Lehigh to Kansas: We're Coming to Win

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Lehigh coach Brett Reed is either delusional or a prophet. All of America will find out which one late Thursday night.

"There are upsets in the NCAA tournament," said Reed on Wednesday, the night before his 16th-seeded Mountain Hawks play No. 1 Kansas in an NCAA West Region first-round contest. "There's a reason why it's called March Madness and I would simply tell [the doubters] 'why not us' and 'why not now?' "

Since the NCAA expanded to 64 teams in 1985, there have been 100 games between No. 1 and No. 16 seeds.

The No. 16 seeds are 0-100.

The closest calls were Georgetown's 50-49 win against Princeton in 1989, Michigan State's 75-71 overtime victory against Murray State in 1990 and Purdue's 73-71 victory against Western Carolina in 1996.

Lehigh's attempt to take down Kansas joins Vermont against Syracuse, East Tennessee State against Kentucky and Arkansas Pine Bluff against Duke, games during which Davids will try and knock off Goliaths.

"We have an opportunity to make history, to do something that is so special and so incredible that people will be talking about it potentially for a long time to come," Reed said. "And if this had been done before, the stage, the magnitude of that accomplishment, would be diminished a little bit.

"There's something to be said for potentially being the first to ever do anything and that, hopefully a role that we would really relish and I've told our team the whole way through it's going to happen at some point."

Will it be Thursday night at the Ford Center in downtown Oklahoma City?

"When we step on the court, everybody is the same," Lehigh senior forward Zahir Carrington said. "We've been playing basketball our entire lives. We've worked just as hard as anyone else. You have to have the utmost confidence in your ability.

"If we were to come down here and think we're going to play hard or come and think we're going to lose, I would rather not come at all. There's no daunting or big shot over this game for us. We're happy to have an opportunity to be a part of this, but we're coming to win."

For Kansas, it's business as usual. Or as usual as it gets when you are the nation's No. 1 ranked team for the majority of the season and the NCAA tournament's overall No. 1 seed.

And if there wasn't enough pressure with having the No. 1 bulls-eye on their chests, President Obama didn't make it any easier, predicting Kansas would win it all.

Rock, Chalk, Barack, Jayhawk.

"It's cool," Kansas sophomore guard Tyshawn Taylor said. "I'm not sure that's what Presidents should be doing at this time -- I don't know what Presidents do -- but it's good to know that he thinks that about us. He picked [North] Carolina last year and they won it, so maybe he'll bring us good luck."

Luck is one of the elements Lehigh (22-10) will need to pull off the upset. But the Mountain Hawks said they felt more pressure in winning the Patriot League tournament.

"For me, it's a little kind of like a load coming off of winning the Patriot League championship," Carrington said. "I was probably more anxious for that. Going into this week has been a lot more relaxed because there's no pressure. We're not expected to win.

"Nobody is really expecting too much from us."

Kansas coach Bill Self fully understands the magnitude of Thursday's game.

"It's the biggest game we've played this year, hands down," Self said. "It's a lot bigger than the Big 12 championship or Senior Night and that's the approach I want them to take."

Self said his club has been handling the attention and pressure of being the No. 1 seed.

"We're dealing fine with it," Self said. "We don't talk about it a lot. You know, it's you work your tail off for six months and try to get the best seed as possible. And now that you get the best seed that you possibly can, everybody wants to know -- 'did you really want this? Is it too much pressure?'"

Kansas senior guard Sherron Collins said all of the attention is nothing new.

"It's something we've been dealing with all year, so I think that pressure is over with," Collins said. "In a sense, there's no time for slip-ups and I think that's why you get those losses out early in the season, so you're prepared for this."

Taylor said the Jayhawks realize what's at stake from here on out.

"It's more serious now," Taylor said. "We're playing for a lot more now. We worked hard to get to this point, but it means nothing if we lose a game. We're 32-2. If we lose, 32-3 is a good season, but it's not good enough."

Nothing is when you're the No. 1 overall seed. Nothing but a national championship.

Contact FanHouse senior writer Brett McMurphy at brettmcmurphy@gmail.com