NCAA Men's News Capsules: Mid-major uprising hardly biggest NCAA surprise
Not so long ago, having Butler and Xavier among the last 16 teams in the NCAA tournament would have spawned feel-good stories about the plucky mid-major conferences and the wonderful hoops democracy that is March Madness.
This year, those teams barely caused a buzz outside their own campuses, mostly because they're regulars at a party with a rather eclectic guest list.
It starts with No. 9 Northern Iowa, the team that sent tournament favorite Kansas packing.
There's No. 12 Cornell, pushing the Ivy League as far in the tournament as its been since 1979.
There's No. 11 Washington, a familiar name that was underrated because the Pac-10 had a dreadful year.
There's No. 10 Saint Mary's, a team that won its conference tournament simply to get in, then validated that with two more victories.
How's that for some good underdog stories?
"I think we get underestimated night in, night out," said Saint Mary's big man Omar Samhan. "It's hilarious and we love it. We like that people underestimate ourselves night after night. We don't look like much. We don't pass the eye test but we know what it takes to win."
As do No. 5 Butler and No. 6 Xavier — two of five mid-major teams to advance to the second weekend. But this was no big surprise. Butler is in its third regional semifinal in eight years, while Xavier joined Michigan State as the only two programs to make the second weekend for three straight seasons.
"I know I'm not taking it for granted and I know my teammates aren't taking it for granted," said Xavier's Jordan Crawford, the sophomore who dunked on LeBron James in high school in what quickly turned into a viral video. "I love the fact I'm getting a chance to do this and hopefully we can take it further."
Americans love underdogs, but many fans who filled out brackets suffered after this kind of uprising.
President Barack Obama was one of more than 2 million — that's 42.7 percent — who picked the Jayhawks to win the national title in their ESPN brackets and now find themselves more or less relegated to also-rans. ESPN said there were no perfect brackets and only four of 4.78 million entries contained 15 of the 16 remaining teams.
Among those joining Kansas on the sideline: No. 2 Villanova, No. 3 Georgetown and No. 3 Pittsburgh, three of six Big East teams to go out. Last year's national champion, North Carolina, didn't even make the tournament, which leaves Michigan State, a No. 5 seed in the Midwest, as the only remaining program from last year's Final Four.
Replacing Kansas as the odds-on favorite is Kentucky, which breezed through its two games and is listed at 2-1 in Vegas to win the championship, April 5 in Indianapolis.
Before that, though, are the regionals.
In the Midwest on Friday, Northern Iowa will face Michigan State and No. 2 Ohio State plays No. 6 Tennessee.
In the East on Thursday, No. 1 Kentucky plays Cornell — Big Blue vs. the Big Red — while Washington faces No. 2 West Virginia.
In the South semifinals Friday, No. 3 Baylor will play Saint Mary's, while No. 1 Duke plays No. 4 Purdue.
And the West is mid-major country: No. 2 Kansas State advanced to play Xavier, and No. 1 Syracuse will play Butler on Thursday.
"I don't think there's the mid-major anymore when you get into the NCAA tournament," said Ohio State coach Thad Matta, who used to coach Xavier.
Helped by No. 13 Murray State and No. 14 Ohio, double-digit seeds won 11 games over the first two rounds. Other double-digit winners included No. 10 Georgia Tech of the Atlantic Coast, Missouri of the Big 12 and, of course, Washington of the Pac-10.
No upset, though, had a bigger impact than Northern Iowa's 69-67 win over Kansas.
The Jayhawks were the tournament's overall No. 1 seed. Though placed in what was widely regarded as the toughest region, they had the coach (Bill Self), the experience (2008 national title) and the talent (Sherron Collins, Cole Aldrich, Xavier Henry and the Morris twins) to be a Final Four heavyweight.
Instead, Ali knocked them out.
That's Ali Farokhmanesh, the Northern Iowa guard who hit the game-icing 3-pointer Saturday after Kansas had whittled its deficit to one. Typical of an underdog, Farokhmanesh concedes that when he was in high school, he wasn't even sure he'd play Division I basketball.
"To go from that to, we're in the Sweet Sixteen, we just beat the No. 1 team in the country," Farokhmanesh said. "I mean, if someone would have told me that back then I would have laughed at them probably. But I think it shows that hard work really does pay off."
The NCAA selection committee awarded eight at-large spots to teams from small conferences. That was double the number of last year. Instead of portraying that as a celebration of the come-one-come-all nature of the tournament, pundits widely derided the field as being one of the weakest in memory.
