2nd Round upsets…
Saturday, March 20, 2010-
#11 Washington Huskies over #3 New Mexico, by 18 points
#10 St. Mary’s Gaels over #7 Villanova, by 7 points.
#9 Northern Iowa Panthers over #1 Kansas, by 2 points.
Sunday, March 21, 2010-
#12 Cornell Big Red over #4 Wisconsin, by 18 points.
#6 Xavier Musketeers over #3 Pitt, by 3 points.
#5 Michigan State Spartans over #4 Maryland, by 2 points (at the buzzer)
That 18 point victory by Cornell, a squad full of experienced seniors, is notable. It is the first time ever that the Upsate New York, Ivy League school has ever had a team in the Sweet 16.
The St. Mary’s Gaels, of Moraga, California (25 miles east of San Francisco) also have a team in the 3rd Round for the first time. St. Mary’s enrollment is just 4,700. Check out how tiny their home arena is, McKeon Pavillion, capacity 3,500 (photo halfway down page on right, here…St. Mary’s College Gaels (Wikipedia page).
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The giant killing of Kansas by the unflappable Northern Iowa is simply awe-inspiring. Aki Farokhmanesh, the lightly recruited, American-born son of an Iranian immigrant volleyball coach, showed real poise in making the decision to shoot rather than eat up the clock, when he was part of a 2-on-1 break, alone and unguarded, with 35 seconds remaing. The safe thing to do would have been to pull back and wind the clock down. Especially with a 1 point lead, and after Farokhmanesh had missed his 7 previous shots. Well screw conventional wisdom, because Kansas was all but certain to gain the lead they had been chipping away at all second half. So Farokhmanesh went for it. His 3-pointer put the Jayhawks in a 4 point hole that they couldn’t crawl out of. The shot also put Ali Farokhmanesh on the March 29, 2010 cover of Sports Illustrated.
Sports Illustrated, March 29, 2010, by Tim Layden, ”As Good As It Gets‘.
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Thanks to ESPN site/CBS sports online tv coverage…ESPN/Men’s College Basketball.
