Maryland fans will likely have at least one other team to root for during the NCAA Tournament beginning next week after American University, led by former Maryland star Duane Simpkins, punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament.
American secured the Patriot League championship for the first time since 2014 after taking down Navy, 74-52, on Wednesday night in Simpkins’ second season as head coach. With a postseason bid secured, American is projected to face St. Francis in the 16-seed play-in game in ESPN’s latest bracketology, marking what would be Simpkins’ first tournament appearance as a head coach.
Simpkins will look to share his tournament experience with his team as the former Terp finished his playing career with three NCAA Tournament appearances, including a pair of trips to the Round of 32. After suiting up from 1992 to 1996, Simpkins still sits top-ten all-time in career three-point field goal percentage (4th), free throw percentage (8th), assists (8th) while his 45% three-point shooting in 1995-96 still marks the third-best single-season percentage in program history.
But Simpkins isn’t the only familiar name as former Maryland assistant and current George Mason head coach Tony Skinn is leading the Patriots to a historic season. Skinn led George Mason to a 24-7 (15-3) regular season finish, the program’s most wins since 2011-12 while winning their first A-10 regular season title and first conference title since 2011. The team’s six conference road wins also marked the most since 2012-13. Skinn ended his second season as head coach as the A-10 Coach of the Year, becoming the first George Mason coach to win the award since Jim Larranaga did so back in 2011.
George Mason will take the floor against George Washington at 5 PM on Friday, while Skinn was also named one of 20 mid or low-major coaches looking to “take the next step” by ESPN.
ESPN: Skinn was part of the George Mason team that went on a historic Final Four run as an 11-seed in 2006, and after several seasons playing professionally overseas and spending time as an assistant at three different high-major programs, he returned to the Patriots in 2023 when Kim English left for Providence. All he has done in the two seasons since is win 20 games in each and position George Mason in the regular-season title race.
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