Right up there

They Just Got in, Now They're Headed for Indy

ESPN.com's Gene Wojciechowski: If ever a game deserved to be enclosed in glass, this was it. George Mason's 86-84 overtime victory against Connecticut in the regional final is more than an upset, it's history. It belongs on the Mount Rushmore of March Madness not simply because the 11th-seeded Patriots, who almost didn't get into the NCAA Tournament, beat a top-seeded UConn team stocked with future NBAers, but because of the quality of their win. ...

The Patriots are more than bracket busters, they're giant-killers, disposing of Michigan State, North Carolina and UConn during what the gracious Huskies coach Jim Calhoun called GMU's "magic carpet ride."

The Patriots were intimidated by nothing. Not by their opponents' hoops pedigree. Not by their surroundings. Not by the weight of the moment. This is what happens when you're led by a carefree 56-year-old coach who doesn't equate college basketball with the Battle of Dunkirk.

Jim Larranaga, whose name or photo is nowhere to be found on George Mason's regular-season or postseason media guides, is the guy responsible for this Al Michaels mini-miracle. He recited the words of famed orator William Jennings Bryan to his team, telling his players, "Destiny is not a matter of chance, it's a matter of choice."

And they bought it.

He told them that the No. 11, as in their seed, was irrelevant. And they bought it.

He told them, actually ordered them, to have fun. And they did.

Minutes before they took the court to face America's office pool favorite to win it all, Larranaga reminded his players they were from the CAA — not the Colonial Athletic Association, but from the "Connecticut Assassins Association." And sure enough, by afternoon's end UConn was resting with a white lilly on its chest, its Final Four hopes deader than William Jennings himself.

During nearly every timeout, even when UConn bullied its way into overtime and almost everyone in the building figured the Huskies would at last take control, Larranaga repeated the acronym: "C-A-A … C-A-A." A week earlier, as they prepared to face 2005 NCAA champion North Carolina, Larranaga had told his team, "They're Superman, we're kryptonite." The man deserves an honorary degree in psychology. ...

As the final buzzer sounded, Larranaga made a beeline for the other side of the court and waited for his wife of 35 years, Liz, to make her way down from her seat. That's when they embraced and Larranaga said into her ear, "I love you."

Meanwhile, UConn's players quietly left the floor, with the exception of Anderson, who peeled back to congratulate the George Mason coach.

Ladders were positioned under each basket and the snipping began. Liz Larranaga gazed at the scene in amazement.

"It's what's good in sports," she said.

It was definitely one of the most amazing games I've ever seen. Connecticut was all-world, just about everyone had the blue-chip-laden team making the Final Four. And then GMU, which barely even made the tournament, beats them....

What a great sport; what a great event. Leave it to ESPN.com to run an article about it that mentions Dunkirk and William Jennings Bryant. And Andy Katz, in his column, doesn't forget the school's namesake:

It's hard to gauge what this historic win has done for this university located just 20 miles from here, one that is named after one of the founders of the U.S. Constitution, an idealist who refused to sign the document because he wanted the abolishment of slavery included (history lesson courtesy of head coach Jim Larranaga). Given that history, though, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the basketball team that bears George Mason's name has plenty of passion.

The Patriots were one of the last five at-large teams to make the field, and all they did was knock off three of the last six national champs: Michigan State (2000) in round one (without GMU's suspended second-leading scorer, Tony Skinn), North Carolina (2005) in round two and Connecticut (2004) at the Verizon Center in overtime in the Elite Eight. Wedged in there was Missouri Valley champ Wichita State in the Sweet 16.

Let's go over this again: The Patriots took out Tom Izzo, Roy Williams and Jim Calhoun, the latter a Hall of Fame member and the first two likely to be enshrined some day.

"I don't know if I've ever seen anything as remarkable," Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese said as he watched Larranaga, his good friend, cut down the nets at the expense of his league's best team. "Connecticut played well, but George Mason played out of [its] mind. It reminded me of the night Villanova beat Georgetown [in 1985 to win the national title]."

Photo of Jim Larranaga and a player by Andy Lyons/Getty Images.