ESPN’s Pat Forde went through every team in the tournament and predicted their best and worst case scenarios going into the tourney. For AU, Forde wrote the following,
“Best Case: Coach Jeff Jones reaches back for some 1995 magic dust, when he coached Virginia to an upset of No. 1 seed Kansas, and sprinkles it on Tennessee in the first round. Eagles slow the pace, frustrate the Vols & and lose in overtime. They join Holy Cross on the list of Patriot League near-shockers in the first round.”
While Forde was wrong on the timing, AU did play the game of its life, keeping pace with the former national top ranked team. The game was a thrill to watch and every time the cameras cut to the AU fan section, the nation got to see a side of our school that may have never been seen by anyone previously. This game brought our school together in a way that only sports can. While the Ladner issues a few years ago brought the students together in anger. This game and showing of athletic talent brought everyone together in joy. We did lose, it is true, but the positives that came out of this game even being played drown out the pain of the loss. Congrats and thank you to the AU Men’s Basketball team for bringing all of us together and for a phenomenal season of basketball.
For those who cannot get past the loss, consider what Forde predicted as our worst case scenario. “Worst Case: Eagles team that lost to Brown and Loyola (Md.) wonders what it’s gotten itself into against super-athletic Tennessee. Down 14-2 at first television timeout, it never gets any better. Fortunately for AU, nobody in D.C. notices.”
We did not fall under the pressure and D.C. noticed. Victory is still ours.
***UPDATE***
Payscale.com has a bracket that may make all us AU kids feel a little better about our school spirit. Check it out here.
It was AWESOME to proudly wear my American University shirts around these past two weeks and have people recognize the name. While I suppose a bit unfortunate that it takes an exciting basketball game to get our name on the map (and not all the other impressive things we’ve been doing on campus for a quite a while now), none the less it certainly is nice to be noticed!