Iowa ousts Kansas in NC's biggest upset

MANILA, Philippines - Ali Farokhmanesh came through with a triple as Northern Iowa pulled off a shocking 69-67 victory over Kansas, knocking out the No. 1 overall seed in one of the biggest upsets in US NCAA history in Oklahoma City Saturday.

“If anybody’s going to shoot that shot, I want it to be Ali,” UNI’s Jake Koch said.

This year’s NCAA tournament has been defined by its upsets. Eight double-digit seeds got through the first round. No. 10 Saint Mary’s beat Villanova, also on Saturday, and No. 11 Washington shoved aside New Mexico.

But Northern Iowa’s victory was the biggest shocker of all.

Winning the tempo tug-of-war, the ninth-seeded Northern Iowa (30-4) grounded the high-flying Jayhawks with pressing defense, then withstood a furious rally for the first win over a No. 1 seed in the second round since UAB and Alabama did the trick against Kentucky and Stanford in 2004.

Farokhmanesh had the biggest play of all.

With Kansas charging and its fans roaring, the fearless son of an Iranian Olympic volleyball player caught the ball on the wing after the Panthers broke Kansas’ press. The shot clock still in the 30s, he hesitated for just an instant, then cast his shot with 34 seconds left in the game.

Kansas had one last chance, but Tyrel Reed was called for an offensive foul and Farokhmanesh sealed it with two free throws with five seconds left, sending the Panthers to the round of 16 for the first time.

Next up is the Michigan State-Maryland winner in St. Louis – and another chance at 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.”

Kansas (33-3) fell behind early and 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.

The Jayhawks trailed by as many as 12 points and used defense to pull within one with 44 seconds left. But they 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 13 points and 10 rebounds, Marcus Morris added 16 points and Sherron Collins ended his stellar 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.

Farokhmanesh, who finished with 16 points, jumped into a huddle of teammates, and Koch embraced older brother Adam to a chant of “U-N-I!” At the other end, Jayhawks Morris and redshirt senior Mario Little crumbled to the floor, tears streaming down their faces when they finally rose.

“We never doubted we could play with them at all,” senior Adam Koch said.

Kansas sneaked by Lehigh in the first round, using a spirit-crushing run to turn a scare into a 16-point win.

Northern Iowa had to fight through its three-point win over UNLV in the opener, breaking a 20-year NCAA winless drought on Farokhmanesh’s 25-footer with 4.9 seconds left.

UNI had never played a No. 1-ranked team and no one from its conference had beaten one since 1962. – With AP reports