Dayton, Ohio -- On some levels, it doesn't make much sense. Two Baltimore-area teams, separated by 45 miles, traveled west almost 500 miles to be here yesterday. Tonight, they'll play an NCAA tournament game that, one could argue, is not really an NCAA tournament game.
It is a bizarre scenario, almost like holding a family get-together in a stranger's house in a state that no one involved has any connection to.
But, at the same time, there is so much at stake for Mount St. Mary's and Coppin State when the play-in game of the 2008 NCAA championship tips off inside the Dayton Arena that the peculiarity of it matters little.
For the Mountaineers, it's a chance to win an NCAA tournament game for the first time in their program's history. It's the beginning of a new era for this tiny school, which is located in a tiny town in the middle of Maryland farm country.
For the Eagles, it could be one more amazing chapter in their already incredible story, one that seemed impossible in February, when the team was 4-19 and players were squabbling with one another for control.
Both want a shot at history. The winner will face No. 1 seed North Carolina in Raleigh, N.C., on Friday, and even though a No. 16 seed has never knocked off a No. 1 seed, the law of averages states that it has to happen someday. Coppin State and Mount St. Mary's just want the chance to believe the impossible is possible.
And though it might have been more convenient for both schools to settle this somewhere else - the Verizon Center in Washington, for instance - that doesn't matter anymore.
"If the selection committee had told us, `You have to go play Coppin in Anaheim,' we'd be in Anaheim right now," Mount St. Mary's coach Milan Brown said. "You go where you're supposed to go, I guess."
On one hand, both teams feel blessed to be a part of the postseason, and for one night, with ESPN's cameras rolling, they'll be the focus of the college basketball world.
On the other hand, for small colleges such as Coppin State and Mount St. Mary's, the idea of the play-in game is something of a backhanded compliment. Even though Coppin State (16-20) is the first 20-loss team to make the NCAA tournament, it won its conference tournament, something it did in 1997 when, as a 15th seed, the Eagles knocked off No. 2 seed South Carolina in one of the most memorable upsets in recent history.
