The NCAA Tournament is supposedly 68 of the best college basketball teams in the nation.   At the end of the regular season, the Crusaders of Holy Cross were an abysmal 10-19 and seeded ninth out of ten teams in the Patriot League conference tournament.  There, the Crusaders pulled off four straight wins to clinch an automatic bid into the field of 68 teams with a record of yes 14-19.  The winner of the Patriot League will probably find themselves as a 16 seed and in a First Four game in most cases, and a resumé that boasts a losing record isn’t going to attract any seeding love.

Holy Cross has been a Cinderella in a tournament already this season, so being an underdog against the Southern Jaguars, the winners of the SWAC Conference, came as no shock.  What the Crusaders were able to do was build off of the momentum they gained by winning their conference tournament.  Led by Robert Champion and Anthony Thomas with 19 and 14 points, respectively, Holy Cross jumped out to an early lead and was able to hold on with a 59-55 win.  Southern was led in scoring by senior Adrian Rodgers, who poured in 14 points in his last game as a Jaguar.

Holy Cross now moves on to face the first-seeded Oregon Ducks in the west bracket.  For the Crusaders to finish the season with a winning record, they’d have to win the national title.  It is, however, March and crazy things tend to happen.