An American Cinderalla Story? It Could Happen
March 14, 2009 by Kevin Hunter
Filed under Basketball
While all of us were watching our big tournament games from the big BCS conferences yesterday, another team that many, if not all of us outside of the Patriot League have never hear of, will be dancing with the big boys next week.
American University (if that’s not a great, typical for a school that plays in the Patriot League, I don’t know what is), advanced to the Big Dance yesterday by defeating Holy Cross 73-57.
The Eagles (another great, typical name) have won 13 straight and 20 of the last 22. They finished the regular season 24-7 and 13-1 in the conference play. The Eagles didn’t really have any quality wins, but did have some quality losses against the likes of Oklahoma, Georgetown and Maryland.
The Eagles are in the tournament for the second straight season and are led by senior guard Garrison Carr, whoi is averaging 17.8 points a game. American was a 15 seed last year and lost to Tennessee in the first round. This year expect much of the same when the brackets are announced on Sunday.
So why am I spending my Saturday morning talking this Washington D.C school with an enrollment of just under 10,000?
Well, why not?!
One of the great things about the NCAA basketball tournament, is that every year we see schools that most of us have never heard of get in an play with the big boys for a day or two. And who knows? Someone has to wear the glass slipper for a couple of games, and who says it can’t be American?
