Madness: Mid-majors, other underdogs help turn NCAA tournament upside down

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.”

AP Sports Writer Josh Dubow in Oakland, Calif., and AP National Writer Nancy Armour in Milwaukee contributed to this report.