When the regular season ended a little more than 10 days ago, nobody expected American to be where it is now — including its own coach.
“To be honest,” Mike Brennan said, “I didn’t think we’d be able to do this.”
The Eagles lost five of their last seven regular-season games, finishing 8-10 in the Patriot League and 15-15 overall. They entered the conference tournament as an afterthought, a No. 6 seed needing to win three road games in seven days to return to the NCAA tournament.
Now, they’re one win away. Wednesday night’s game at No. 4 seed Lafayette is all that stands between the Eagles and their fourth NCAA tournament berth in eight seasons.
“We knew that coming up in the tournament, anything can happen, and if we go out there and play the way we need to play that we can pull together some wins,” junior Jesse Reed said Tuesday. “We have confidence in our guys that we can hang with anybody in the league and we can beat anybody in the league.”
Reed is a key cog in the most remarkable aspect of American’s remarkable run: An unusually small rotation, both in size and numbers.
In recent weeks, Brennan has typically used only six players per game, none of them taller than 6-foot-5. Marko Vasic, a junior who was recruited as a wing player, takes the opening tip and plays center. Charlie Jones, a 6-foot-4 walk-on, is usually the power forward.
The unorthodox lineup is more by necessity than design, Brennan said. Centers Kevin Panzer and Zach Elcano have each dealt with various injuries this season. Freshman Gabe Brown is the only other healthy big man on the roster.
“Normally you have other guys that you want to play, more bodies,” Brennan said.
As a result, American’s starters play more minutes than just about anyone in the country. Senior point guard Pee Wee Gardner, classmate John Schoof and Reed each average more than 37 minutes per game and played the entirety of the team’s 73-62 win over Colgate in the semifinals. Gardner, Reed and Schoof rank fifth, sixth and 12th in the country in minutes per game.
“It’s just how we are. Who we are,” Gardner said. “If we play 50 minutes, you’ve just got to do it. … We’re going to play the same way. We can’t dictate who coach puts out there, but whoever he does put out there, they’re going to have the same aggression, the same understanding of what we’ve got to do.”
Brennan knows it’s an unusual arrangement, but he also understands the challenges of a six-man rotation better than most. In his senior year at Princeton, he started all 26 games and averaged 37 minutes. His coach at the time, Pete Carril, only used six or seven players regularly.
Brennan recently talked to Carril about utilizing a small rotation. “Well,” Carril responded, “did you get tired?”
“So you look back on that and you’re like, OK,” Brennan said with a smile. “I think it’s helped them. They know that they can play a full game, battle and still be ready to give their best in a possession at the end of the game, offensively and defensively. So, I think that experience has helped.”
With that said, small ball does present its own challenges. Against Lafayette, American will have to figure out how to stop unanimous all-conference selection Dan Trist, who is four inches taller and 30 pounds heavier than anyone who will be defending him. The Eagles will also have to deal with Seth Hinrichs, a 6-foot-8 senior who is capable of knocking down the occasional three.
But regardless of matchups, the Eagles are confident. Given what they’ve accomplished over the past week, why wouldn’t they be?
“You can see the difference,” Gardner said. “We’re just playing at our peak right now.”
• Tom Schad can be reached at tschad@washingtontimes.com.
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