If you stacked up the area’s college basketball teams and picked the ones most likely to make the NCAA Tournament this year, surely you’d start off with Georgetown. They may have slipped lately, but they still look the class of the Big East and are probably a good bet for a top-3 seeding. After that, where would you look next? GW’s having a downer of a year, Mason has played well at home but struggled on the road, Maryland’s once sunny March forecast has turned gloomy. You might forget to notice that up in Tenleytown, Jeff Jones’s American University squad is one win away from a Patriot League regular season title — and with it, home court advantage throughout the league tournament.
It finally looks like the uneven team that upset Maryland but lost to Brown, Morgan State, and Fairfield has finally developed some consistency. It’s been anything but easy, though. They won a knock-down, drag-out plod-fest with Army last Wednesday, 49-40, during which they shot 28% percent from the field but got to the free throw line 31 times. Garrison Carr continues to lead the Eagles, getting 16 points against Army to follow up a six 3-pointer, 24 point performance in the 68-60 road win at Colgate the week before. All this in the week after he set an all-time Patriot League record for most three-point field goals in a season. Carr’s dominant season has been aided by fellow sub-6-foot guard Derrick Mercer, who is 12th in the conference in points and 4th in assists.
AU took the past weekend off and will no doubt be gearing up for their matchup in Annapolis tomorrow night. The Midshipmen sit just a game back in second place with a 77-66 win at American already under the belt. To get the win, AU will have to find a way both to shut down Greg Sprink, who went off for 36 points last time around, and get Carr and Mercer involved. In the teams’ last meeting, the two combined for a meager 19 points. With a third Patriot League title and home-court advantage on the line, can Jones find a way to get his key players involved? Better yet, can the Tenleytowners make a run for another NCAA bid for the D.C. area?