Debatable, though the number of underdogs making it through highlighted some of the selection committee's less-than-perfect work — all issues that were pointed out when the bracket came out last Sunday.
— Yes, the Pac-10 had an awful year, though sticking Washington, the tournament champion of a power conference, on the No. 11 line was clearly a misread. The Huskies blew out No. 3 New Mexico, the Mountain West regular-season champion, 82-64.
— Cornell won 28 games, won the Ivy League title by two games and, with a handful of players who had tournament experience, was widely viewed as a scary team to play. Certainly Temple and Wisconsin would agree. They lost to the No. 12 seed by a combined 31 points. Cornell became the first Ivy League team to make it this far since Penn made the Final Four in 1979.
— Though any team beating Kansas would have made big news, Northern Iowa probably shouldn't have been playing the Jayhawks so early. The Panthers were seeded ninth despite being ranked No. 17 in the latest RPI, which would correspond to a No. 4 or 5 seed. Their odds to win the championship have improved from 200-1 to 40-1.
"I'm sure that bandwagon has a few wheels on it," said Jay Kornegay, who runs the sports book at the Las Vegas Hilton. "If they win a couple more games, that thing's gonna be fully loaded.
Notebook: Big East has 2 teams left, 11 conferences remain
MILWAUKEE — Then there were two.
The Big East was largely considered the country's best conference this season, and it showed with eight schools — half of the 16-team league — receiving bids to the NCAA tournament. But after Pittsburgh's loss Sunday, the league is down to its final two: No. 1 seed Syracuse in the West Regional and No. 2 West Virginia in the East.
With all the failings of the mega-league, 11 conferences are represented in the round of 16, including five mid-majors. Only the Big Ten (Ohio State, Purdue, Michigan State), the Big 12 (Kansas State, Baylor), the Southeastern Conference (Kentucky, Tennessee) and the Big East have multiple teams remaining.
Still, the Big East must have expected more big names to survive the tournament's first weekend.
"We were always talked about as the best conference in the country. So when we lose some games in the tournament, it becomes more talked about," Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said after the Panthers' 71-68 second-round loss to Xavier.
Especially with all the high seeds.
Pitt was the third seed in the West Regional.
Villanova, upset by St. Mary's in the second round Saturday, was the No. 2 seed in the South Regional.
Georgetown, which didn't even make it out of the first round, was the third seed in the Midwest.
Marquette, Louisville and Notre Dame also lost in the first round.
"The conference is still good," West Virginia's Da'Sean Butler said. "Granted, some of our teams might have lost. It's a bad draw of the cards, you know."
West Virginia coach Bob Huggins had an even sharper opinion.
"Whoever doesn't think the Big East is a great league really shouldn't write sports. They ought to do something else. Do cooking or something," he said. "You have to be kidding me. The Big East is a great, great basketball league."
The Big Ten is faring the best so far among all the conferences at 7-2 after the first two rounds. The Pac-10 and West Coast Conferences are 3-1, the SEC is 4-2 and even the Big 12 is 7-5 overall in the tournament.
"Is the Big 12 not any good because Kansas lost? No. The Big 12 is a great league," Huggins said. "I actually was wondering, were you guys going to start talking about the Missouri Valley was the best league in the country. What do you guys think about (it)?"
Three conferences with only one team in the tournament advanced to the regional semifinals — The Valley (Northern Iowa), the Ivy League (Cornell) and the Horizon League (Butler).
Xavier from the Atlantic 10 is in the regional semifinals for the third straight year along with Big Ten power Michigan State. Xavier coach Chris Mack said throughout the weekend he was tired of his Musketeers being perceived as "fodder" for big conference foes.
"We're not just playing for ourselves. We're playing for the Atlantic 10," forward Jamel McLean said. "A lot of mid-major teams have shown the world that it's bigger than just power schools out there."
Cornell coach Steve Donahue said there are definite advantages to playing the power schools in the tournament.
"In the NCAA tournament, you get a neutral side, you get great officials," he said. "You just really get an opportunity to play your game against teams in a real, honest, clean environment, which for a mid-major against high majors is very difficult."
FAVORS' FLOP: It was supposed to be a matchup of two of the top five picks in the upcoming NBA draft, but Ohio State's Evan Turner shined while Georgia Tech's Derrick Favors spent most of Sunday in foul trouble.
