Behind Ali Farokhmanesh, Northern Iowa Knocks Out Heavyweight Jayhawks

Ali bomaye!

In 1974, that’s what the crowd in Zaire shouted as Muhammad Ali knocked out world heavyweight champion George Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle. It means: “Ali, kill him!”

And considering what Ali Farokhmanesh did to college basketball’s brawniest heavyweight today, it would be an appropriate thing to hear echoing in Oklahoma City.

Farokhmanesh scored the last five points for the Northern Iowa Panthers, who staged a seismic upset of overall number one seed Kansas, winning 69-67 in a game that is immediately part of the conversation for biggest upset in NCAA Tournament history.

That’s not because Northern Iowa isn’t good: the Panthers are, and proved it, hanging with the Jayhawks in almost every statistical category and permitting them to lead once, at 2-0.

But Kansas was the overwhelming favorite to win this tournament, picked to cut the nets in Indianapolis on 39.96% of ESPN.com brackets, including President Obama. They have at least six players who will go on to play basketball professionally. They had the best resume of any team this season. And they had championship experience at point guard and head coach, with both Sherron Collins and Bill Self just two years removed from heavily figuring in KU’s 2008 title.

And now they have nothing, nothing but tears and regrets.

Proponents of expansion will cite this game as evidence that any team can play its way to a title in college basketball. That sounds good, except that it was true before this game, and true after it, and expansion does nothing to change that fact.

Why can’t we just let these Panthers have their credit for a near-perfect game that felled a giant, and let Farokhmanesh -- who hit a three to put UNI ahead of UNLV for good in the first round -- be the newest legend of March Madness?

This is shaping up as one of the best NCAA Tournaments in history. And the most important reason for that, right now, is that a kid named Ali killed Kansas.

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