Greg Johnson of The NCAA News staff was among media members who participated in the 2008 mock selections for the Division I Men's Basketball Championship February 7.

During the 14 hours the process took to complete, one prevailing thought resonated in my mind: Get it right.

As NCAA Senior Vice President Greg Shaheen put it before our group of 19 began the exercise, the event should be called the mock selection and seeding and bracketing of the tournament.

During all three phases, the anxiety of making a mistake that could cost a team a spot in the field or its rightful seed, or sending a team unfairly to a disadvantageous site kept me fully engaged. There is no way to simulate the pressure Division I Men's Basketball Committee members must feel when they are deciding which 34 at-large teams should be added to the field. But this mock event gives some semblance of what it must be like.

It's important to remember that you are trying to identify the 34 best teams, and not who you think is the most deserving or any other adjective you can think of. It sounds like a simple premise, but with 10 committee members, there will be differences of opinion.

In my session, the group was composed primarily of electronic media members. The format was that two media members represented one committee member, though yours truly had to go solo because of a cancelation.

One of the most interesting exchanges during the session came after all of the at-large teams were selected. Someone took issue with Florida being included in the field. After four votes – there was a lot of debate – it was decided that the Gators should go back into a pool with California, Massachusetts, Mississippi State and St. Joseph's.

California made it into the field, and St. Joseph's finished second in the voting, which means that if Mississippi won the simulated Southeastern Conference tournament, the Hawks would be the final team into the field. Unfortunately for them, Mississippi lost to Florida, and the Gators earned the SEC's automatic qualifier into the tournament.

Another interesting discussion concerned Davidson. For our purposes, the Wildcats were upset in the Southern Conference tournament, meaning the only way they could play in the NCAA tournament was by being an at-large pick.

Davidson played three of the top five seeds (Duke, North Carolina and UCLA) in our tournament field. They lost all three but played them close. Our mock committee was impressed by the ambitious schedule, but most felt the rest of the Davidson  resume wasn't strong enough to warrant an at-large selection. I was in the minority on this vote, though. In my opinion, Davidson is the type of team that could pull one of the upsets that define the madness of March.  

But most of the committee didn't share that belief. You respect everyone's opinion and move on.

The mock selection also goes a long way in proving that “conspiracy theories” about matchups in the tournament have no basis. The committee just doesn't have time to manipulate opponents.

For example, our tournament field has fifth-seeded Kansas State playing former coach Bob Huggins and his new team 12^th-seeded West Virginia in a first-round game in Denver.

When such match-ups have occurred in the past, some of the same reporters on the mock committee might not have believed it was by accident – until now.

Our bracket also included a potential Midwest Regional final of top-seed Kansas facing former coach Roy Williams and his North Carolina Tar Heels in Detroit. Because of the policies and procedures the committee is bound to follow, there were no ulterior motives.

Division I Men's Basketball Chair Tom O'Connor stayed throughout the entire process, offering insights and advice to our novice group. O'Connor, the athletics director at George Mason, told us about the range of emotions he and his fellow committee members go through.

They know their selections will be scrutinized, but when the process is complete, there is an incredible adrenaline rush from completing the job, he said, and a brief moment of anxiety about whether the committee got everything right.

The same thing occurred with us. When we finished around midnight, I scanned our work with the thought of making sure we got it right.