America Learns to Pronounce “Farokhmanesh” as Northern Iowa Stuns Kansas

Two games, two big-time three pointers with under 30 seconds left, and one bitch of a last name. Ali Farokhmanesh hit a dagger with just about 30 seconds left, putting an exclamation point on Northern Iowa’s 69-67 upset of #1 overall seed Kansas. Farokhmanesh led Northern Iowa with 16 points.

The UNI Panthers took a 3-2 lead just over a minute into the game and never trailed again, leading by as many as 12 in the second half. Kansas closed the gap to 63-62 with 43 seconds left, but on the next play Farokhmanesh caught a pass on the right wing after breaking the Kansas press, looked up, tested the wind with his finger, and let fly. Unfortunately, Farokhmanesh failed to capitalize on the biggest moment of his career, passing up the perfect opportunity to flaunt the “Big Balls Dance.”