Jeff Matthews

HELLO SATURDAY!!!!

In this interview on the Selection Show, chair Keith Gill indicated that the committee's belief that BJ Edwards would be available for the NCAA Tournament tipped the balance to make SMU the last team selected. The Mustangs lost four of their last five games while Edwards was injured. SMU told the committee and the public that Edwards would be available for the NCAA Tournament. Now we learn that he will not play tonight vs. Miami (Ohio). I understand that injuries and availability can be an inexact science, so we should not be quick to assign motives. But it is highly unusual for an injury to have this much consequence on selection, only to have the information prove to be incorrect. There needs to be a full accounting as to what happened and why, and how much the information that SMU provided to the committee was a factor in this decision. It goes directly to the integrity of the process. I hope this question will be further addressed and clarified in the coming days. In the meantime, I hope we get a great game!

19 years ago, a high school basketball coach put his team manager into a game for the final four minutes. The kid had never played a single minute of competitive basketball in his life. He scored 20 points. Jason McElwain was diagnosed with severe autism at age two. He didn’t speak until he was five. He couldn’t chew solid food until he was six. He wore a nappy for most of his early childhood. As a baby, he was rigid, wouldn’t make eye contact, and hid in corners away from other children. He tried out for his school basketball team every year and got cut every time. Too small. Too slight. Barely 5’6 and about 54 kilograms. But he loved the game so much that his mum called the school and asked if there was any way he could be involved. The coach created a team manager role for him. For three years, McElwain showed up to every practice and every game. He wore a shirt and tie on match days. He ran drills, handed out water, kept stats, and cheered every basket like he’d scored it himself. On 15 February 2006, the last home game of his final school year, the coach let him suit up in a proper jersey and sit on the bench. With four minutes left and a comfortable lead, the coach sent him in. His first shot missed. His second missed. Then something shifted. He hit a three-pointer. Then another. Then another. His teammates stopped shooting entirely and just kept passing him the ball. He hit six three-pointers and a two-pointer. 20 points in four minutes. The highest scorer in the game. When the final buzzer went, the entire crowd rushed the court and lifted him onto their shoulders. His mum tapped the coach on the shoulder, in tears. “This is the nicest gift you could have ever given my son.” McElwain won the ESPY Award for Best Moment in Sports that year, beating out some of the biggest names in professional sport. He’s 36 now. He works at a local supermarket, coaches basketball, has run 17 marathons including five Boston Marathons, and travels the country speaking about never giving up. When asked about that night, his coach still gets emotional. “For him to come in and seize the moment like he did was certainly more than I ever expected. I was an emotional wreck.”