GREELEY — The record is ominous, if not downright obscene. It’s 100-4. That’s the record No. 2 seeds have against No. 15 seeds in NCAA Tournament history. That’s the type of history No. 15-seeded Northern Colorado faces Thursday against No. 2 San Diego State in Tucson.
Then again, what are greater odds, beating San Diego State on a neutral court or going from the worst team in college basketball to the NCAA Tournament in just four years?
“We’ve overcome odds, which has been documented in our seniors’ basketball careers,” UNC senior forward Neal Kingman said Sunday after the 68-team bracket was revealed. “There’s nothing to be nervous about. We’re just going to go play and have a good time.
“At the heart of it all, that’s what college basketball’s all about.”
So was the scene in Greeley. UNC opened up its Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion for a public watch party. Spring break at the school started Friday, reducing the crowd to about 400, but the Bears’ band played the fight song ad nauseam, the cheerleaders cheered and first-year UNC coach B.J. Hill got a standing ovation.
A reaction shot of the Bears going berserk when the UNC-San Diego State matchup was announced went across the nation via CBS.
“We’re not done yet!” Hill told the crowd.
OK, enough celebrating. Now it’s time for harsh reality.
UNC (21-10) is a huge underdog against San Diego State (32-2), which is ranked No. 7 and started the season with 20 consecutive wins. The Aztecs have one of the best players in the country in Kawhi Leonard and slowed the nation’s leading scorer, Brigham Young star Jimmer Fredette, in Saturday’s 72-54 rout of the Cougars to win the Mountain West Conference Tournament championship in Las Vegas. But UNC knows one thing: It’s beaten San Diego State before.
That’s right. Three years ago, one year after going 4-24, the Bears went to San Diego and stunned the Aztecs 62-56. Aztecs point guard D.J. Gay and forward Billy White were on that SDSU team, which went 20-13 and made the NIT.
Four seniors on this UNC team were on that Bears team.
“Obviously this is a much different San Diego State team,” Hill said, “but this (UNC) team is much different as well.”
One thing going for Hill is that his Big Sky championship team fits the profile of a good tournament team. To win in the NCAA field, two important ingredients are veteran leadership and good guard play.
Hill starts four seniors — including 6-foot-1 guard Devon Beitzel, the Big Sky’s player of the year, tournament MVP and scoring champion.
“I really like our leadership,” Hill said. “These guys have seen everything. They’ve been in all types of venues in their four or five years here. They understand game plans and executing them on short turnarounds. That’s what makes a really good tournament team.”
Beitzel clearly will be the focus of the Aztecs’ attention. He’s averaging 21.4 points — double the 10.6 average of Kingman, UNC’s next top scorer. But Beitzel has been the opponents’ focus all season.
“We have four seniors on this team who’ve been through the battles before,” Beitzel said. “Yes, we’ve never been in this situation. We haven’t been in a lot of situations we’ve been in this year.”
UNC played Arizona, which is in the NCAA Tournament. Hill hopes it isn’t a good sign. Arizona ripped the Bears 93-70 in the Las Vegas Invitational on Nov. 21. The Wildcats wound up winning the Pac-10’s regular-season title.
“We let their physicality dictate what we did at certain points in the game,” Beitzel said. “We have to be tougher than we were against Arizona. We’re not very big, but we’re a tough team. We’re probably one of the smaller teams in the Big Sky, but we led the league in rebounding.”
An added plus is that the Bears, living in Mountain West country, have seen the Aztecs on TV a lot. Many saw their crushing of BYU on Saturday.
“Size-wise and athleticism, we can sort of match up with them, especially on the wings,” said UNC senior forward Chris Kaba. “They’ve got big wings, we’ve got big wings. If we keep moving the ball around, we have a good chance.”
UNC’s anonymity is about to end. The nation will soon hear the story of the Bears’ remarkable climb from the bottom rung of the RPI rankings to CBS’s cameras. Thursday, it’s up to the Bears to top it.
“Only four teams have done it, ever,” Hill said. “The percentages aren’t on our side, but I’ll take these guys anywhere against anybody.”
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
