By Jim Rueda
Free Press Sports Editor
MANKATO — In many ways, hosting the NCAA D-II Central Regional men’s basketball tournament is second nature to Minnesota State athletic director Kevin Buisman.
He’s organized large-scale, high-profile tournaments a number of times before and this weekend’s affair is not much different. But while Buisman has the experience, a lot of details need to be taken care of before opening tipoff Saturday afternoon. It takes a number of qualified individuals to handle those details.
“This is not a one-person undertaking,” Buisman said this week. “It requires a lot of dedicated people to pull something like this off.
“We want the visiting teams and fans to leave town saying: ‘Hey, this was a well-run tournament. We had a real nice time in Mankato.’ If they’re not saying that, we haven’t done our jobs as well as we should have.”
Buisman has been the athletic director at MSU since 2002. Prior to that he was the associate athletic director at Division I Northern Iowa for 13 years.
At UNI, he helped organize numerous conference, regional and national tournaments — including the NCAA Division I National Wrestling Championships. He’s done the same at MSU, orchestrating a D-II national wrestling tournament in 2004 and the central regional women’s basketball tournament last winter.
“Having gone through all this last year with the women’s team is a big plus for us,” Buisman said. “A lot of things are still fresh in our memories.”
Buisman says the NCAA is very good about sending host schools information on many of the details that need to be addressed. He also has a lot of pamphlets, lists and handbooks that he’s acquired over the years, to which he often refers at tournament time.
A lot of the ground work for hosting tournaments is done way ahead of time. The process usually begins when a school such as MSU puts together a bid to pitch to the NCAA to let that umbrella organization know MSU not only wants to host the tournament, but is capable of doing so.
Among the big details that need to be taken care of finding hotel rooms for all the visitors. Buisman says he’s in constant contact with the Greater Mankato Convention and Visitors Bureau whenever he needs to line up lodging.
“We have a pretty good relationship with (Tournament Sales Director) Larissa Mrozek of the convention center,” Buisman said. “She’s worked with us in the past and she knows our needs.
“We’re fortunate that this weekend there aren’t a lot of youth tournaments or other events in town that could make hotel rooms scarce. We had to deal with the concert at the civic center in town (Thursday night) but, otherwise, it’s pretty wide open.”
Among the other, smaller details, are lining up tournament hosts for each team, making sure ushers are available, hiring referees, putting together a tournament program, and much more. Numerous meetings take place to make sure the specifics are being handled.
“I rely a lot on people on like (assistant athletic director for fiscal affairs) Tim Marshall and (assistant athletic director of communications) Paul Allan for these types of events,” Buisman said. “They’re qualified people who know what needs to be done; I try not to micro-manage.
“If there are questions that need to be asked, they ask them.”
