~STORY OF THE WEEK~

NORTHERN IOWA UPSETS #1 KANSAS

Here came Kansas, suddenly playing tough defense because the Jayhawks had no other choice. They applied one last burst of full-court pressure, but Northern Iowa somehow got the ball to Ali Farokhmanesh, the guard who never seems to be bothered by much of anything. Farokhmanesh could have passed the ball, but that is not why Northern Iowa is still alive in the N.C.A.A. tournament and the Jayhawks are done. He paused, then calmly dropped in a stunning 3-point basket with 34 seconds left that boosted the Panthers to a 69-67 upset victory Saturday over top-seeded Kansas in the Midwest Region. “If you know Ali, you know that shot is going up at the end of a game like that,” said Northern Iowa guard Johnny Moran, who was open in a corner on the two-on-one break that ended with Farokhmanesh’s basket. Northern Iowa (29-4), the Missouri Valley Conference champion and the No. 9 seed, moved on to the Round of 16. Kansas (33-3) became the first No. 1 seed to be knocked out of the tournament. Kansas was also the No. 1 team over all. After a day of relative calm Friday, Saturday’s second-round games saw a return of the upsets that marked the tournament’s opening day. Besides Kansas, second-seeded Villanova — which needed overtime to win its first-round game — bowed out of the tournament’s South Region with a 75-68 loss to 10th-seeded St. Mary’s. In the East Region, third-seeded New Mexico was crushed, 82-64, by 11th-seeded Washington, a result that improved the lightly regarded Pacific-10’s record to 3-0 in the tournament. Farokhmanesh, who is from Iowa City and is the son of a former Iranian national volleyball player, scored 16 points to lead the Panthers. His last-minute 3-pointer stretched a 1-point lead to 4. “I was going to see if I could drive it,” Farokhmanesh said. “Then he backed off so far that I thought I might as well shoot this one.” (NY Times.com)