UAB knocked the socks off No. 3 seed Iowa State, 60-59, on Thursday in a second-round NCAA tournament game in Louisville, Ky., pulling off the first big upset of this year's tourney.
The No. 14 seed in the South region, the Blazers — three months after the school shut down its football program — also made a statement with their feet. UAB players sported shoes with two unmatching colors in the upset — one green, the other white.
The reason? The school is working with the Alabama Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders to raise awareness of Childhood Cancer Research and Advocacy.
"We played a team over in Spain (in 2014) and one of the players came out wearing a black-and-white shoe, and everybody just noticed it," Haase, a former assistant to Roy Williams, said last November. "So we started talking and kind of joking about that, and one idea led to another idea. About 27 ideas later, this is the one we came up with."
Classy gesture — and apparently a lucky one too.
There's a great story behind UAB's mismatched shoes.
