The Road to the National Championships BEGINS TONIGHT

Good morning and welcome to March Madness, AUHoops fans! Today is the big day. Today, our American University Eagles begin the long march (pun intended) toward our first NCAA National Championship! Some may think that such a championship is a foregone conclusion. That our postseason success will be a walk through the arboretum as refreshing and carefree as Sherman's March to the Sea. I say to those, though, "Nay, nay indeed!" Our path to the National Championship will be wrought with perilous dangers, treacherous opponents, and ugly enemy mascots. But I say to you my comrades-in-hoops, take heart! For in a mere matter of weeks our very own Jeff Jones will be wearing a cut-down basketball net as a necklace, and our legacy as the greatest Patriot League team shall be cemented for time without end.

Our first battle in this long postseason war takes place tonight in Bender Arena against the Navy Midshipmen. As you may recall, we pulled out a cardiac win against them two weeks ago today in double overtime on their home court. Prior to that, we got Chris Harris and his ragtag band of showtune-singing sailors caught in the rigging at Bender. The Sailors are coming off of a pusillanimous showing against the Oakland Colgate Raiders. Their epic choke artistry, along with our thrashing of the Laughayette Lolcats is what gives us the home court advantage tonight.

This will be, as the portly but ever-articulate Chris Berman might say, a slobberknocker tonight. The Eagles will look to continue their winning streak while the Davy Jones Acolytes will seek to end their ignomonious losing ways.

Frontcourt offense and backcourt defense tonight will be key. If Lumpkins can continue his dominant ways in the post, Navy will be powerless to stop him. With only one forward remotely capable of impeding our frontcourt's offensive marauding, Lumpkins, Grafft, and Vlad will need to take care of the ball and finish in the paint. While some combination of those three take care of the boards and the dunking, Hendra and McCormack will need to move along the baseline and be open for the put-back or the dish.

Backcourt defense will also be key. Danny Munoz did a sublime job against the Boatmen's OJ Ovwrorofoxdooaoro at our last meeting, and Navy's floor general fouled out because of it. A similar job will need to be done tonight. Hendra and McCormack will have to do their best against the potent duo of Sugars and Harris. These two went for 55 in our last meeting, but they had to work for every single bucket. Navy does a wonderful job of setting up for Harris off of screens and rolls into the key, and we'll need to be aware of that. Give up 40+ points again to Sugars and Harris, fine, but keep the rest of the team under 20.

Tonight's x-factor may be Romeo "My Parents Named Me After the Movie Romeo Must Die" Garcia. Romeo went colder than ice (someday he'll pay the price, says Foreigner) against us in our last meeting, but he has the potential to go off for a big game. We will not be able to handle three hot guards at once, so it will take a ridiculous effort for us to pull this out if their four guards all show up tonight.

We really just need to dictate a pace tonight fits our game. We cannot run and gun with Navy (or anyone really). Navy is a phenomenal three-point shooting team in transition and when they're running their actually more likely to square up and shoot the long ball than to take it to the hoop, Harris especially.

We have to take advantage of home court tonight. The Blue Crew needs to be a deafening sixth man to rry to knock Navy off their game. BE THERE. BE LOUD. BE BLUE. BE AU.

If we win this we are nine games away from our first National Championship.

Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!