Gavitt and Holzman preview March Madness, return of fans in full force

For the first time in three years, the Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Championships are scheduled to have fans back at full capacity at venues across the country. NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt and Vice President of Women's Basketball Lynn Holzman know the anticipation for a "normal" March Madness is palpable. 

"To have fans back for March Madness in full capacity will be really exciting for the players and coaches. I'm most excited for them," Gavitt said. "We're excited to be able to bring the tournaments back to all of the local sites who have hosted the tournaments for so long and embrace March Madness so well. It's going to be great."

"Between men's and women's basketball and our two championships, we'll be at 35 different sites this year. The excitement is definitely evident. I think everyone is feeling it," Holzman said.

With Selection Sunday fast approaching, Gavitt and Holzman joined correspondent Andy Katz on the NCAA Social Series to preview March Madness and discuss the hurdles member schools and conferences navigated to get to this point. When the COVID-19 omicron variant surged earlier this season, both leaders leaned on the advice of campus medical experts.

"Well, there certainly was a degree of optimism, partly because of the great counsel and ongoing advice that we were getting from medical professionals and the COVID-19 Medical Advisory Group," Holzman said. "(There was also a desire) to present these two great championships to the student-athletes, fans and coaches. With every week that passed, with the counsel of medical experts and others, it continued to increase."

Though conditions with the pandemic continue to improve across the country, both men's and women's basketball teams will stay flexible to accommodate changes if needed. Some sites have vaccination requirements or mask mandates, while others do not. Fans attending need to be prepared to follow local rules. 

"We've seen changes to protocols just within the past couple of weeks," Gavitt said. "It's really incumbent upon fans to be checking in advance of attending, even weekend to weekend and round to round, as things may change. But it's quite possible things will continue to improve during the tournament."

With the tournaments about to begin, both leaders expect an exciting and memorable March with a high level of competition on the court.

"The Women's Basketball Committee recently completed its third Top 16 reveal. I can attest to the fact the committee's conversations reflect the quality of play and highly competitive nature of our programs," Holzman said.

"Student-athletes played most or all of last season with either no fans or very limited fans," Gavitt said. "To have (a full) environment back that elevates play just by human nature has been incredible this year."

Watch the conversation on YouTube or listen on NCAA Podcasts (Apple, SoundCloud, Spotify).

The next Social Series streams at 3 p.m. Wednesday with Nina King, Duke vice president and director of athletics and chair of the Division I Women's Basketball Committee, and Cori Close, UCLA head coach and president of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, discussing the many changes and enhancements for the Division I Women's Basketball Championship.