The best part of college basketball is the Cinderella story—the team that comes out of seemingly nowhere and takes out a top ranked team or makes a run in the NCAA tournament.
These teams are the proverbial no-namers who capture the heart of America and just as quickly lose it when they disappear back into obscurity, and we are left with wall-to-wall coverage of the same five to 10 teams year in and year out.
Well, many of these small schools may be the proverbial Davids come March, but some are used to playing the role of Goliath the other four months of the college basketball season.
For example, I give you the Winthrop Eagles.
The words Winthrop and winners go together like Maryland coach Gary Williams and sweat.
For the past 10 years, Winthrop has won the Big South tournament eight times.
Eight is more than any other Big South school has won period.
Winthrop has taken home four straight conference crowns, and although they have gone 1-4 in March during that stretch, the losses include a two-point loss to Tennessee and a 10-point decision against Gonzaga.
Still, the Eagles were able to pull off a Cinderella victory over Notre Dame two years ago in the NCAA tournament before being knocked out by Oregon in the second round.
Definitely the "underdog" label does not fit the Eagles well, considering they have gone 104-24 from 1998-2007, including four straight 20-win seasons.
So imagine everyone's surprise to see that the 2008-09 version of the Winthrop Eagles are 3-11 coming hot off the heels of an overtime victory against Presbyterian.
A team that was annually punching its ticket recently stopped a 10-game losing streak.
What happened?
Well, the first factor seems clear: Winthrop misses their old head coach Gregg Marshall.
Marshall, the current head coach of the Wichita State Shockers (at 6-9, he probably misses Winthrop too), is the man that built Winthrop into the successful program we have all become accustomed to en route to becoming the winningest coach in conference history.
Marshall's winning percentage at Winthrop was over 80 percent, with major victories over teams like Marquette, Clemson, Mississippi State and Missouri during his tenure.
He had gotten some job offers before, but after his departure following the 2007 season, the program has begun to show signs of deterioration.
Sure, Winthrop won the Big South last year, but their 12 losses on the year were more than they had registered in their past three years combined!
Winthrop had to win from the two-seed position for the first time in quite some time, and it seems like the Eagles' victory may have been sheer muscle memory.
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