As of Today, Everyone Has a 1-in-65 Chance

Yet he and other long-suffering alums -- such as David Aldridge, the TNT NBA reporter and former Post writer -- pranced around Bender Arena and pumped their fists as if they never had been to a major sporting event before.

The next four days, the Eagles don't have to hear about some obscure basketball school's distinguished alums. They can trot out Willard Scott; director Barry Levinson; novelist Ann Beattie; Frank Herzog, the former Redskins announcer; and, of course, Goldie Hawn, who somehow managed to amount to something despite dropping out in 1964.

Today is about Wil Jones, Boo Bowers, Mark Nickens, Frank Ross, Brad Greenberg (now the men's coach at Radford) and every good and great American player who dreamed of playing in the NCAA tournament.

It's not just about the coaches who cut their teeth at AU, got close to the tournament or merely tried to make it better -- Williams, Tom Young, Tom Davis, Jim Lynam, Ed Tapscott, Chris Knoche -- it's about the second-chance coach who finally got them there.

Jeff Jones had been fired from Virginia in 1998, leaving his alma mater amid professional and personal grief. Two years later, American gave him the opportunity to turn around his career that many other schools would not.

"Maybe redemption, but American gave me a chance," Jones said, moments after his team's victory over Colgate on Friday had produced a screaming mob in the middle of the floor.

"I valued it then and I value it now," he added. "Hopefully, to be a part of this team that's going to the NCAA tournament for the first time at American, maybe that's a little bit of a payback to the university for allowing me an opportunity to be a head coach again."

Bender Arena seats less than 3,500, meaning nearly 20 facilities with its capacity could fit in the Alamodome.

AU. UMBC. Coppin State. Texas-Arlington. Mount St. Mary's. Their combined home crowds could barely make a dent in that South Texas monstrosity.

Like the bracket today and the lead-up to the tournament these next few days, it makes room for all of them.