Accolades rained down like three-pointers this season for American University’s men’s basketball team.
The Eagles finished the season with an overall record of 22–13, the best since 2010–11, and posted the most wins in Bender Arena history with 14. Coach Duane Simpkins’s squad also went dancing for only the fourth time in program history after hoisting the Patriot League championship trophy before an elated home crowd.
But sports are about more than box scores and statistics. Sometimes loses can still be wins, and often victories are measured in more than points.
During an uncertain time—in Washington, DC, in higher education, and in the world—AU’s blue-chip ballers captured the hearts of the AU community. This special Eagles squad—led by fifth-year standout Matt Rogers, who nabbed 2025 Patriot League tournament MVP honors—gave students, alumni, faculty, and staff something to rally around, something that can’t be quantified when the final buzzer sounds.
They gave us joy.
A raucous, sold-out crowd packed Bender Arena on March 12 for the Patriot League championship game. After the Eagles beat Navy wire-to-wire, fans swarmed the court to celebrate AU punching its ticket to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2014.
Liz Romig, SIS/MA ’12, director of career education and outreach, AU Career Center: “I was so determined to be at that game. It was 11 p.m. the night before when I finally got tickets for me and my two sons with an obstructed view. I was like, ‘I don’t care. We’re going.’”
Jesse Reed, Kogod/BS ’16, AU guard from 2012–16: “I’ve never heard Bender so loud or raucous. It was enjoyable for the entire 40 minutes.”
Colin Smalls, Kogod/BSBA ’24, MS ’25, guard: “We’ve been here since 2020—the COVID year—when we had no fans in this building. To pack our last game in Bender [was] an amazing feeling.”
Lisa Arakaki, special assistant, Office of the President: “The atmosphere in the arena was amazing. I got to see a bunch of alums who I hadn’t seen in years. There are so many [Eagles] living in the DC area, and the games are a great way for them to stay connected and introduce their children to AU.”
Shane Gardner, CAS/BA ’25, founder of Suit Mafia, the team’s student fan club: “It didn’t feel real that we were actually going to win the championship until the end when we were clearly up. I’d waited four years for this.”
Brian Gilmore, Kogod/BSBA ’09, AU forward from 2005–09 and part of the Eagles’ first two NCAA tournament teams in 2008 and 2009: “As my son and I stormed the court, I FaceTimed my group chat of teammates, and they all got to watch it up close. They said how it brought back memories of our court storming and cutting down the nets 16 years ago.”
Romig: “I was struck by the energy. This has been such a challenging few months in higher education and in DC, but people were just there to be excited about AU and to cheer on our team. After the game, my sons ran down onto the court. People were smiling, and parents were lifting their kids on their shoulders to see. We were all feet away from the players. I didn’t realize just how much we needed that moment until then.”
JM Caparro, director of athletics and recreation: “We witnessed something truly special inside Bender Arena. It was a night to remember and a powerful reminder of what this community can accomplish together.”
While his players danced at center court, second-year head coach Duane Simpkins tearfully embraced his wife, Kirsten. Two years earlier, she had beamed with pride while listening to Simpkins, AU’s 18th head coach, lay out his vision for the program at his inaugural press conference on April 5, 2023.
Just down the street from Sidwell Friends, where he landed his first coaching job in 2005, the DC-area native and three-year starter at the University of Maryland called his shot. He was here to win. It was a stark contrast to the fortunes of the team he inherited, which had just finished 7–11 in the Patriot League.
“Being in the top three in the Patriot League isn’t enough,” Simpkins said at the time. “Our goal is to be the champion of the regular season, to win the Patriot League championship. My ultimate goal isn’t just to get to the NCAA tournament—we want to win games in the NCAA tournament.”
Duane Simpkins: “I caught these guys at a place where they had some legitimate, deep-down frustrations with where their college careers were going. They loved each other so much, they were willing to wait and see whether they could vibe with me.”
Matt Rogers, Kogod/BSBA ’24, MBA ’25, forward and Patriot League tournament MVP: “I loved his plan. Even though he’d just gotten here, he wanted to fix things right away. It’s not that I didn’t think we could ever win here. It’s just that nobody really instilled that confidence like he did.”
Ted Ringelheim, CAS/BA ’68, a season ticket holder for 22 years: “When I went to [Simpkins’s] first press conference, I knew immediately this was going to be a big change.”
Bram Weinstein, SOC/BA ’95, voice of the Washington Commanders and season ticket holder: “Duane Simpkins was the right man at the right time. He had deserved an opportunity like this for many seasons.”