The Buckeyes beat the Yellow Jackets 75-66 and afterward, Favors said he would talk to coaches and advisers before making a decision on whether he'll return for his sophomore year.
The 6-foot-10 Favors didn't score his first points until there was 14:59 left. He finished with 10 points and four rebounds before fouling out with 41 seconds left.
At least one Buckeye believes the 18-year-old Favors could use a little more seasoning. Junior forward Dallas Lauderdale said he could tell Favors would slow down at times.
"I could tell times when he just quit. If I was fighting in the post, I could tell when he quit and I could tell when he didn't want to run," he said. "It was just a weird feeling because I could tell, like my swim move, I just had a little bit more."
Lauderdale still thinks Favors has plenty of natural ability, though.
"For him to be so young and so strong, his future is bright," he said. "That's all I've got to say: He's got a bright future."
Turner, a leading candidate for national player of the year and a junior, finished with 24 points, nine rebounds, nine assists and nine turnovers. Ohio State will play Tennessee on Friday in the Midwest Regional semifinals.
TOUGH LOSS: As much as this loss to Michigan State hurts, it's not the worst Maryland coach Gary Williams has endured in the NCAA tournament.
Greivis Vasquez's basket put Maryland up 83-82 with 6 seconds left Sunday, only to have Korie Lucious hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Spartans the win.
"It's not the worst," Williams said. "Where would it be? 2001 in the Final Four, we were up 20 on Duke. That one hurt."
Actually, it was 22.
The Terrapins led the Blue Devils 39-17 with just over 13 minutes elapsed in that Final Four game. But Juan Dixon scored just three points in the second half, Terence Morris ran into foul trouble and Maryland wound up losing 95-84. Duke went on to win the national title.
This latest loss will be tough, though, because it was Vasquez's last game in a Maryland uniform. The ACC player of the year did everything he could, going on a late scoring tear to put the Terrapins in position to win. Vasquez scored nine of Maryland's final 11 points in the last two minutes, and finished with 26.
"I didn't want that game to be my last. But unfortunately it went the other way," he said. "I'm just proud that we came back and we took the lead. We had a lot of guts to do that. And our team did it. Everybody. (It's) something that is going to make us better not only as a player, but as a person, all of us, especially the seniors."
FRIENDLY RIVALRY: Those friendly phone calls and text messages between grade school teammates Iman Shumpert and Evan Turner might be on hold for a while.
Turner got the best of his old buddy in Ohio State's 75-66 victory over Georgia Tech in the second round of the NCAA tournament Sunday. Bouncing back from one of the worst shooting games of his career, Turner scored 24 points and came within an assist and a rebound of a triple-double.
"I'm always going to wish him luck," Shumpert said. "But I'm not sure when I'm going to pick my phone up."
Though Shumpert, a sophomore, is a year younger than Turner, he was talented enough as a seventh grader to be put on the eighth-grade team at their school in suburban Chicago. Turner played shooting guard, Shumpert point guard. They often played one-on-one after practice and, after going to separate high schools, faced each other during the season and in the summer.
But this was their first matchup in several years.
"He's definitely gotten stronger, his defense has gotten a lot better," Turner said. "He's definitely a competitor and he's coming out to win."
Shumpert has emerged as Georgia Tech's top defender, and had previously disrupted such big-time players as Duke's Jon Scheyer, Maryland's Greivis Vasquez and Oklahoma State's James Anderson. While Turner did have nine turnovers and shot 42 percent, he still found ways to take control of the game.
"Sometimes he got free," Shumpert said, "and made us pay."
MORE SEATS NEEDED: If Spokane Arena wants the NCAA men's basketball tournament to come back to town, it will need to add more than 200 additional seats.
There is a new NCAA rule that an arena must have at least 12,000 seats available to be sold to hold first- and second-round games. Currently, Spokane Arena can hold 11,736 fans for basketball games.
The earliest Spokane could host the men's tournament is 2014. Tournament sites for the next three years have already been announced. No cities in Washington state were selected.
The West Coast cities chosen to host are Denver; Tucson, Ariz.; Portland, Ore.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Salt Lake City, and San Jose, Calif.
The announced attendance was 11,015 for Sunday's second-round games between Maryland and Michigan State, and Purdue and Texas A&M. Ticket scalpers were having a hard time getting face value for their ducats outside the building.
Spokane wasn't dealt any favors by the NCAA's tournament selection committee. Not only was hometown team Gonzaga sent to play in Buffalo, N.Y., the Bulldogs' games were on the same Friday-Sunday schedule.
