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NCAA Basketball News | March 20, 2010
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Panthers knock off No. 1 Kansas 69-67
By John Marshal
March 20, 2010
Oklahoma City, OK — Leading by one against the colossus of the bracket, Ali Farokhmanesh stood at the 3-point line, no one around.
The prudent play?
Pull it out?
Burn some clock?
Not a chance!
Taking his shot at history, Farokhmanesh let fly from the wing.
Swish!
The biggest upset in a tournament full of them was done. Northern Iowa had taken down mighty Kansas.
Playing with poise down the stretch and getting another big 3-pointer from Farokhmanesh, Northern Iowa pulled off one of the biggest NCAA upsets in years by knocking No. 1 overall seed Kansas from the bracket with a program-defining 69-67 win on Saturday.
“If anybody’s going to shoot that shot, I want it to be Ali,” UNI’s Jake Koch said.
This year’s NCAA tournament has been defined by its upsets. Eight double-digit seeds got through the first round. No. 10 Saint Mary’s beat Villanova on Saturday and No. 11 Washington shoved aside New Mexico.
This was the biggest shocker of all.
Winning the tempo tug-of-war, ninth-seeded Northern Iowa (30-4) grounded the high-flying Jayhawks with in-their-jersey defense, then withstood a furious rally for the first win over a No. 1 seed in the second round since UAB and Alabama did it to Kentucky and Stanford in 2004.
First-round hero Farokhmanesh had the biggest play of all.
With Kansas charging and its fans roaring, the fearless son of an Iranian Olympic volleyball player caught the ball on the wing after the Panthers broke Kansas’ press. The shot clock still in the 30s, he hesitated for just an instant, then cast his bracket-busting shot with 34 seconds left in the game.
Trailing 66-62, Kansas had one last chance, but Tyrel Reed was called for an offensive foul and Farokhmanesh sealed it with two free throws with 5 seconds left, sending the Panthers to the round of 16 for the first time.
Next up is the Michigan State-Maryland winner in St. Louis—and another chance at history.
“This team has done such a great job of turning the page to what’s next, and this would be the biggest challenge of the year,” Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson said. “A lot of positive things have happened because of the way these guys played.”
Kansas (33-3) fell behind early and came up just short on one of its anticipated runs, ending a season of national-title aspirations with another disappointing NCAA loss to a mid-major.
The Jayhawks trailed by as many as 12 points and used defense to pull within one with 44 seconds left. But they let Farokhmanesh sneak out for the deciding 3 to go down for the mid-major count like they did to Bradley in 2006 and Bucknell the year before, also in Oklahoma City.
Cole Aldrich had 13 points and 10 rebounds, Marcus Morris added 16 points and Sherron Collins ended his stellar KU career with 10 points on 4-of-15 shooting.
“Obviously, everybody is disappointed on our team,” Aldrich said. “To work so hard and to go through so much adversity … it’s disappointing that we couldn’t have let Sherron go out in a better way.”
The post-game celebration told the story.
Farokhmanesh, who finished with 16 points, jumped into a huddle of teammates, and Koch embraced older brother Adam to a chant of “U-N-I!” At the other end, Jayhawks Morris and redshirt senior Mario Little crumbled to the floor, tears streaming down their faces when they finally rose.
Yes, this was monumental.
“We never doubted we could play with them at all,” senior Adam Koch said.
Kansas sneaked by Lehigh in the first round, using a spirit-crushing run to turn a scare into a 16-point win.
Northern Iowa had to fight through its three-point win over UNLV in the opener, breaking a 20-year NCAA winless drought on Farokhmanesh’s 25-footer with 4.9 seconds left.
This game was like opposite poles of two magnets; One of the nation’s highest-scoring teams against Northern Iowa’s stuck-in-the-mud mentality.
UNI had never played a No. 1-ranked team and no one from its conference had beaten one since 1962. UNI also seemed to be overmatched against KU’s lineup of pros-in-waiting. When asked if any of their players could start for Kansas, Farokhmanesh and Adam Koch gave an uncomfortable laugh.
The thing about the Panthers is they know defensive positioning as well as any team in the country, moving in a symphonic dance of denial. Northern Iowa has become the best team in its state, too, reaching the NCAA tournament five of the past seven years to shake the underdog tag.
The Panthers went right at Kansas from the start, leading all but 56 seconds of the first half to go up by eight.
“There were some things that happened during the game that I felt like wasn’t poor play by us, more so Northern Iowa making plays,” Kansas coach Bill Self said.
Kansas inched its way back behind defense as their fans made the Ford Center feel like Allen Fieldhouse.
But the Panthers didn’t blink, answering every challenge for the monster upset.
“We knew they were going to turn up the pressure,” Adam Koch said. “In this kind of environment, where this could be your last game, you’re going to come at it with everything.”
