USC Coach Mick Haley jokes: It's time to "Occupy NCAA"

USC's Mick Haley, coach of the team ranked #1 by both coaches and media, joked that "occupy NCAA may be the way to go."

Haley spoke by phone to ESPNU, moments after learning that the Trojans--champions of the powerful Pac-12 Conference--were seeded just seventh in the 2011 NCAA D1 Volleyball Tournament. Haley's team was put into the Hawaii bracket with Big Ten champion Nebraska, plus fellow Pac-12 teams California and Oregon.

In the latest AVCA coaches' poll, USC is #1, Nebraska is #2, Hawaii is #3, California is #10 and Oregon is #13. The 16-team Hawaii bracket also includes #18 Pepperdine, plus two teams that appeared in previous polls, Colorado State and Oklahoma. (Tomorrow's AVCA poll will likely change, given that Nebraska lost last night to unranked Northwestern, and Oregon split two matches this week with unranked Oregon State.)

"I filled out my weekly coaches' poll," Haley told ESPNU, "and three of the top four teams on my ballot are in our same bracket. I've been doing this for 40 years, and I don't miss very often."

Haley said the most difficult thing about having so many highly-regarded teams in the same bracket is having little time to prepare for what should be tough matches.

Reacting, perhaps, to statements earlier this week by Washington coach Jim McLaughlin, who called the NCAA Selection Committee's use of RPI ratings "hocus pocus" and "a joke," Haley said:

It seems to me, over the past three years, the body of work of this (selection) committee has been questioned by top coaches.

USC head coach Mick Haley
[Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann]

Haley clearly sent a signal that he wants to be counted among those questioning coaches.