QUOTABLE: "This is different from football. We find out in this tournament who the best teams really are." — Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim on the difference in talent between major and mid-major programs.
-- Colin Fly
Obama slumping in men's, women's NCAA brackets
NEW YORK — Better luck picking next year, Mr. President.
One day after his bracket was busted by Kansas' stunning loss to Northern Iowa, President Barack Obama went 5-3 in the men's NCAA tournament Sunday.
He has only nine teams remaining in the round of 16, but five of his final eight are still playing. Obama ranks 341,262nd on ESPN.com's leaderboard, putting him in the top 92.9 percent of users who made picks on the Web site.
That ranking is likely to drop next weekend as the tournament continues, because of the Jayhawks' 69-67 loss Saturday. Obama picked Kansas — as did 42.2 percent of ESPN users — to win it all, with the Jayhawks beating Kentucky.
Obama's women's bracket also took a hit Sunday when he lost seven of the first 12 games, but rebounded in the four late matchups to finish 9-7. He ranked 106,679th, better than 44 percent among ESPN users.
His round of 16 is still intact, except for No. 6 seed Texas, which lost to 11th-seeded San Diego State 74-63 in the Memphis Regional on Sunday.
Obama played it mostly safe with the women's bracket on the first day, picking the better seeds in all but one of the 16 games. It also ended up being his only loss as No. 10 seed North Carolina fell to seventh-seeded Gonzaga 82-76. Obama was tied for first with many others until the Tar Heels' loss.
He went with much the same picking approach for the second-day games — taking 13 of 16 higher seeds — but it didn't work out nearly as well.
The First Fan's women's Final Four includes all No. 1 seeds: Connecticut, Tennessee, Stanford and Nebraska. He has Connecticut, which has won a women's NCAA-record 73 straight games, beating Stanford for the title.
-- Dennis Waszak Jr.
Features
Season of promise fizzles out for Jayhawks
OKLAHOMA CITY — Standing outside the locker room, Cole Aldrich hugged anyone he could find, trying to console his dejected teammates. Maybe he was doing it for himself, too.
The return-for-another-title pact he had made with Sherron Collins fell short. The two unlikely buddies who bypassed the NBA for another shot at glory saw their season come to an inglorious end.
The epitaph: Northern Iowa 69, Kansas 67. This wasn't the way Collins and Aldrich expected it to end.
"Next to my son dying, it's probably the worst thing to happen to me in my life," said Collins, his voice quivering as he sniffled back tears.
This was one of the most anticipated seasons ever in Lawrence. Kansas had preseason All-Americans Collins and Aldrich back, a group of sophomores from one of coach Bill Self's best recruiting classes ever and another, better group of freshmen this year.
The Jayhawks were bigger, better, faster and deeper than everyone else, essentially an NBA development team. The first sign of trouble came in the summer.
That's when members of the team got into several fights with the football team, leaving the university embarrassed and point guard Tyshawn Taylor with an injured hand. Two weeks later, junior guard Brady Morningstar was arrested on suspicion of DUI, earning him a first-semester suspension from the team.
Questions of immaturity were quickly quashed when Kansas lived up to its preseason No. 1 ranking and won its first 14 games. The Jayhawks suffered a surprising setback to short-handed Tennessee, but lost just once the rest of the season on the way to a sixth-straight Big 12 regular-season title and their seventh conference tournament championship.
The winning wasn't always easy, though.
Kansas had an on-the-edge habit of playing down to the level of its opponents or against the score, allowing lesser teams to stay close, good teams to rally after being down.
The Jayhawks lacked the killer instinct of the 2008 national championship team, too often playing in spurts instead of stomping the will out of opponents. Kansas got away with it most of the time, relying on a big run of hot shooting or claustrophobic defense to turn tight games into routs.
It worked in the NCAA's first round. Kansas fell behind Lehigh early to give the mid-major hope, went on a run and won by a looks-good-in-the-boxscore 16 points. The run of runs came to an end in Saturday's second-round game against Northern Iowa.
Kansas fell behind 10-2 and never fully caught up, leaving Ali Farokhmanesh open for a momentum-breaking 3-pointer and failing to convert offensively after that to lose 69-67.
For all the hype, the predictions of a second title in three years — one by the president, no less — the Jayhawks were sent home by another mid-major, like in Bradley in 2006 and Bucknell the year before in Oklahoma City.
