at the prom and nobody seems to want to get out on the dance floor with them.

Sometimes the position is not as good as you think it is.

Over the past several days, you have seen 152,467 blog posts on Greg Smith's op-ed in the New York Times bemoaning the culture that had befallen Goldman-Sachs.  I'd much rather look at another, more positive culture - no, not Zappo's or Southwest - it's Michigan State basketball under Tom Izzo, yet again.

Over the past 15 years, MSU has reached the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament 10 times, with a possible 7th trip to the Final Four this year in that same time period.   One of the primary reasons for the success is predicated on a particular system that is adopted throughout the institution:

 “We just have a system down, and we use the same system but we tweak it here and there,” said Izzo, who breaks down film more like a football coach than a typical basketball coach. “I have a real confident belief that if we win the first game, that’s what I tell them: ‘You win the first game, I’ll get you through the second.’”

This devotion can be seen by some of the least appreciated members of the team - the student members.  Within minutes of the completion of the Big Ten Tournament, the student managers were in a van driving back to East Lansing to start putting together film of the opponents in the first weekend of the tournament for the coaches and players to watch:

Towels, water, errands and all the traditional manager duties are involved. But MSU also counts on its managers to record and dissect games of potential opponents — breaking them up into categories such as zone defense, man defense, made 2-pointers, missed 3-pointers, etc., and handing them off to (MSU Video Coordinator Jordan) Ott and the coaches for analysis.

After the victory on Thursday night over LIU-Brooklyn,  a similar process began:

While MSU’s coaches and primary players showered and prepared for media obligations, the team’s student managers created a basketball half-court in one of the Renaissance Downtown’s meeting rooms with duct tape. Assistant video manager and former Sexton head coach Doug Herner paced out the measurements, and a 3-point line, foul line, baseline and sidelines appeared on the carpeted floor. 

By the time Tom Izzo and his team arrived around 12:45, the walk-ons were ready to rehearse several plays of the Saint Louis offense at walking speed, with the regulars going through their defensive assignments. Then it was 1:15, bed time for the players and time for the coaches to really dig into some strategic nuances that might push No. 1 seed MSU (28-7) past No. 9 seed Saint Louis (26-7) in today’s NCAA Tournament third-round game at Nationwide Arena.

Finding individuals who are willing to take on this 40 hour a week task (plus extra during the postseason) at no pay is critical

Ott takes a month each fall to decide on his hires, for jobs that are not advertised. He wants people who are trustworthy, enthusiastic and hard-working. Love for basketball is a must.

However, there are long-term payoffs -  full time positions elsewhere:

When Auburn had a video opening a few years ago, its people called (MSU's Director of Basketball Operations Kevin) Pauga and asked which MSU managers didn't have jobs.

"That became their entire candidate pool," he said.

"The biggest compliment to those guys," MSU assistant coach Mike Garland said, is that when an NBA or college team has an opening, they always call MSU first. 'Who you got?'"

The real kicker in this story  is this...not only did current managers work on prepping the some 17 games of video they had on LIU-Brooklyn prior to last Thursday's match-up:

Some former managers even stopped by to help them start finding and logging game film into MSU’s computer system as soon as LIU-Brooklyn was announced as the Spartans’ first opponent.

Former employees...coming back...and helping...at no pay.

How many of your organizations can say they have alumni return to your place of employment to help out?

That's a true mark of a successful culture!


 

 

I just returned from Las Vegas where I spent 4 days watching the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at one of their fine sports books.  Its always fun to join together with others and hear people go crazy when the outcome of the game is certain but whether North Carolina and Creighton will scored over or under 160.5 points is not (the final total was 160.0).

Similarly, its fun to hear and complain about the performance of the 3 referees assigned to each tournament game. Its a thankless job.   Many make the refs the scapegoat when the outcome of the game does not turn out in their favor.  Ask many Alabama Crimson Tide fans about the end of their tournament game when Trevor Releford's last second shot clearly showed he was fouled, and no call was made.

At the same time, put yourselves in the shoes of the ref for a moment.  How many of you:

• walk into your workplace already knowing many people are against you before a second of actual job performance has occurred?
• could perform your job in front of tens of thousands of people at relatively meager pay?
• could stand up to having made a decision and have it suddenly reviewed with instant replay, knowing that decision could possibly be overturned?

It brings to mind the classic Seinfeld episode where he gets heckled at the job:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eiiD4Qzk0w

His revenge?  Going to her job and heckling her.

Could you handle the refs coming to your place and watch you perform for eight hours a day?

Meanwhile, I'll try to remain calm when the refs do their job, even when they call 3 quick fouls on Michigan State in a span of 12 seconds in the 2nd half of a close game (really?  really?!?!?)

Its mid-March...one of my favorite times of the year.  Why?  It means the Men's Division I NCAA basketball tournament, aka "March Madness" is about to begin.  As a graduate of Michigan State University, how could I not love it?  Over the past 14 years, Coach Tom Izzo has led the Spartans to 6 Final Fours and a National Championship.  This year looks promising for the Spartans as well, earning a number one seed in the tournament...which usually means success, as Izzo has made it to the Final Four three previous times as a number one seed.

One of my favorite metrics for the tournament (as well as filling out those darned brackets for the office pool) was coined by Pete Tiernan at CBS Sports -  "Performance Against Seed Expectations" or PASE - which compares a coach's actual winning record to his expected performance based on seeding.  According to Tiernan:

PASE is a simple concept.  Every seed has recorded an average number of wins per tourney in the modern era.  The average top seed wins 3.37 games per dance, two seeds win 2.43 (almost one game less), three seeds win 1.86 and so on.  When the coach of a top-seeded team wins four games to reach the Final Four, he overperforms by .63 games.  If he wins the championship, he exceeds seed expectations by 2.63 games.