Lincoln Ball, Kogod/BSBA ’24, MS ’25, guard: “It was really exciting the first time he came in the locker room and introduced himself to us. We’d been waiting for a while on a new coach, and he walked in with a big smile on his face. You could tell he was happy to be here. Since then, we’ve spent a lot of hours talking one-on-one.”
Simpkins: “When I got here, I met with every player individually. I had questions for them—what they love about AU, what they’d like to see done differently. Then I asked questions like, ‘What’s your biggest disappointment?’ Through those conversations, I shared my disappointments and things I wished I’d done differently. It gave them a glimpse of who I was. They’re not going to run through a wall for you if they don’t know that you care about them.”
Ball: “Coach Simpkins pushed us to spend a lot of time together outside of hoops because that relationship and that bond carries over to the court. Building deeper connections [makes you] want to play as hard as you can for each other.”
In Simpkins’s first season, the team finished with an improved 10–8 conference record, second in the Patriot League.
Rogers: “As Simp says all the time, we were laying the foundation.”
Simpkins: “We had a taste of success. I thought we had a chance last year. We lost nine games by two possessions or less. We had a taste of success, but by the last four or five games, we were so injured we were playing walk-ons. Because of all the injuries, all of us in the back of our minds were like, ‘What if we were all healthy?’”
Headed into the 2024–25 season, Simpkins returned an uncharacteristically experienced roster. But it took some convincing to keep together a core group of veterans, including Rogers, Ball, and Smalls.
In April 2024, Simpkins met Rogers for dinner at Cactus Cantina to discuss his future on the team. Over chips and salsa—and with transfer offers on the table that would allow his star player to reap the financial rewards of his name, image, and likeness—Simpkins convinced Rogers that AU was the right place to finish his college career.
Kristi Geary, Rogers’s mom: “Coach was trying to help him understand that he could really build a legacy here. I was a big proponent of him staying and finishing his degree at AU. I felt that having that degree would help him in the long run. He loved the school, his teammates, his coaches, his business school relationships. I felt it would be much more of an enjoyable experience to stay than to chase a new school and start fresh for one year. Selfishly, I also wanted to continue to watch him play locally.”
Simpkins: “I told him then that he was just scratching the surface of how dominant he could be for us. I laid out the things he did well and the things he didn’t do well. I think it opened his eyes to how he could reach his goal of becoming a professional [ballplayer]. I said, ‘You get another chance to cut the nets down and do something you’ve never done.’”
Rogers: “Our conversation motivated me. Coach Simp is an honest guy. He wants you to get better. That’s the whole point of growing as a basketball player—to be challenged. I worked hard [over the] summer on ball handling, defense, and guarding multiple positions. I wasn’t ready to leave. I wanted to put AU back on the map.”
Gardner: “I knew Rogers meant business when he came back. This season, he looked like a completely different player. He moved like a guard. It was crazy to see his evolution as a player. He became the cornerstone of the team.”
Reed: “They played together with such joy for one another. It’s not easy for a coach to get guys to buy in. The fact that [Simpkins] has been able to do that in such a short amount of time—it’s incredible.”
Simpkins: “Our success started with the players. In college basketball, you have a huge advantage if you can have guys stick together for three, four, five seasons. I don’t know if we’ll ever see that again [in today’s college basketball landscape].”
Ringelheim: “They shared the ball; they cared for one another. Duane and the coaches inspired [the players] to improve and work together as a team, not as individuals.”
Weinstein: “This year was revelatory. We are in different times in collegiate athletics. Duane kept players here when it is largely easy to leave programs for better offers and opportunities. Having Matt Rogers stay was indicative of the program he is building.”
Rogers: “A big reason for us all to come back was knowing we’d gotten this far. We’re all more like brothers than teammates.”
Geary: “The team had always been really close on and off the court, and they wanted to accomplish something together. As a parent, you want to see your child succeed and reach their dreams.”
Midway through the season, AU went on a run. After four losses in a row stretching into the start of Patriot League play, the Eagles won 11 of their next 13 games to climb to the top of the conference standings. As the wins snowballed, so did the campus community’s excitement.
Rogers: “People were coming out last year, but it wasn’t like this year. Fans packed the building consistently every night. Bender was phenomenal this year.”
Simpkins: “It took a while to get to that point. We don’t have a natural fan base for athletics, so I knew coming into this job I was going to have to work at it. [Over my time here] I’ve seen more people want to be part of our success. If we want to ask students to come out and support us, there has to be some connection. Throughout the year, I would go out and interact with the students on campus and hand out doughnuts or coffee and invite them to the game. By the last month, they would say, ‘Coach, we’re there.’ Students knew who we were playing, what time, and what was at stake.”
