Five players to watch during March Madness
USA Today’s Meghan Hall breaks down five players in the WNCAA March Madness Tournament we need to be paying more attention to.
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March Madness is the time of quirky mid-major teams and their unique celebrations and traditions.
Among the latest comes from 15-seed Omaha, who made the men’s NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history this season. Coach Chris Crutchfield and the Mavericks celebrate wins by destroying trash cans in myriad ways, from throwing down WWE-style elbows to kicking and screaming.
Omaha hopes to have another trash can beatdown when it looks to upset 2-seed St. John’s on Thursday night. The moment would certainly be well-covered, especially as a Cinderella story.
While the odds aren’t in the Mavericks’ favor against the Big East champions, perhaps the potential of destroying a trash can be the motivation they need in their first-ever March Madness appearance.
Here’s the story of Omaha’s unique postgame celebration, which started in 2024:
Omaha trash can celebration, explained
The trash can beatdowns started on Dec. 21, 2024, before Omaha’s game against Cal Poly.
The Mavericks, with a 4-9 record at the time, were coming off a 32-point loss to Iowa State. Assistant coach Kyan Brown was looking for a way to rally the team as he looked to help Omaha break their two-game losing streak.
The result? A turning point in the season and a nine-game winning streak — but only after he found a trash can in the corner of Omaha’s locker room and wailed on it.
“I tried to fire up the team before the game, but no one was really buying what I was selling,” Brown wrote in an essay on Omaha’s website. I thought, “Man, these guys are just out of it right now. What can I do to get them going?” So, I put this huge trash can in the corner of our locker room. I just hauled off and kicked the crap out of it and started yelling at it.
“Four guys next to it got scared, and four guys across the room jumped up and started yelling at it, too. It sounds bizarre, but it worked. Something snapped within our guys.’
The celebration has worked for the Mavericks, as it became a team tradition for what has become a historic 2024-25 season. Omaha finished with a 22-12 record and won the Summit League championship in Crutchfield’s third season with the team.
Omaha beat Cal Poly that day, and Brown went back in on the trash can and “thought it was going to die,” he wrote. Omaha then beat Mount Marty soon after, and kicked and screamed at it again, sparking the trash can-banging celebration.
It, of course, has evolved over time. Such as the time Omaha chancellor Li emerged from a trash can to celebrate the Mavericks’ Summit League regular-season championship.
Then there was the time the Mavericks invited All Elite Wrestlers into the locker room to lead the charge.
The celebration has reached perhaps its largest audience in the leadup to March Madness, with former NFL coach Jon Gruden and Super Bowl-winning quarterback Peyton Manning, who co-owns a media company called “Omaha Productions” even posing videos kicking trash cans.
Omaha had a 28-50 record under Crutchfield before Brown introduced the trash cans. Now, the program is on the rise after reaching its first NCAA Tournament appearance.