Read President Paino’s column:

In March, college basketball stories tend to orbit the same centers of gravity: power conferences, multimillion-dollar arenas and well-paid stars who also appear in commercials between the big plays. But every so often, the sport reminds us that its most meaningful stories are not always the loudest ones, and maybe the best games are not the ones aired in prime time.

Amid all the hype, there still exists collegiate basketball where a pure love for the game and a focus on the collective team are the driving forces for a championship season.

At the University of Mary Washington, a small public university in Fredericksburg, Virginia, men’s basketball has never been about fame and fortune. There are no athletic scholarships and no promise that basketball will overshadow everything else about the college experience. What there is – and what this season has revealed with unusual clarity – is that a basketball team can still be built around trust, discipline and an unshakable belief in the next play.

That phrase comes up often around Coach Marcus Kahn’s program. When something goes wrong – a missed shot, a defensive breakdown, a tough stretch – it’s not something to dwell on. The response is simple: get back, reset and focus on what comes next. In Division III, that mindset isn’t just coaching philosophy; it’s survival.

Mary Washington’s climb to the NCAA DIII Championship game this season has unfolded the same way. There have been dramatic moments, including late stops, momentum‑shifting threes, stretches where the ball moved until the right shot finally appeared, but none of them stand alone. Every highlight is immediately followed by another possession, another defensive assignment, another teammate stepping into the moment. Even when an individual play draws attention, the team moves on before the crowd has finished reacting.

And that crowd has been growing a little more each game, as the Fredericksburg community has rallied around the Eagles, cheering them through regular-season home games, which are all still free to the public. The stands are full of friends and family. High school teams see their former classmates on the college court. Classmates join the pep band and dance team or join faculty in the stands. Faculty and staff know the students by name from classes and conversations. The atmosphere isn’t manufactured; it’s personal.

The student-athletes, who are still students first, balance practices with labs, study sessions and internships, campus commitments and time with family and friends. Their career on the court is part of what’s preparing them for their career after it.

Coach Kahn has spent years reinforcing that culture. His teams don’t play as if they’re chasing a moment; they play as if they expect the game to demand something difficult, and are ready to meet it together. Wins, when they come, feel like the natural result of preparation rather than a departure from it. With a perfect home record this season, those wins also feel completely at home.

That mindset mirrors the institution itself. Mary Washington is a public liberal arts and sciences university that has never tried to be something it isn’t. It emphasizes access, close faculty‑student relationships and the idea that education happens best in community. Our students often focus on quiet accomplishments, getting back to the next project or class, connecting what they love to do with community impact. Athletics, at their best, extend that mission rather than compete with it. We can champion student success in any season and in any moment.

There have been players who stepped up at critical times. There have been sequences fans will replay in their heads long after the nets are taken down. There have been moments of joy and inspiration watching a group of young men embrace the challenge of competing and winning against better-resourced teams and schools for the love of the game, for each other and for the community they represent.  Unfortunately, these are moments most have missed, in part because DIII is played in the shadows of nationally televised DI games.

In a sports landscape increasingly defined by scale and separation, DIII still insists that place matters. That community matters. That the next play matters more than the last one.  In Fredericksburg this year, a basketball team has shown how powerful that idea can be when everyone – players, coaches, campus and city – comes together.

Troy D. Paino, Ph.D., J.D., is president of the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and is a past member of the NCAA Division III President’s Council. The University of Mary Washington men’s basketball team is set to play in the program’s first NCAA Division III National Championship on Sunday, April 5, at 4:30 p.m. ET at Gainbridge Field House in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Read the column in The Richmond Times-Dispatch and The Free Lance-Star.