By adding up a coach's year-by-year performance, one can come up with the average games per tourney he deviated from the expected victory total.  Associated with PASE, is what Tiernan calls "Seed Overachievement Rate," or "SOAR, which simply takes the number of times a coach has exceeded seed expectations out of the number of appearances.

So, who are the coaches that consistently outperform what they were expected to do?

Not surprisingly, Izzo leads the way.  Based on seeding, his Spartan teams should've won 22.3 games in 14 tournament appearances.  However, with Izzo's teams averaging about a 5 seed in the tournament (5.21), yet he has won 12.726 more games than what his seed should dictate, for a PASE of .909 (12.726/14); in essence, one should count on an Izzo team to win nearly one more game than the seed he is given.  Similarly, Izzo's teams have outperformed their seed 10 times in those 14 appearances for a SOAR of 71.4%  With a minimum of 5 tourney appearances, other coaches in this year's tournament who might carry one farther than expected:
*John Beilein of Michigan with a PASE of .705 and SOAR of 83.3%
*Steve Fisher of San Diego State with a PASE of .610 and SOAR of 36.4%
*Billy Donovan of Florida with a PASE of .563 and SOAR of 45.5%
*Jim Calhoun of UConn with a PASE of .493 and SOAR of 52.6%
*Rick Pitino of Louisville with a PASE of .466 and a SOAR of 46.7%
*Coach K of Duke with a PASE of .426 and a SOAR of 50.0%

Of course, there are those coaches who will let you down every year.  Who consistently underperforms?

DePaul coach Oliver Purnell has consistently been shown to be a bad bet in your brackets with a PASE of -.813.  In six trips, Purnell should have won five games based on seed expectations; he won none.  Kevin Stallings has been a victim of three straight one-and-dones for Vanderbilt - all of them when seeded fourth or fifth, earning him a PASE of -.373.  Some other coaches and teams you might be wary of heading into the Tourney (and in your office pool):
*Mike Montgomery of California with a PASE of -.419
*Mike Brey of Notre Dame with a PASE of -.370
*Dave Rose of BYU with a PASE of -.354
*Steve Alford of New Mexico with a PASE of .343
*Fran Dunphy of Temple has a PASE of -.341

Certainly, one could argue that perhaps it is a function of a poor job of the NCAA Tourney Committee who under- or over-seeded these teams in the first place.  However, over 5-plus appearances, actual performance seems to take precedence.

So, HR folks - who are your employees who exceed your expectations?  Do they match up with Coach Izzo's performance, or are you working with a number of Oliver Purnells?

....and good luck filling out your brackets.

Welcome to 2010 at True Faith HR. Like Obama, I am looking forward, not backward. Looking at my planner, it looks like I will be accumulating more frequent flier miles than Clooney in "Up in the Air." The only concern is being treated like Derek Smalls by TSA agents:



What does 2010 have in store for travel?

February 19-21 - Las Vegas: I will be presenting a paper with colleagues at the American Society of Business and Behavioral Sciences Conference.

March 5-6 - Oshkosh: It is time for the 2010 WI SHRM Student Conference and HR Games. I didn't say it would all be exciting travel, but watching HR student compete on their knowledge of HR using a Jeopardy-style format is always fun

March 12-16 - Phoenix: It will be spring break at my school and this year I will be taking a trip with some WI SHRM colleagues to see a couple of Milwaukee Brewers spring training games. I've never been to Phoenix, so if anyone has good dining suggestions, let me know.

March 19-21 - Milwaukee: Opening round of the NCAA Tournament at the Bradley Center with friends and colleagues. Last year, we were able to take in the opening round in Minneapolis and see my beloved Michigan State Spartans. Hopefully, MSU will be assigned to MKE this year.

April 2-6 - Indianapolis: Men's NCAA Basketball Final Four. Enough said.

April 23-25 - West Lafayette: The SHRM North Central Region Student HR Conference and HR Games. Take March 5-6 and increase it tenfold as teams from the region compete for the right to a trip to San Diego for the 2010 SHRM Annual Conference. The winning team of 3 undergraduates get free registration along with airfare, hotel, meals, and a scholarship.

May 17-31 - Prague/Xanten/Den Bosch/Amsterdam: Each spring, our school offers to faculty and staff an opportunity to travel to Europe to look at the heritage of our school. So, I decided to take advantage of this opportunity.

June 25-30 - San Diego : 2010 SHRM Annual Conference. Hate the high cost of hotels, but I will likely attend.

October 6-8 - Appleton: 2010 Wisconsin SHRM State Conference.

November 18-21 - Arlington, VA: 2010 SHRM National Leadership Conference.

After this it gets a little more hazy....thrown in the mix:
February 5-8 - Miami - could I find my way to Florida if the Packers make it?
Spring - HREvolution 2: Judgment Day - can I fit it into my packed spring schedule?
Summer - Home to Michigan to visit family?
Fall - "W" Weekend 10 - the 10th anniversary of friends from California, New York, etc., get together for a weekend where there is a Badgers home game on Saturday, and Packers home game on Sunday. Last year, we had special guest Phil Keoghan of "The Amazing Race" as part of the festivities....will he be up for the hijinks again this year?

What travel plans do you have for 2010?

P.S. Don't rob my house when I am gone...ha.