Oral Roberts Golden Eagles

1. Three In A Row. It's the third consecutive tournament appearance for the Golden Eagles, and their seed seems to grow each year. Two years ago, they were a No. 16 seed, and one major national basketball analyst predicted them to beat No. 1 seed Memphis. (Didn't happen.) In 1973, the team reached the Elite Eight before losing to Kansas in overtime. Kansas is now coached by Bill Self, who started his coaching career at ORU, back before he wore a toupee.

2. Parting The Red Defense. The Golden Eagles were led in scoring by Robert Jarvis (not the guy who invented the artificial heart), but it was led to the tournament by Biblically named Moses Ehambe, who was the Summit League Tourney MVP. He was also his Arlington, Texas high school prom king.

3. Bears Repeating. I mention this in their tournament preview every year, because it absolutely must be mentioned any time the Golden Eagles are mentioned anywhere for anything. The school was indeed founded (and humbly named) by Oral Roberts, who is most famous, of course, for telling his parishioners in 1986 that if they did not raise $8 million by March of that year, God would "call him home. (Sadly, we didn't get to find out if Roberts really had such a conversation with the Almighty; they hit the number.) Roberts has claimed to have personally raised the dead and, last year, said that a vision of a "cloud over New York" has told him Christ is coming soon. (After he dies, Roberts has told followers that he plans to return and rule the world with Christ.)" — Will Leitch