Bucknell and Northern Iowa upset Kansas in March. Here’s their advice for Eastern Washington

Ali Farokhmanesh wasn’t intimidated by Kansas.

Not even a little bit.

The former Pullman High School guard helped Northern Iowa sink the No. 1 overall seeded Jayhawks in the 2010 NCAA Tournament and in memorable fashion.

Farokhmanesh, the son of former Washington State head volleyball coach Cindy Fredrick and her assistant coach at the time, Mashallah Farokhmanesh, was left alone in the corner with 35 seconds on the clock with his team holding onto a 63-62 lead before doing the unthinkable.

Shooting.

Instead of draining the clock and waiting to be fouled, the 6-foot senior elected to take a gutsy 3-pointer that shocked a Kansas team that was widely expected to win a national championship behind a series of future NBA draft picks.

Chris Niesz, a former forward at Bucknell, had a similar experience.

Niesz witnessed teammate Chris McNaughton hit a jump hook shot in the closing seconds that lifted No. 14 seed Bucknell over third-seeded Kansas 64-63 in the first round of the 2005 NCAA Tournament, upsetting the preseason No. 1 Jayhawks.

Eastern Washington is aiming to bust a few brackets itself Saturday when the 14th-seeded Eagles (16-7) face No. 3 seed Kansas in Indianapolis.

Farokhmanesh, now an assistant coach at Colorado State, is aware of the Eagles’ recent success under fourth-year coach Shantay Legans.

He also knows the Jayhawks will be without one of their primary big men, Jalen Wilson, due to coronavirus protocol.

“(Legans) is a very good coach. They run some impressive guys and have some positionless players that can all shoot,” Farokhmanesh said. “It will be an interesting matchup, and not having (Wilson) might change their game plan.”

Northern Iowa, a small school like EWU, was widely respected in the 2009-10 season. It finished 30-5, was in and out of the Top 25 and awarded a No. 9 seed before clipping No. 8 seed UNLV 69-66 in the first round.

Player for player, Kansas was substantially better than the Cedar Falls, Iowa, school.

The Panthers weren’t your average No. 9 seed that season, but EWU, one of the most experienced teams in the tournament, isn’t a typical No. 14 seed, either, but coronavirus cancellations, stops and starts did a number on the Eagles’ resume.

“They’re probably not a 14 seed, so I’m sure Kansas wasn’t overexcited to get matched up with them,” Farokhmanesh said.

So how can the smaller, physically disadvantaged Eagles possibly knock off one of college basketball’s blue bloods and win its first NCAA Tournament game in upset fashion?

“The first 4 minutes will be important for (EWU), from a confidence standpoint,” he said. “You want to play with the lead against a team like that. But if you are going to get down, get down early.”

The guard-heavy Eagles, whose top player is a 6-foot-9 inside-out threat in Big Sky Conference Most Valuable Player Tanner Groves , will have to deal with the likes of 6-10 forward David McCormack and a pair of guards on NBA draft boards in Ochai Agbaji and Marcus Garrett.

Kansas can play fast and big. Eastern doesn’t have that luxury.

“You can’t change your whole game plan for what they do,” Farokhmanesh said. “If you’re fast and they’re fast, you can’t try and do something else.”

Bucknell, a private school in Pennsylvania, was even more obscure than Northern Iowa before its major upset of the Jayhawks.

The Bison had five scholarship players and no NCAA Tournament wins before the 2004-05 season, so just being in Big Dance was a treat.

“I remember on Selection Sunday being, ‘Oh boy, it’s Kansas,’ ” said Niesz, Bucknell’s lone senior that season. “But you’re a Division I basketball player. You don’t want to be embarrassed out there. You can’t get so astonished.”

After that feeling wore off, it prepared to beat the Wayne Simeon-led Jayhawks.

“We knew we had to limit them to one shot,” Niesz said. “If they played volleyball out there on the offensive boards, we were going to be in trouble.”

Niesz, who works in banking in New York, had six points, three assists and two rebounds in the win.

For EWU to be in the position the Bison were, Niesz said it will need to limit turnovers, play within themselves and hope for a little bit of luck, namely a poor Kansas shooting performance.

“Stay calm. Try not to get behind more than six points,” Niesz said.