By Mike Wise
Monday, March 17, 2008
Three weeks from now in San Antonio, in a cavernous, 65,000-seat dome, the Final Four will be played amid corporate dollars, transparent NBA auditions and people who can afford to consume the most gluttonous weekend of college basketball.
Today is not about that; today is about inclusion.
It is about bleachers in small, on-campus arenas, which house teams such as the one hard off Massachusetts Avenue in Spring Valley.
It is about kids and coaches at places such as American University -- seeded 15th in its first-ever NCAA tournament -- who sincerely believe they can knock off a Southeastern Conference power such as Tennessee on Friday in Birmingham, Ala.
For the next five days, the Eagles have the same status as top seeds North Carolina, Kansas, UCLA and Memphis. Like the game's elite, they technically are one of 65 teams with a chance. It doesn't matter that their run likely will end in spectacular fashion before the weekend, for today AU is in.
Today, the University of Maryland-Baltimore County is eligible to compete for the national title; the University of Maryland-College Park is not.
Today is about George Mason, which spun Fairfax and much of the country on its fingertips in 2006, arriving at the Final Four in Indianapolis like Gene Hackman and the hayseeds from Hickory arrived there in the 1950s.
If "Hoosiers" went the reality route, it could not have done better than Jim Larranaga's believers two years ago. While becoming an instant staple on Selection Sunday -- "Who's this year's George Mason?" -- they dismissed the long-held belief that none of the small-school teams genuinely had a chance.
Today is about the 12th-seeded Patriots, who play No. 5 Notre Dame in the first round on Thursday. Only until then do they get to be Rudy.
Today is about the Patriot League, whose champion waited 41 years after it became a Division I program to earn its first tournament bid.
"I had practically given up hope that AU would ever make it," said Josh Rosenfeld, who as AU's team manager in the early 1970s used to shag rebounds for Wilbur Thomas and Kermit Washington.
Rosenfeld worked as the school's sports information director during Gary Williams's first two years as coach. He went on to become the director of public relations for the Lakers during Magic Johnson's championship years and the Knicks during the Patrick Ewing era.
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.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.