Nuts & Bolts
Date: March 12, 2025
Time: 7:00 p.m. ET
Venue: Bender Arena - Washington, D.C.
How to Watch: CBS Sports Network
Matchup History: American leads all-time series 34-22
Last Meeting: Navy def. American 68-60 on 2/26/25
Prediction: American 69, Navy 64
Betting Lines: (Via Draftkings)
Spread: American -2.5
Over/Under: 131.5t
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Head Coach: Duane Simpkins (2nd season, 37-28 record at American)
Record: 21-12 (13-5, 2nd in Patriot)
Last Time Out: Won vs. Colgate 72-66 on 3/9/25 (Tournament Semifinal)
Player to Watch: Matt Rogers
In year two under Head Coach Duane Simpkins, the American Eagles put together the program’s best season since 2010-11, winning 21 games and hitting the 20 win mark for the first time since AU last went to the NCAA Tournament in 2014.
The Eagles were last in the Patriot League Championship Game in 2015, falling to Lafayette 65-63, coming up short every year since.
On Wednesday night, AU will host the title game for the first time since 2009, a year the Eagles won a school record 24 games and went to the NCAA Tournament as a 14-seed.
Standing in the way of a fourth tournament appearance in program history is the Navy Midshipmen. Navy knocked off American in both regular season meetings this year, the only team in the conference to sweep AU, winning on January 2 81-58 and again in DC on February 26 68-60.
Of course, the regular season sweep will be forgotten if the Eagles win on Wednesday.
To get to this point, American rallied from two halftime deficits. First, in the quarterfinal against Lafayette last Thursday, American trailed by 11 at the half before taking the lead with 5:30 to go and never falling behind again.
In the semis on Sunday against Colgate, the Eagles fell behind 7-0 in the opening minutes and trailed by two at the half before outscoring the Raiders 46-33 in the second half to surge to a 72-62 victory.
Colgate had represented the Patriot League in the NCAA Tournament as the conference tournament winner in the last five Big Dances (omitting 2020). Thanks to AU, we’ll have a new Patriot League representative in 2025.
American’s senior leadership of Matt Rogers and Elijah Stephens will need to lead the way in what’ll surely be a raucous environment on Wednesday night.
The duo combined for 31 points in the semifinal win over Colgate, and I’d expect a similar performance being required for AU to end the drought and return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 11 years.
Head Coach: Ed DeChellis (14th season, 196-229 record at Navy)
Record: 15-18 (10-8, 5th in Patriot)
Last Time Out: Won @ Bucknell 83-77 on 3/9/25 (Tournament Semifinal)
Player to Watch: Austin Benigni
Navy has not been to the NCAA Tournament since 1998.
This season, the Midshipmen went 13-18 overall and finished in fifth place in the Patriot. Despite that, they’ll play in the Patriot League Tournament Championship Game on Wednesday night.
Navy beat Boston University in the quarterfinal last Thursday 86-78 on the road behind 30 points from Austin Benigni.
Then, in the semifinal, Benigni led the team with 24 as Navy took out top-seeded Bucknell, ending the Bison’s ten game home winning streak and becoming the first five seed to knock off the top seed in Patriot League Tournament history.
"Just really, really proud of our team," said Navy Head Coach Ed DeChellis after the win on Sunday. "This is our third-straight road win. The guys really believe they can do something special, and something special is ahead of us Wednesday night. The guys played their hearts out tonight."
In the win over Bucknell on Sunday, Navy led by 12 with 12:40 to go before the Bison came all the way back and took the lead 60-59 with under six minutes to play.
From there, the game swung back and forth until Donovan Draper knocked down a three with just under four minutes to go to put the Midshipmen on top for good, later pulling away to win it by six.
The 83-77 win over Bucknell sets up a date with American in the Patriot League Tournament Championship Game with the winner advancing to the NCAA Tournament.
Navy swept the season series against American as the only team in the conference to sweep the Eagles this year, winning 81-58 in January and 68-60 in D.C. just two weeks ago.
Of course, that was then and this is now. It’ll be the rowdiest environment either team has played in all season, with the game already sold out and it being the biggest game any of these players have ever played in.
What a 40 minutes we have in store in Northwest D.C.
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