KU-killer Farokhmanesh's viral video twists knife into belly of Jayhawk fans one more time
OMAHA, Neb. — That guy standing next to you in the stands at CenturyLink Center, Kansas fans? The face seems a little familiar, but you just can't peg the name?
For a guy whose last name is practically an obscenity in Lawrence, Kan., former Northern Iowa guard Ali Farokhmanesh — the one who infamously helped knock the Jayhawks out of the NCAA Tournament in 2010 — sat pretty much unrecognized Friday among the crowd in Omaha during KU's 75-56 rout of New Mexico State.
"Lost a little hair off the top," the March Madness, mid-major icon told FOXSportsKansasCity.com. "I look like every other 6-foot white guy out there. I'm not an imposing basketball figure. I'm not 6-foot-8. I'm not long. And I kind of look like just another guy watching basketball games."
Only he isn't. Some five years earlier, the then-Panthers guard famously — or infamously, if you're among the KU faithful — had the ball in his hands outside the 3-point arc, UNI leading then top-seeded Kansas by one point 63-62 with 37 seconds to go. Rather than drive, try to draw a foul, or even dribble out the clock, Farokhmanesh made NCAA tourney history when he elected to instead step back and fire a no-no-no-YES-YES-YES trey that ended up icing the contest.
The former UNI standout is a coach now, having spent this past season as a graduate assistant under Tim Miles at Nebraska. And how did he end up watching Kansas in the flesh? A pal had a bead on some tickets to the morning session that weren't going to be used, so the former KU-killer decided it might be cool to take his wife, Mallory, who'd never been to an NCAA tourney game, over to the action at CenturyLink Center.
"I wanted to show her the experience," Farokhmanesh said. "I hadn't been to an NCAA Tournament game since I played in one, so it was a cool experience just to go back and just kind of live that moment again."
With no rooting interest and the Jayhawks in control over the Aggies, the ex-UNI guard and his posse left after the first half of the KU win, venturing across the street to a local watering hole to watch his alma mater, a 5 seed in the East Region, dismantle Wyoming. But Farokhmanesh made a point, before he left the building, to twist the knife he'd planted into the collective KU psyche one more time. A video starring the former shooting guard went viral late Friday and early Saturday, one he spent an hour or so recording before the Kansas-New Mexico State game, conducting interviews with fans — especially Jayhawk fans — for the Omaha World-Herald about their memories of his legendary 3-pointer in Oklahoma City.
The 2014-15 Jayhawks (27-8) meet in-state baby brother Wichita State (29-4) Sunday in one of the most intriguing third-round matchups on the 2015 Bracketville menu. It's the first time KU coach Bill Self has faced a Missouri Valley Conference school in the third round since Farokhmanesh's ninth-seeded Panthers crew in 2010.
So, what would Wichita have to do to pull off another, um, Shocker?
"They've played the role of underdog pretty well ... they don't need any advice from me, they know what they're going to get themselves into," Farokhmanesh said.
"I think you just have to be aggressive the entire time, but that's kind of how they play anyway. It's a matter of (if) they can keep them off the boards and control penetration. If they can control some of those guys like (Wayne) Selden, (Kelly) Oubre and (Frank) Mason, I think it'll make life a (little) easier, because I think Perry Ellis is probably, he's probably going to get those baskets. I think if you can't control those guys, it probably makes it a little bit more difficult of a game."
You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter at @SeanKeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com.
