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It wasn't that long ago that the UAB Blazers were reeling from a preseason loss to Division II UNC Pembroke and now they are seemingly on top of the world after pulling off a 60-59 upset over the third seeded Iowa State Cyclones.
Maybe it's just cosmic powers guiding UAB after the loss of their football program or maybe it's the different color shoes to support pediatric cancer research? I don't know what has vaulted the Blazers to win four games in a row but they've done it and stirred up the most excitement since Squeaky Johnson and Ronnell and Donnell Taylor graced the green and gold.
Think about it, just over a week ago UAB was coming off back-to-back losses to FIU and FAU, two pretty atrocious team. Since then the Blazers beat Western Kentucky by one, took down Louisiana Tech, and then won the Conference USA Championship using an unfair advantage on the home floor.
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There was no unfair advantage today as Jerod Haase's squad was just solid throughout. Iowa State was a team known for going through lulls and coming back from double digit deficits but those lapses that Fred Hoiberg's squad goes through finally caught up to him today in the 60-59 loss. All you can say for UAB is they out-hustled the Cyclones out-rebounding them 52 to 37 and grabbing 19 offensive boards.
William Lee was the individual star for the Blazer grabbing a double-double with 14 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Robert Brown wasn't to be overshadowed either dropping 21 points on the Cyclones. Most of all the Blazers limited ISU's all-everything forward Georges Niang to just 11 points and 7 rebounds.
From here Iowa State will face the winner of UCLA and SMU. The Blazers should give either of those squads a battle but history certainly isn't on their side.
UAB is the 19th 14-Seed to beat a 3-Seed since 1985. The prior 18 are 2-16 in the next game (Cleveland State '86 and Chattanooga '97).
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) March 19, 2015
According to Yahoo 96.4% of the brackets had Iowa State moving on. Hopefully you didn't have them in the Final 4 like this guy.