SAN DIEGO, Ca — SAN DIEGO (AP) — No school located anywhere close to the West Coast has won the NCAA men's basketball championship since Arizona did it in 1997.
The top-seeded Wildcats have another powerhouse team this March, and their quest to end the West's drought begins Friday morning in San Diego.
Their first task out here on the edge of the Pacific?
Avoiding the Sharks.
Jaden Bradley and the blue-blood Wildcats (30-2) open the NCAA Tournament against Long Island University (24-10), a No. 16 seed that has every hallmark of the scrappy small schools that annually rocket to national prominence by taking a bite out of March Madness.
“We’re not going to take this game lightly,” said Bradley, the Big 12 player of the year. “We’re going to go out there (and) do what we do all year.”
The nation is about to learn about an entertaining underdog coached by New York City hoops great Rod Strickland, who has swiftly led the Sharks from rock-bottom to the tournament. Just three years after LIU won only three games, the Sharks' reward for winning the NEC regular-season and tournament titles is a long shot at the No. 2 team in the AP Top 25.
Viejas Arena will be packed with Arizona faithful, but LIU will have a cheering section expected to be anchored by two unlikely superfans. The Brooklyn-based Sharks had meager attendance and almost no footprint in the crowded New York market when college basketball enthusiasts Cameron Koffman and David Pochapin — who didn't attend this school, mind you — adopted the team and started the “Fins Up” craze.
That's when one fan yells the phrase, and everybody else simultaneously claps their hands once above their heads, leaving them up to resemble a shark's dorsal fin.
It's simple and fun, and it's become a viral sensation as the Sharks got better and better. Players sometimes do it on the court, and other schools like Nebraska — who don't have shark mascots — have even picked it up.
It'll happen Friday in San Diego, and the LIU players can't wait.
“I feel like the first ‘Fins Up’ is going to send shivers down everybody’s spine,” said LIU’s Greg Gordon, the NEC’s defensive player of the year. “I feel like even Arizona would do it. It’s such a great movement. Everyone loves it. It gives us the belief that no matter where we are, people, they’re rooting for us. It definitely helps us a lot.”
