Basically: A junior dominated team, boosted by four key JUCO transfers, American needed a little while to jell. After a loss to Navy put the Eagles at a rocky 11-10 in late January, suddenly everything turned around and everything came together as they reeled of ten wins in the final 11 games highlighted by the Patriot championship victor over Colgate to go to the tournament for the first time ever. With eight juniors and two seniors, this is a team full of veterans who can bomb away and be just scary enough to make the first round game close if everything breaks right. There are some good wins on the résumé beating Maryland and Mount Saint Mary's, and outside of the problems late in the year against Navy (losing twice), everything's been going right.

Strengths: The three. The Eagles don't just bomb away, averaging eight three-point attempts per game, they make them hitting a ridiculous 41% of them. Automatic on the line, they nail 75% of their attempts. The nation's fourth best three-point shooting team doesn't have a high-powered attack; on the contrary, it keeps the scores low. There just aren't many misses.

Weaknesses: Forcing mistakes. The defense is tough on the inside and the scores are kept low by keeping the running and gunning to a minimum, but there aren't many blocked shots and there are no steals whatsoever.

Players you should care about: While everyone shoots the ball well and there are several three-point options, junior guard Garrison Carr is the main man. Only 5-11 and a wispy 165 pounds, he's still tough at fighting through defenders to get open, and when he's on, American is tough to deal with. Not shy at taking the three, he's been more aggressive this year at taking the shots that are there with 284 attempts and making a whopping 45% of them.

Best wins: at Maryland 67-59; Colgate (Patriot Championship 52-46).

Worst losses: Fairfield 60-52; at Bucknell 66-62.