| Page 2 of 2 < |
Despite Its Low Seed, AU Is Flying High
Buy Photo
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
"Bruce Pearl, their coach, is a disciple of [former AU coach] Tom Davis," Jones said. Davis "played a very, very up-tempo style, and that's what Bruce Pearl does. A lot of pressure, they really, really push the basketball. They don't hesitate to shoot the three. . . . We're excited. We know we've got a big, big challenge in front of us. That's what makes it fun."
Ever since American received the automatic bid, the coaching staff has been taping games of teams the Eagles might play. But because Tennessee lost early in the Southeastern Conference tournament, they were only able to make two tapes of the Volunteers.
"When everybody was jumping around, I was trying to peer around" to see when American played, Jones said. "I knew it was Tennessee. I knew it was Birmingham. I just wanted to see what day it was. That's a good thing. It will give us a little bit more time to worry and get nervous, but that extra day of preparation from a coach's perspective is definitely good."
Jones went to 13 NCAA tournaments in 19 years as a player, assistant coach and coach at Virginia, which means this is nothing new to him. But this is the first time for his players. He was asked what he hopes his players will get out of the experience.
"A lot of fun and five or six wins," he joked. "We won't worry so much about what the result is going to be, but we will address our attitude going in. While I want it to be fun, that doesn't mean that we're not going to be serious about it. . . . We've got to come out and we've got to really, really work our tails off."
There was a bigger crowd at the student center for the selection show than there were at many of American's home games earlier this season. The players, however, don't seem to mind having so many people jumping on their bandwagon this late in the season.
"It's great for us," Gilmore said. "The past couple weeks have been amazing, especially today. To see this many fans and this many supporters locally just come to see where we're going to be seeded, it means a lot to us to know how many people we have supporting us and pushing for us to do our best."