When it was over, tears flowed as players kneeled face down on the floor as Northern Iowa celebrated at the other end. The weight of expectations made it hurt even more.
"We had a good season," guard Tyrel Reed said. "It just didn't end the way we wanted it to."
The disappointing loss ends one of the greatest careers in KU's renowned history.
Collins didn't finish the Jayhawks' career leader in points, assists, even steals. What he did was win more games than anyone in Kansas history, more than Wilt Chamberlain, Danny Manning and Kirk Hinrich.
A shy kid from inner-city Chicago when he arrived, Collins became the face of a program, the man who took the blame when his team lost, deflected credit even when he was the reason it won.
Collins' final line: 10 points on 4 of 15 shooting, four assist, three rebounds, five turnovers. This was not the way anyone wanted to see him go out, but he'll still have a place in the rafters with Wilt and everyone else, his name among the greatest players in KU history.
"It's disappointing that we couldn't have let Sherron go out in a better way," Aldrich said.
He likely won't be the only one leaving. Aldrich almost left after last season, sticking around only after Collins agreed to. A likely lottery pick in the NBA draft, he cried along with Collins during senior night at Allen Fieldhouse as if it were his last night, too.
Marcus Morris boosted his draft status with an exponentially improved sophomore season, but isn't likely to bolt without twin brother Markieff. Taylor could go, too, though scouts have questions about his maturity.
Xavier Henry seems to be ready to go. The freshman phenom only went to KU because of NBA eligibility rules and could become the Jayhawks' first one-and-done player.
Whatever happens, Kansas will likely rebuild, as it always does, and use the disappointment of this weekend as motivation.
"It's something that will always stick in your head when you're supposed to win the whole thing and you only make it to the second round and lose," Henry said. "If I'm back next year. ... I can make sure we do what we're supposed to do, not come out here, mess around and get beat."
-- John Marshall
Surging Kentucky firing on all cylinders
Kentucky coach John Calipari caught his players staring at the TV in disbelief, watching Northern Iowa's upset bid against Kansas a few minutes before the Wildcats were to face Wake Forest in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Saturday.
Calipari immediately hit the power switch.
"I made them turn the TV off to think about our game (and said) 'don't worry about that game,'" Calipari said. "When they went out, I was saying, 'Wow.'"
After watching Kentucky destroy the Demon Deacons 90-60 to advance to the round of 16 for the first time since 2005, the rest of the country is saying the same thing.
Kentucky's startlingly easy wins on the opening weekend of the tournament combined with Kansas' equally stunning departure has made the Wildcats a suddenly trendy pick to collect their eighth NCAA title.
Actress and Kentucky native Ashley Judd — one of Big Blue's most ardent fans — is back in the stands after a brief hiatus during Billy Gillispie's turbulent two-year tenure.
Judd admitted to having flashbacks to 1996 — when the Wildcats roared to their sixth NCAA crown behind a squad loaded with future NBA players under former coach Rick Pitino — after watching Kentucky dismantle Wake Forest.
"That was a really spectacular win," she said.
One that seemed to deliver on the promise Calipari made in October, when he admitted it would take time for the Wildcats to grasp the dribble-drive offense and suffocating defense he used to mold Memphis into a national power.
Kentucky ran the floor with ease and shot 60 percent from the field while harassing Wake Forest into 33 percent shooting. It was a command performance, though Calipari is doing his best to temper expectations heading into Thursday's regional semifinal in Syracuse against surprising Cornell, who dominated Wisconsin on Sunday.
"We're still a bunch of freshmen and sophomores," Calipari said. It was "our second NCAA tournament game. They've never played in any other games. The guys that we're playing have never played in it."
Not that it has seemed to matter. Freshmen stars John Wall, Eric Bledsoe and DeMarcus Cousins hardly looked at ease playing in the sometimes unnerving crucible the tournament provides.
Cousins couldn't help but laugh when asked if Kansas' loss puts any additional pressure on the Wildcats. The 6-foot-11 center was barely able to get out a "nope" between chuckles.
"As long as we come out and play the best we can, that's all we can control," added sophomore Darius Miller, who poured in a career-high 20 points against Wake Forest.
When they're at their best, it appears few teams in the country can keep up. Though Calipari has spent most of the year trying to downplay his team's ability, the truth is the Wildcats have been able to survive despite all their perceived flaws.
Their lack of experience — Kentucky starts three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior — hasn't stopped them from winning 34 games.
