The last time junior forward Eric Michaels played a game at Bender Arena, American University was cutting down the nets as the 2025 Patriot League champions. His season ended days later in Dayton, Ohio, in a First Four loss to Mount St. Mary’s in March Madness. After an offseason injury, he underwent surgery on his right knee in September 2025.
Then came a year and a half of rehab that Michaels said included some of “the worst I’m probably ever gonna see in my life.”
He finally got back on the court in an exhibition at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. On Sunday afternoon, Michaels came home.
In front of a Bender crowd that has long made this one of the Patriot League’s toughest places to play, the 6-foot-9, 240-pound big man won the opening tip and started at center, a position American played all of last season without a true big man.
“All glory to God,” Michaels said. “At times, I really thought I couldn’t do it, but I just kept going.”
Michaels also credited his teammates.
“I could not have done this without my brothers, my teammates right here,” he said. “Every single time they saw me working, they were like, keep working, keep working. Every single day. And that’s all I needed.”
“I’m so happy for him, ‘cause I know there’s been a lot of dark nights for him,” Eagles head coach Duane Simpkins said.
Michaels said he owes the group that carried him through rehab. “I’m gonna give everything I can to this team,” he said.
The crosstown opponent and MEAC preseason favorite Howard Bison beat the Eagles 86-75 in front of 552 fans on Oct. 25. American trailed by as many as 24 and led for just 15 seconds.
Michaels played 14 minutes, finishing with 2 points and 5 rebounds, three of them offensive. His lone bucket came on a spin move on the block with 10:04 remaining in the first half.
Outside of graduating seniors, American lost no one from last season’s roster. Not a single player left for the transfer portal or a name, image and likeness (NIL) deal in an era when bigger programs can pick mid-major rosters apart.
That continuity is a reason the Eagles were picked first in the Patriot League preseason poll. Sophomore guard Madden Collins earned a spot on the Preseason All-Patriot League team, and senior forward Greg Jones was named the Patriot League Preseason Defensive Player of the Year.
At the top of the half, the Eagles moved the ball early well, but couldn’t finish. Junior guard Wyatt Nausadis opened the scoring with a transition 3-pointer off a Jones steal at 19:10. Freshman guard DJ Sandi was aggressive in his first stint, threading a bullet pass to sophomore forward Chris Eagan and attacking off the wing. Late in the half, Eagan sprinted the floor and caught a full-court pass for a layup.
Otherwise, the first half was cold. The Eagles shot 10-of-31 before the break and trailed 39-31. The free-throw line hurt all afternoon, too. American went 10-of-20, leaving 10 points on the floor in an 11-point loss.
The game was physical and chippy from the opening minutes. Collins took hard contact on his drives and often drew a lot of defensive attention and double teams when he touched the ball.
“They got some really good size, every position,” Simpkins said. “We just gotta offer much more resistance.”
With a pair of 6-foot-10 centers, junior James Brown and sophomore Gasper Kocevar, Howard bullied their way to a 36-26 edge in the paint and turned American’s 13 turnovers into 15 points. The Eagles managed just five points off Howard’s 7 turnovers.
Howard senior guard Cedric Taylor III had 14 points just over the four minute mark of the first half. He buried a 3-pointer with a hand in his face and finished an athletic putback layup at two and a half minutes. After hitting a wide-open 3-pointer at 14:18 in the second half, Howard grew their lead to 55-37, forcing Simpkins to call a timeout. He finished with 30 points on 10-of-17 shooting, 4-of-6 from 3-point range.
Junior forward Josiah Lawson added 22 off the bench on 9-of-14 shooting, and senior guard Alex Cotton scored 13. As a team, Howard shot 51.6 percent from the field and 52.6 percent from 3-point range.
Michael’s return also changed things for junior forward Julen Iturbe. At 6-foot-7, Iturbe spent last season battling bigger centers out of necessity. On Sunday, he was back at power forward, his natural position.
Iturbe posted a double-double with 12 points and a team-high 11 rebounds, five of them offensive. He scored from all three levels: a flying putback in the first half, a deep 3-pointer at 10:52 and another 3-pointer late in the game.
“It gives us an opportunity, when teams do switch, to post smaller guards in there,” Simpkins said. “There are going to be some adjustments that we have to make around him as well.”
Down 69-50 with just over six and a half minutes left, the Eagles made a late push. Collins hit a 3-pointer and then a corner 3-pointer that forced a Howard timeout. Jones scored at the rim, and Collins faked his way into a floater.
Sophomore guard Dean Hogans followed with back-to-back corner 3-pointers, the second cutting the deficit to 75-66 with just under three minutes left. Howard steadied itself, but the Eagles kept shooting. Iturbe hit a 3-pointer with 48 seconds left to make it 83-70, and Collins added one more from deep with 30 seconds to go. The comeback effort ran out of time, and Howard closed out the 86-75 win.
The Eagles shot 59.3 percent after halftime and went 9-of-17 from 3-point range. They also won the fast-break battle 18-7.
“One thing I learned about us: we’re gonna fight,” Collins said. “We’re down 20, we’re gonna fight.”
In his first home start, Collins led American with 22 points on 7-of-16 shooting and added 4 assists.
“Just having the coaches trust in me starting the game, it’s a blessing,” he said.
Nausadis scored all 15 of his points on 3-pointers, going 5 of 10. Hogans added 9, all from deep.
Sandi, a multiple-time high school state champion at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was a pest on defense and finished plus 5 in 11 minutes, the only Eagle in the positive.
American opens it’s non-conference schedule at Cincinnati on Nov. 2 at 7 p.m., followed by their return to Bender Arena for their home opener against Harvard on Nov. 15.
This article was edited by Jack Stashower and Gabrielle McNamee. Copy editing done by Avery Grossman, Abigail Jose and Rena Jalon. Fact-checking done by Luca Palma Poth.
