Column: Panthers: my new favorite team
Published March 23, 2010
Congratulations to the Missouri men's basketball team on another NCAA Tournament appearance and first round victory, vastly exceeding preseason expectations for the second consecutive year.
Clearly, the Tigers had the personnel to match up with No. 2 seed West Virginia, but their own follies from the free-throw line and inside the lane proved the difference.
Performances from underclassmen, particularly freshman guard Michael Dixon, kept Missouri in the game and will do the same in the years to come.
The storylines are still captivating in this year's tournament despite the Tigers' departure. The unpredictability of the tournament is again in full force, thanks to several upsets and a few buzzer-beaters.
Northern Iowa might be this year's Cinderella, pulling off the upset against top-seeded Kansas on Saturday, making me look like a fool for picking KU to win it all.
The Panthers look like a ragtag team, assembled with a 7-foot center who would finish last in any beauty contest he entered, a forward who could double as the next Ron Burgundy and senior guard Ali Farokhmanesh, whose performance cannot be analogized and has become this March's household name-and-a-half. Yet their performance typified the mid-major philosophy that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
The Panthers are members of the Missouri Valley Conference, headquartered in my hometown, St. Louis. Before arriving in Columbia, I followed the Valley religiously each year, culminating with Arch Madness, the conference tournament. The conference and its fans live for basketball, and they have throughout its 103-year history. (Missouri and Kansas were two of the founding Valley schools.)
Unfortunately for the Valley, it's in the shadow of Missouri and the rest of the Big 12. Four years ago, it broke out of the mid-major ranks and onto the national scene with two Sweet 16 teams. A year later, it bettered the Big 12 with the sixth-best conference RPI. This year, it has the potential to send its lone representative further than any of its bigger brothers' teams.
Few high-major teams feel comfortable with a game pace that results in scores in the 50s. This is why mid-major teams feel confident and threaten to upset perennial favorites. Having only a day or two to prepare for confusing schemes can really befuddle opponents — one reason Missouri seems to overachieve in the postseason.
This year, Northern Iowa has been the toast of the Valley, building a 30-4 record. Despite not playing a ranked team all year, the Panthers entered the game against the Jayhawks, letting their play on the floor trump senior guard Sherron Collins' statements proclaiming the Jayhawks were on a path to destiny and the national championship.
The Panthers didn't knock off the Jayhawks shooting 60 percent or raining 3-pointers; they controlled the tempo and used their size to match up with KU every step of the way. This gives me reason to believe they can go even further into this tournament, as if beating the overall top seed wasn't evidence enough.
Up next for the Panthers is Michigan State, fresh off a buzzer-beater victory over Maryland but lost star junior guard Kalin Lucas to an injury in the process. Northern Iowa certainly has an advantage with size and will be playing in front of a strong contingent of Panther fans in St. Louis.
I'm keeping my eyes on Northern Iowa for the rest of the tourney. Is it possible it reaches the Final Four? Well, if Ali Farokhmanesh has a say-so, then you might be hearing chants of "ALI! ALI!" all the way down I-70 to Indianapolis come April.