Gardner: “You don’t see a lot of NCAA coaches doing that kind of outreach. It made him approachable. He loves the school.”
Weinstein: “Duane understands what it takes to build a community around a program. Support grew organically because people started to realize that a movement had begun—a positive one you can root for, that makes you proud to be part of our great university. This is not just about coaching a talented team and winning. It’s about a culture, bringing students and alumni together [and] making us feel like we are part of something.”
AU president Jon Alger: “Seeing the community come together, feeling the energy, and witnessing the dedication and grit of this team created a profound sense of joy that my wife, Mary Ann, and I will remember for years to come. Coach Simpkins and this team truly built something special.”
When AU won the Patriot League championship—and the opportunity to tip off against Mount St. Mary’s on March 19 in the First Four of the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament in Dayton, Ohio, the team carried the AU community with them.
Reed: “It’s arguably the biggest postseason event of any sport. You get to watch them on Selection Sunday. You see them in every bracket that you fill out. It definitely helps bring some notoriety to the school.”
Billy Stone, SOC/BA ’86, Kogod/MBA ’89, CBS Sports executive and AU guard from 1983–86:“Sports is a great front door for any institution. American is a wonderful school, and I think this kind of publicity for athletes is great, but it also shows everything our school is about.”
Simpkins: “I’m firm believer that athletics can be such a great thing for the university. Everyone at AU plays their role. My role was as an ambassador for AU that millions of people saw on TV.”
After leaving the game early with a knee injury, Rogers sat on the sidelines thinking about the end of his college career and what his team represented to the campus community. Back in DC, hundreds of Eagles watched from the Mary Graydon Student Center as the clock ticked down on AU’s Cinderella season.
“I wish I could have done more for us, for the AU community,” Rogers said in a press conference after the team fell to the Mountaineers, 83–72. “They deserved an NCAA win.”
Geary: “When he went down a second time, I knew it wasn’t good. I went to see him during halftime, and he said, ‘I’ve got to go talk to my guys.’ He came back out to support his team and do as much as he could during the second half. We raised him to always think about others. It’s not always about yourself. I’m very proud of how he handled it all, trying to keep his head up and be positive.”
Rogers: “I just wanted to give back to the community. I wanted to go out with a bang. Unfortunately, my body gave out on me. I loved being at AU. Being from the country [Knoxville, Maryland], the city atmosphere changed my perspective. It’s very diverse here. I learned a lot about different people and grew myself. On top of that, connections I made in the business school created a lifetime of opportunities. But the biggest thing I’ll take away is the relationships I’ve built here. They’ll last a lifetime.”
Simpkins: “I have some teammates I haven’t seen in years, but when I do, it’s like we’re right back in college. It’s like we haven’t missed each other at all. This group [will] have a bond that no one else has.”
Gilmore: “I’ve got a group chat with my teammates from 2008–09 that’s still firing daily. The most valuable part of playing [at AU] was the relationships and friendships that have lasted 20 years.”
Rogers: “We’ll always have a group chat. The tournament and winning were highs for me, but all the off-the-court stuff is what I’m going to miss the most. These guys mean the world to me. Not being able to hang out with them in the locker room is going to be tough.”
In April, Simpkins’s contract was extended, ensuring he’ll be pacing the sidelines in Bender Arena through the 2029–30 season. He’s already signed six talented first-year players and is eager to build on the success of this season by making another run at the big dance and continuing to foster an ethos of winning—and for caring for one another.
Kamran Prince, incoming guard: “I chose AU because I have a great relationship with the coaches, who were the first to take a chance on me. When I went on the visit, it felt like home.”
Kade Sebastian, incoming guard: “It feels like a true brotherhood, which is what I’ve experienced during high school.”
Simpkins: “It’s going to be tougher this year because we’re going to be really young. What I hope to do is establish a culture of winning that doesn’t go away after one or two years. Year in and year out, I want us to be mentioned as one of the [top] teams—if not the best—in the Patriot League.”
Weinstein: “Winning the Patriot League and playing in the NCAA tournament isn’t what I’m most proud of. For the first time in some time, AU looked like a program that had core values, core playing style, and pure meaning.”
Caparro: “I could not be prouder of Coach Simpkins, his staff, and our team for what they achieved—and for how they represented American with pride, class, and competitive fire on the biggest stage in college basketball.”
Simpkins: “We’ll be back.”