INDIANAPOLIS — The National Invitation Tournament named the following individuals as the newest members of its eight-person committee: New Orleans vice president for athletics and recreation Tim Duncan, former basketball coach and Temple athletics administrator Fran Dunphy, and former basketball coach Bob Williams, who spent 19 of his 29 years as head coach at UC Santa Barbara.
Duncan has been the director of athletics at New Orleans since 2019 and was promoted to vice president of athletics and recreation in 2020. Before moving to New Orleans, Duncan spent a year as the deputy athletics director for external affairs at Northeastern. During his career, Duncan has worked in the athletics departments at Clayton State, Paine, UNC Wilmington and his alma mater, Memphis. A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Duncan was a four-year member of the Tigers’ basketball program, making it to the Midwest Regional final of the 1992 Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. Memphis also appeared in the NCAA tournament in 1989 and made NIT appearances in 1990 and 1991.
During his 30 years as a head coach at Pennsylvania and Temple, Dunphy had a 580-325 record and is the winningest coach in Philadelphia Big 5 history. During his 17 years at Penn, Dunphy led his teams to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship nine times and eight tournament appearances in 13 seasons at Temple. Dunphy also guided his Temple team to the NIT twice, reaching the semifinals in 2015. Dunphy has been inducted into both the Big 5 Hall of Fame and the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame. Dunphy served as acting director of athletics at Temple from July 1, 2020 until October of 2021.
Williams spent 19 seasons as head coach at UC Santa Barbara where he led the Gauchos to their first Big West Men’s Basketball Tournament title in 2002. While at UCSB, Williams led his teams to the NCAA tournament three times and to the NIT twice. Before joining the Gauchos staff, Williams spent eight years at UC Davis where his team won the 1998 Division II national championship and was named the NABC Division II Coach of the Year. Williams began his head coaching career with two seasons at Division III Menlo.
Beginning in 2015-16, NIT Committee members were appointed to serve a maximum four-year term, and the committee features a mix of current athletic administrators who are actively working at NCAA institutions or conferences, former collegiate head men’s basketball coaches and former athletics administrators. The committee is responsible for the selection, seeding and bracketing of the 32-team postseason championship.
Dunphy, Williams and Duncan join the NIT Committee that will be chaired by former Charlotte director of athletics Judy Rose. Also returning to the committee are North Texas director of athletics Wren Baker, former Virginia director of athletics Craig Littlepage, West Coast Conference commissioner Gloria Nevarez, and former men’s basketball coach Oliver Purnell who was head coach at five schools and guided teams to six NCAA tournaments and the NIT eight times.
The 2022 NIT will be the 83rd for the nation’s oldest postseason tournament, which began in 1938. The semifinals and championship will return to New York City and Madison Square Garden. The semifinals will be played Tuesday, March 29 with the championship game scheduled for Thursday, March 31.
Selections for the 2022 NIT will be announced Sunday, March 13 with first-round games scheduled March 15-16, second-round games scheduled for March 17-21 and quarterfinal games slated for March 22-23.