Their streaky outside shooting no longer seems a problem. Bledsoe hit eight 3-pointers in an opening round win over East Tennessee State, breaking a record held by former star and current assistant Tony Delk, and the Wildcats made a respectable 7 of 21 3-pointers on Saturday.
They've struggled at times holding onto the ball, particularly Wall, who gives it away just over four times a game and turned it over five times against the Demon Deacons.
Yet it doesn't seem to matter. Though Wall can be unstoppable at times, the Wildcats have proven they can win even when he isn't at his best. Bledsoe led the charge in the first round. Miller paved the way in the second. Cousins is arguably the best big man in the country and stoic forward Patrick Patterson is the team's unquestioned leader.
Calipari couldn't care less about who the star is, as long as it's somebody with "Kentucky" written across the front of his jersey.
"You're trying to land the plane," he said. "You're trying to get it down on the ground. Whatever is happening, all the turbulence, and the other kind of stuff. We're just trying to get to (the plane) on the ground right now."
It's been smooth sailing so far, no matter how hard Calipari tries to downplay his team's prospects.
The Wildcats will be heavily favored to end Cornell's surprising run and move on to the regional finals where either West Virginia or Washington awaits.
All three teams are talented. All three would probably have to get Northern Iowa hot to beat the Wildcats.
Not that Calipari wants to talk about it.
"I don't know if we're the overwhelming favorite," Calipari said. "Everybody was picking us to lose (to Wake Forest). They were also saying we'd be the first No. 1 out. So how do they change those talking heads overnight? With one game? Come on."
-- Will Graves
Galloping Gaels back in national spotlight
MORAGA, Calif. — It's been nearly eight decades since Saint Mary's got so much attention for going back East to knock off a national powerhouse.
Long after Slip Madigan loaded his Galloping Gaels onto trains for cross-country trips to take on college football's elite, the basketball team is making its own mark.
Led by a center with old-school post moves and modern trash-talking skills in Omar Samhan and five Australians, the 10th-seeded Gaels knocked off Richmond and second-seeded Villanova in Providence, R.I., to advance to the round of 16 for the first time since the NCAA tournament had only 23 teams back in 1959.
Next Saint Mary's will take on third-seeded Baylor Friday in Houston.
This run has turned the Gaels into one of the tournament darlings, with fans and media appreciating their underdog status and unselfish play.
The national spotlight is something new for a program that often fights for attention in its home market. Often overshadowed by the two Pac-10 teams — California and Stanford — and six major pro franchises in the Bay Area, the tiny school of about 3,500 students in the bucolic East Bay hills in the San Francisco area is in the limelight once again.
Soon after the Gaels wrapped up their 75-68 victory over Villanova on Saturday, Samhan went into the stands to celebrate with the small but vocal contingent that made the long trek to Rhode Island.
"With a small community you know everybody," Samhan said. "It's great. I'm happy for them that they're able to experience it with us and I'm happy we were able to do this for Saint Mary's. It's the mid-major, we get that label, we get that title. And I was happy we were able to come through not only for the city, but the fans around the country."
The scene on campus was almost as wild, according to Diana Diaz, co-president of the Gael Force student supporters and rooting section. Students screamed out their dorm windows, others honked horns while driving on campus. Diaz also got to ring the bell on campus.
"Supposedly the last time it was rung manually was when the Pope died," Diaz said. "It's kind of a big deal."
The Gaels were greeted by more fans when they returned to campus late Saturday night with a police and fire truck escort. A few hundred cheering students and supporters were there when the bus arrived.
"There were more people out at midnight welcoming the team bus back than there were in the gym when we were playing games in 2000," athletic director Mark Orr said.
Now the basketball team is gathering up fans as quickly as the football team did back in the 1930s during Madigan's heyday.
Schooled by Knute Rockne as a player at Notre Dame, Madigan quickly turned the Gaels into a national powerhouse after arriving in 1921. The Gaels earned a reputation as a giant killer by beating USC, UCLA, Stanford and California in the 1920s and then became a traveling show in the '30s.
Saint Mary's took a cross-country train ride to face powerhouse Fordham at the Polo Grounds in New York throughout the decade. The train was equipped with a gym for the players and a bar for the fans.
The Gaels won their first game against Fordham in 1930, ending a 28-game winning streak for the Rams. Later in the decade, Saint Mary's would be greeted by huge parties upon arriving for a game that was one of the biggest each year in New York.
