DAYTON, Ohio — Two very familiar head coaches will get their first taste of NCAA Tournament action against each other when No. 16 American battles No. 16 Mount Saint Mary’s on Wednesday night in a First Four contest.
The winner advances to play No. 1 seed Duke in an East Region first-round game on Friday in Raleigh, N.C.
The Eagles (22-12) earned the automatic bid from the Patriot League after dispatching Lafayette, Colgate and Navy in succession to capture the conference championship. It is their fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament and first since 2014.
The Mountaineers (22-12) earned their way to the NCAA Tournament by way of capturing the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament title in just their third season in the league.
Donny Lind, who coached the university to the NCAA Tournament in his first year as head coach, is facing Duane Simpkins, who is in his second year at American. The two exchanged text messages after each won their conference tournaments.
“You are not thrilled necessarily to play somebody who knows us so well,” Lind said. “One of the fun things about the Tournament is maybe you can sneak up on somebody because they don’t know you.”
This will be the first meeting between the schools since American won 68-65 on Nov. 22, 2023. American leads the all-time series 38-32.
“Obviously, we know each other well. We have seen each other play,” Lind said. “We haven’t played each other this year. But The Mount and American have a history of playing each other. That will be interesting. But we’ll be ready the best we can.”
Mount Saint Mary’s earned its spot in the First Four by capturing the MAAC title last Saturday with a 63-49 win over Iona.
Guards Dola Adebayo and Dallas Hobbs lead the Mount in scoring, averaging 13.2 and 12.6 points per game, respectively. Senior forward Jedy Cordilia leads the team in rebounding, grabbing 7.3 boards a game.
This is the seventh trip to the NCAA Tournament for Mount Saint Mary’s, which last qualified in 2021, falling to Texas Southern in the First Four. The Mountaineers have been a 16-seed in all previous six appearances.
Simpkins, who is 38-28 overall at American, has taken a seven-win program in conference play in 2023 and transformed the Eagles into a 13-win group that earned its first NCAA berth in 11 years this year.
“It’s exciting. I can’t put it into words,” Simpkins said. “It’s a lot coming all at one time. It’s busy time, but it’s a great busy. It’s a testament man to hard work and ‘stick-to-it-iveness’ and fighting through adversity and having the right people around you.”
Matt Rogers leads American in scoring at 17.0 points a game and is second in rebounding (5.6 rpg), while Elijah Stephens is averaging 10.6 points per game.
“We’ve got a great group of kids on our team and their families and our staff, and then our staff’s families,” Simpkins said. “This is truly all hands on deck. In order to get to this point, you need a lot of people. We’re on the boat in the same direction, no doubt.”
–Mike Petraglia, Field Level Media
