Taking his shot at history, Farokhmanesh let fly from the wing.
Ali Farokhmanesh stood at the 3-point line, leading by just one against the colossus of the bracket, with no one around. Pull it out, burn some clock. No way…..SWISH!!
The biggest upset in a tournament was already done. Northern Iowa had taken down the big, bad, mighty Kansas.
With another big 3-pointer from Farokhmanesh, along with playing with poise down the stretch, 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 stated Jake Koch.
The NCAA tournament this year has been defined by its upsets. Eight double-digit seeds got through the first round. No. 10 Saint Mary’s beating Villanova on Saturday, and shoving aside New Mexico was No. 11 Washington.
That was definitely the biggest shocker!
Northern Iowa (30-4) grounded the high-flying Jayhawks with in-their-jersey defense. On top of that, they 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.
Farokhmanesh, the First-round hero, had the biggest play of all.
With Kansas fans roaring and the team charging, the fearless son of an Iranian Olympic volleyball player caught the ball on the wing after the Panthers broke Kansas’ press. With the shot clock still in the 30s, he hesitated only for an instant, then cast his bracket-busting shot with 34 seconds left in the game.
Kansas had one last chance, Trailing 66-62, but Tyrel Reed was called for an offensive foul and Farokhmanesh sealed it with two free throws with only 5 seconds left, which for the first time sent the Panthers to the round of 16.
Next up is the Michigan State-Maryland winner in St. Louis and another chance to make 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.”
Falling behind early, Kansas (33-3), 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.
Trailing by as many as 12 points, the Jayhawks used defense to pull within one with 44 seconds left, but 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 10 rebound and 13 points,, Marcus Morris added 16 points and Sherron Collins ended his phenomenal 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.
Jumping into a hudle of teammates, Farokhmanesh, who finished with 16 points, and Koch embraced older brother Adam to a chant of “U-N-I!” At the other end, with tears streaming down their faces when they finally rose were Jayhawks Morris and redshirt senior Mario Little.
This was sure monumental.
“We never doubted we could play with them at all,” senior Adam Koch said.
Using a spirit-crushing run to turn a scare into a 16-point win, Kansas sneaked by Lehigh in the first round.
In the opener, Northern Iowa had to fight through its three-point win over UNLV, breaking a 20-year NCAA winless drought on Farokhmanesh’s 25-footer with 4.9 seconds left.
This game was like comparing apples to oranges; One of the nation’s highest-scoring teams against Northern Iowa’s stuck-in-the-mud mentality.
No one from its conference had beaten one since 1962 and UNI had never played a No. 1-ranked team. Also, UNI seemed to be overmatched against KU’s lineup of pros-in-waiting. Farokhmanesh and Adam Koch gave an uncomfortable laugh, when they were asked if any of their players could start for Kansas,
One thing about the Panthers is they know defensive positioning as well as any team in the country, moving in a symphonic dance of denial. In its state, Northern Iowa has become the best team, along with reaching the NCAA tournament five of the past seven years to shake the underdog tag.
From the start, the Panthers went right at Kansas, 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.
But the Panthers were not fazed, 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.”