Few were bigger than the 1936 contest, when Vince Lombardi and the Seven Blocks of Granite beat Saint Mary's 7-6 in front of 50,000 fans at the Polo Grounds.
"It was like the old Fordham trips and all that," Orr said. "The New York Times, the Boston Globe, all those guys were wondering where the heck Moraga, Calif., is and who Saint Mary's is. Saint Mary's is a known entity in the West but not in the East."
The football team had little success after Madigan left in 1940.
The basketball team made it to the NCAA tournament in 1959 led by future NBA player Tom Meschery. The Gaels beat Idaho State in their first game for their only tournament win before this year and then lost 66-46 to eventual champion California in the West region final.
That just about ended the story of success in major college athletics until the past few years. The low point came early last decade. The basketball team went 2-27 in 2000-01, and the football team was eliminated in 2004 so more resources could be directed at the other sports.
By then, coach Randy Bennett had started the basketball turnaround. He looked everywhere for players, especially Australia, and led the team to an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament in 2005. The Gaels lost to Southern Illinois in the first round and followed up with a couple of down years.
But with the arrival of Patty Mills from Australia, the Gaels made it back to the tournament in 2008 before losing in the first round to Miami. After Mills starred in the Olympics, the Gaels were getting even more attention last season. They got off to an 18-1 start before Mills broke his hand in a loss at Gonzaga.
Despite a 26-6 record, the Gaels were disappointed after being left out of the NCAA tournament. With Mills and star forward Diamon Simpson gone, this was supposed to be a rebuilding year in Moraga.
Instead, Samhan has carried the Gaels deeper than they have been in years, with help from point guard Mickey McConnell and the Australian contingent led by passing big man Ben Allen and gritty guard Matthew Dellavedova.
"We're under the radar as a team," Bennett said. "Just our players are. They're better than you think they are."
-- Josh Dubow
Once-overlooked Farokhmanesh leads Northern Iowa
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — All Ali Farokhmanesh wanted coming out of high school was the chance to play Division I ball.
None of the big boys wanted him, though. Farokhmanesh probably would have settled for a Division II offer, but no takers there, either. Four years and three schools later, the 6-footer from Northern Iowa is the toast of this year's NCAA tournament.
The overlooked shooting guard on the once-overlooked Panthers has delivered a pair of dazzling performances. Farokhmanesh (Fah-ROHK-ma-NESH) hit a winning 3-pointer with 4.9 seconds to lead the ninth-seeded Panthers past UNLV in the opening round. He then sank a pull-up 3 with 34 seconds left to help Northern Iowa (30-4) stun top-seeded Kansas on Saturday and advance to the regional semifinals for the first time.
Farokhmanesh is averaging 16.5 points in the NCAA tournament. Not bad for someone who toiled at two junior colleges before finding a home with the Panthers.
"Because he's prepared, he's got all the confidence in the world," Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson said Sunday. "He knows that his teammates have complete trust in him and that he's going to come through for us when we need him to."
Farokhmanesh took quite the journey to sleepy Cedar Falls, which isn't so sleepy these days thanks to the bracket-busting Panthers. Farokhmanesh lived in Pullman, Wash., until he was 15. His mother, Cindy Fredrick, was the volleyball coach at Washington State and his father, former Iranian national volleyball team player Mashallah Farokhmanesh, was an assistant with the Cougars.
The family moved to Iowa City when Fredrick became the coach at Iowa (she resigned after four seasons). Farokhmanesh starred at Iowa City West High — right under the nose of the Big Ten's Hawkeyes — but he said the only schools willing to give him a shot were junior colleges.
Farokhmanesh started out at Indian Hills Community College in southeastern Iowa, but he hardly played there. He transferred to Kirkwood Community College, also in Iowa, for his sophomore season. Thanks to a supportive coaching staff, Farokhmanesh's game soon took off.
He averaged 17 points and five assists in his one season at Kirkwood, earning first-team NJCAA Division II All-American honors and attracting the attention of Jacobson. Jacobson recalled catching Farokhmanesh on a night when his shots weren't falling, but the coach saw other things.
"I loved his demeanor," Jacobson said. "His presence, the confidence he carries himself with. Those were the things that I really felt like our team needed."
Farokhmanesh has averaged just under 10 points in two seasons, but he thrives on drama.
He made a 3-pointer to help Northern Iowa outlast Illinois State in overtime in the 2009 Missouri Valley title game. This season, he drilled a 3 with 34 seconds left to help the Panthers complete a comeback at rival Iowa State. He hit two 3s from over 25 feet away late in the second half to lead Northern Iowa past Drake.
