Dan Gavitt to Receive 2019 MBWA Distinguished Service Award

4/17/2019 9:00:00 AM

NCAA VP to be honored at 86th Annual Haggerty Awards on April 30

FFI: Chuck Stogel, MBWA - 914-428-6111, chstogel@aol.com

 
NEW YORK (April 17, 2019) –- Dan Gavitt, senior vice president of basketball at the NCAA, will be presented with the Met Basketball Writers Association’s Distinguished Service Award at the 86th NIT/MBWA All-Met Haggerty Awards Dinner on Tuesday, April 30, at the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown, NY.
 
The Haggerty Dinner is the longest running media-managed college basketball awards program in the United States. The event honors All-Met men’s and women’s players and coaches in Divisions I, II and III, along with presenting several special awards. Additionally, this year the MBWA will present the inaugural Jim O’Connell Sports Journalism Scholarship award to a student from one of 73 Met area colleges and universities.
 
As the NCAA’s senior vp of basketball since December 2016, Gavitt manages all basketball issues and oversees planning for both men’s and women’s basketball in all three divisions. He serves as a lead contact to the Division I men’s basketball oversight committee and men’s basketball championship committee, as well as supervises men’s basketball rules, officiating and other basketball-related matters.
 
Gavitt manages the day-to-day operations of the NCAA Division I men’s basketball championship as well as the NCAA’s contracts with broadcast partners CBS and Turner Broadcasting. He also supervises the relationship with ESPN, the broadcast partner for the Division I women’s basketball championship, NIT and other NCAA championships, as well as the international broadcast of the Division I men’s basketball championship. Gavitt also oversees the NCAA corporate champion and partner program.
 
He joined the NCAA staff as vice president of men’s basketball in August 2012 after spending the previous seven years as the associate commissioner for men’s basketball at the Big East Conference. Prior to the Big East, Gavitt was director of athletics and recreation at Bryant University, which was then one of the largest Division II athletics departments in the country and has since joined Division I. Earlier in his career, Gavitt served as an assistant basketball coach at Providence College.
 
Gavitt is the son of the late Dave Gavitt, the legendary founder of the Big East Conference and basketball coach at both Providence and Dartmouth colleges. Dan Gavitt holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Dartmouth and an MBA from Providence. He is a board member of USA Basketball, the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
 
For a list of the MBWA’s previous DSA honorees: www.metbasketballwriters.org/sports/2014/1/24/GEN_0124145812.aspx?.