The Wyoming Cowboys (12) and the Northern Iowa Panthers (5) will face off in the Key Arena in an East region matchup for the NCAA Tournament.
The odds seem to be in the favor of the fifth-seeded Panthers (30-3). The team ranked as high as No.10 in The Associated Press Top 25 this season.
CLICK HERE to watch the game live via NCAA. Tipoff is scheduled for 1:40 p.m. ET in Seattle, Wash.
"No question, the things that those two programs have done helped us this year. So people around the country understand the quality of play within our league," Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson told The AP. "The other thing it does is I think it drives your own guys. It motivates your own guys to want to get into that national spotlight, to want to get to rise up to that challenge and meet that challenge."
Northern Iowa is returning to the tourney for the first time since 2010, when they shocked viewers by defeating the No. 1 seed Kansas in the round of 32, The AP reported. This game also made Ali Farokhmanesh, the team's former shooting guard, a household name.
The team's success at their last tourney makes them a favorite this time around.
"We're our own team," UNI's Nate Buss said. "We focus on how we play and we focus on our own legacy."
Wyoming (25-9) was able to get into the tournament for the first time since 2002 after winning the Mountain West Conference Tournament. Before the game, their point veteran coach, Larry Shyatt, "drove home by having the Cowboys practice cutting down the nets at home before leaving for the conference tourney in Las Vegas," The AP reported. This ploy seemed to have worked.
"Coach Shyatt's a very old-fashioned rule book type of guy. So he's just approaching this game like he would the regular season game against a conference team," Wyoming star Larry Nance Jr. said. "It's been nothing but business since we found out our matchup with them, and we expect nothing but that."