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Destiny’s darlings eye Final Four
By Dan Wetzel
March 20, 2010
In between entertaining a recruit he hopes can get George Mason back to the NCAA tournament and, who knows, even the Final Four, Jim Larranaga was at home Saturday afternoon watching the Big Dance like everyone else.
And as the unwashed masses from the ranks of the mid-majors kept punching tickets to the Sweet 16 – Northern Iowa over Kansas, St. Mary’s over Villanova, Butler over Murray State – he thought about the inevitable question.
“Can another George Mason make the Final Four?” Larranaga, the coach who led the Patriots to the Holy Grail in 2006, said. “Yes I think it’s possible. There are some very good teams.
“Northern Iowa is a very good team. St. Mary’s is a very good team. Butler is a very good team. Yes they could make it.”
Four years ago George Mason was the toast of the tournament, the first true mid-major to reach the Final Four since 1979, when Penn and Indiana State did it. Until then, Cinderellas were good for some first weekend fun, but the dream eventually died.
Then the Patriots defeated Michigan State, North Carolina and Connecticut en route the Final Four. It wasn’t just a fluke moment, it changed perceptions and attitudes across non-power conferences.
If nothing else, that was what was on display Saturday. Larranaga wasn’t interested in taking credit for anyone else’s accomplishments, but he was willing to acknowledge that game has changed.
Northern Iowa defeated mighty Kansas because from the first seconds to the final moments it believed it could. Same for St. Mary’s over Villanova. These teams aren’t just good, they’re confident. They believed that a Sweet 16 appearance was every bit as much their destiny as the Kansas or Villanova kids did.
“The intimidation factor is not the way it used to be in the 1980s when a high major would get on the court and guys would say, ‘Oh my, these guys are great, these guys are going to the NBA.’”
Intimidation? Please. Did Northern Iowa’s Ali Farokhmanesh look intimidated when he knocked down a 3-pointer with 34 seconds left to all but clinch the victory over Kansas?
“Might as well take that shot,” Farokhmanesh said with a shrug postgame on CBS. “That’s just how we play we always act like we are winning the game no matter what.”
Or against whom.
Northern Iowa played Kansas like it was a mid-January league game against Drake.
The St. Mary’s players were no less worried when they locked up with a Villanova team that was a No. 2 seed, had stood atop the polls earlier this season and reached the Final Four a year ago. In fact, the Gaels were so confident that the mother of star center Omar Samhan told her son she wasn’t going to bother traveling to the team’s first two games in Rhode Island. She told him she’d see him at the Sweet 16 in Houston.
“My mom has had a flight to Houston since Selection Sunday,” Samhan said. “I’m glad we’ll be there, too, because she was going either way. That’s where we get our confidence from, my mom.”
Upsets have always been a part of the NCAA tournament. Dream runs for Cinderellas have captured the nation’s imagination for years. Yet there was always a ceiling. Now, who knows? Larranaga said his team was able to reach the Final Four because it entered each game with a bit of swagger.
He sees that same thing in this field. And he figures that while few mid-majors are going to boldly discuss reaching the NCAAs final weekend, there is little doubt the players have thought about it.
“Many of the players who are playing now were in high school (in 2006) and they watched us,” Larranaga said. “When they decided to go to a mid-major they definitely thought, ‘Hey, I hope we can do what George Mason did.’
“There’s a definite vision that since someone else did it, we can do it too.”
By definition Northern Iowa is a Final Four contender. It just defeated the No. 1 seed overall and a team that had spent the entire season ranked in the top three of the national polls. If you can beat Kansas, you can beat anyone. UNI even controlled the game. KU’s only lead was 2-0.
Larranaga pointed to the way Butler can shoot the ball and plays together. The fact the program may be small in budget but has had such sustained success over the last decade makes a Final Four berth (in this case in its hometown) not that far-fetched.
“St. Mary’s would be a surprise to many but only if you hadn’t watched them play. And that’s part of the issue,” Larranaga said. “With the ‘experts’ on television, familiarity breeds hype. It’s the same with fans.
“They just have so much more knowledge of the high major. It’s, ‘Oh, I’ve seen this team three, four, five times. I’ve maybe seen Butler or Murray State or Old Dominion once.
“Well, how about Samhan!”
Samhan had 32 points and seven rebounds and looked every bit as good as any big man in the country. If you have the best center, isn’t anything possible?
“You can’t let your team believe what they hear on television,” Larranaga said. “What helps is there’s no fear factor. The game is no longer local or regional, it’s national or international. They all play against each other in high school or AAU ball.”
Saturday was a day of stunning results. Three mid-majors punched tickets to the Sweet 16 and none of them looked like they were thinking about slowing down. During their historic, seismic run the George Mason fans used to sing Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer.”
For the mid-major that follows them to the tourney’s last weekend, it may be less about prayers and more about destiny.
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