I’ve been watching college hoops…geez, sports even…for a long time, and I have seen some amazing games, amazing performances, and witnessed some amazing runs in the NCAA Tournament. But what the George Mason University basketball team has pulled off this month to advance to the 2006 Final Four is just a story that transcends sports and will last for a long, long time. This goes well beyond college basketball. Its a nod to the underdog, to the right to dream, and to the will to win.

When the tournament started, the line in Vegas was 400-to-1 that they would win the National Championship. Well, guess what? They are still alive. To truely illustrate the imact and odds of GMU’s run to the Final Four, try this on for size: Of the 3+ million brackets that ESPN.com received for its Tournament challenge, only 4, or 0.00013%, correctly had all four Final Four teams.

To all the fans of GMU, I wish you all the luck in the world in the Final Four. I’m not going to predict anything, but at this point, nothing would surprise me.