A glance up at the clock showed all twos, but it was No. 3 who took over.
A little over a week ago in the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament Championship, the top-seeded Virginia Commonwealth Rams trailed the sixth-seeded George Mason Patriots by five. With 2:22 remaining, it looked as though the Patriots would be on their way to another improbable Cinderella run.
Like many fans of tournament shake-ups, I jumped on the GMU bandwagon last season. Along their magical journey the Pats overcame a 16-2 deficit to defeat then-former defending national champ North Carolina and completed an overtime two-point win over Connecticut. Hence, my interest in the game lied solely in seeing the affable Jim Larranaga return his team to the dance.
That changed in a matter of minutes when a sophomore guard from Fayetville, NC, took over with VCU trailing 57-52. Eric Maynor stole the ball in the backcourt from George Mason and converted on a layup while getting fouled by the Patriots' Gabe Norwood. After making the free-throw, Maynor stole the ball again as Norwood passed the halfcourt line and raced the other way for another layup. Game tied at 57.
GMU's Falarin Campbell's missed a 3-pointer as the shot-clock expired, and guess who pulled down the board? Maynor then drove down the court and knocked down an awkward jumper to give the Rams the lead. After Campbell missed a layup, Maynor hauled in another rebound, was fouled and drained both free throws, completing his own 9-0 run to give the Rams a healthy lead and an eventual NCAA Tourney birth.
Now, I'm not going to wave my magic highlighter like Digger Phelps and I'm not going to try to predict the future like Joe Lunardi. Instead, I'll simply tell you that the lowest seed from the state of Virginia might just be my favorite team in the bracket (other than the 2 seeded Cardinal and White of course).
Every great Cinderella story has that special player that can take over when it counts. Whether it's Szczerbiak living in Wally's World in 1999, Gonzaga's Dan Dickau hitting a buzzer beater against Virginia in 2001, The Flash leading Conference USA Champ Marquette to a Final Four in 2003 or Taylor Coppenrath leading Vermont over Syracuse in 2005, the tourney is a birthing-place for new heroes.
And even though it was not the same GMU team from last season, what Maynor was able to do to the Patriots was reminiscent of those aforementioned tourney legends. He was like Jack Bauer after former President Logan couldn't squeeze the location of the nukes out of the Russian Consulate. He looked at the score, realized none of his teammates were going to do anything about it, and barricaded himself in the consulate's office and started clipping off fingers with a cigar cutter.
For the Rams, who better to inherit as a first round match up then a premiere program which has been struggling especially in defending tough back courts, in Duke. Maynor, as well as B.A. Walker and Jesse Pellot-Rosa should provide plenty of problems for Greg Paulus and company. The main test for VCU will be inside against Josh McRoberts. And if they can find their way out of that 11/6 game, Aaron Gray will certainly pose similar difficulties if Pitt can get by Wright State. But as Wisconsin fans know well, Pitt is certainly beatable.
VCU might have an inside advantage in their game with Duke to boot. The Rams' head coach the four seasons prior to this one was Jeff Capel, a former four-year starter in Duke's backcourt. Though he was known most for his 1995 half court heave to send a game against heated rival UNC into double-overtime, he certainly took a lot from Coach K in his storied Blue Devil career. In fact he has considered Mike Krzyzewski to be his coaching mentor. And while Anthony Grant is the head coach this year, you have to think some of Capel's Dukie knowledge lingers.
So go ahead and pick your Cinderella. At this point Winthrop seems like a bandwagon choice and if you choose Texas A&M Corpus Christi hide your face at State Street Brats. Creighton, Holy Cross and George Washington are all good calls too.
But sometimes you just see that magic player and you just have to pencil his team in. Maynor is that type of player and VCU is that type of team.
Let the Madness begin.
Sam can be reached at sepepper@wisc.edu.