For Farokhmanesh, the secret to playing well late in games is simple. Big moments don't allow him time to dwell on things.
"Sometimes I probably think about my shot too much," he said. "If someone leaves me a little too open, then sometimes you second-guess yourself, talk to yourself a little about the shot. I think in those situations you almost know you have to shoot it, so that's probably why it makes it a little easier."
The 3-pointer in the closing minute against Kansas is surely the biggest shot in school history. The shot took down the blue-chip Jayhawks, ousted by someone who once questioned if he'd ever even play Division I basketball.
"I just remember coming out of high school and not knowing if I was even going to play anymore," Farokhmanesh said. "To go from that to, we're in the Sweet Sixteen, we just beat the No. 1 team in the country. I mean, if someone would have told me that back then I would have laughed at them probably. But I think it shows that hard work really does pay off."
-- Luke Meredith
Wildcats won't repeat Final Four run
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Scottie Reynolds ended his career in tears, not in another Final Four.
The second-leading scorer in Villanova history expected his senior season to end with a repeat trip to the Final Four and a national championship. All he got was an ill-timed slump and an early exit.
Reynolds played the worst basketball of his fabulous career at the most inopportune time of the season. He'll always be fondly remembered at Villanova for his winner that lifted the Wildcats to the 2009 Final Four. This week, the memories of his continuous clunkers off the rim in both games of the NCAA tournament are still raw.
His shooting numbers will haunt the Wildcats as they watch the rest of the tourney: He was 4 of 26 from the field in the tournament; 13 of 52 (25 percent) over his last four games. His already faint NBA draft hopes may have vanished right along with Villanova's tournament ride.
That ended when Saint Mary's big man Omar Samhan dominated the second-seeded Wildcats (25-8) for 40 minutes in a 75-68 victory Saturday. Coach Jay Wright was sad to see Reynolds' career finish with a thud.
"He's had a lot of nights where he made all the big ones," Wright said. "He knows it's going to end eventually and it's not going to be pretty. The night it ends, it's never going to be pretty."
Tears streamed from Reynolds' eyes, his lips trembled as he tried to put his career in perspective. He offered no excuses for the way he played and paid tribute to former Wildcats who molded him into one of the best ever at Villanova.
"I tried to be the best Scottie Reynolds I could be and the best Scottie Reynolds for this program and tried to do what the guys did before me," he said. "I've got great pride in Allan Ray, Randy Foye, Mike Nardi, Will Sheridan, Curtis Sumpter. So many guys, I can just keep naming them. I've just got so much respect for those guys. I just wanted to be in the same category as them. Hopefully, I did that to the best of my ability. I'll let everybody else judge."
He finished with 2,222 points — 21 shy of Kerry Kittles' school record. Reynolds and Kittles are the two Wildcats with at least 2,000 points and 400 assists.
Reynolds was among the favorites to be on The Associated Press' men's All-America team and he'll hit the NBA workout circuit trying to impress the same scouts and personnel who told him last summer he needed to return to school for his senior season.
"I'm just proud about my career here. There's no shame in losing," he said. "We had some great times here. We had some great times this year."
His lone consolation might be that the Wildcats aren't the only single-digit seed (see ya, Kansas and Georgetown) missing out on the second weekend and beyond.
The Wildcats fell into a funk after a 20-1 start that was the best for a program that began play in 1920, and a No. 2 national ranking for only the third time in team history.
The seeds for this tournament upset of the preseason Big East favorite were planted late in the season when they stumbled to a 2-5 finish. Reynolds lost his stroke and a season without a consistent interior presence burned them against big-time post players like Samhan.
"A lot of times this year, we were just winning off talent," Reynolds said.
Wright noted playing with Final Four expectations almost became a burden on a team with six newcomers. Freshmen like Maalik Wayns and Dominic Cheek, and Duke transfer Taylor King had no idea what it was like to compete last April in Detroit.
"There's so much expectation on this team, but a lot of the guys on this team really haven't earned that," Wright said. "And there's also not just expectation, there was a lot of praise put on this team that we really hadn't earned."
Wayns had his coming-out party in the tournament, and guards Corey Fisher and Corey Stokes return next season to form a nucleus that will keep the Wildcats among the Big East elite.
"Hopefully these guys will remember what it took to get to this point and know how much further they have to get better to get to the point where we were last year," Reynolds said.
-- Dan Gelston
