Ken Davis

This might be insulting to the people of North Dakota. If so, I apologize in advance. But when I hear Fargo, only two things come to mind. First would be cold temperatures and blizzards. And second would be “Fargo,” the movie that won a couple of Academy Awards back in 1996.

But now we can add North Dakota State basketball to the list. North Dakota State is located in Fargo, and the Bison have gone big-time. The Bison are in the Big Dance for the first time, and they’ve got the opportunity of a lifetime with a first-round NCAA tournament game against Kansas, the defending national champions.

“There’s no reason we can’t scare someone in this thing,” Bison coach Saul Phillips said after his team won the Summit League tournament. A No. 14 seed hasn’t won in the tournament since 2006, when Northwestern State defeated Iowa, but North Dakota State can take inspiration from the fact it has happened 17 times 1979.

North Dakota State already is one of those tournament feel-good stories, regardless of what happens Friday in Minneapolis against the Jayhawks. The Bison reached the NCAA field in their first year of eligibility after a five-year reclassification period from Division II. Ben Woodside, Bret Winkelman, Mike Nelson, Lucas Moorman and Tom Lundy all made big sacrifices to get here. They each sat out their freshman years in order to be eligible for this season, when there would be an opportunity to reach the tournament.

If Woodside’s name sounds familiar, it should. On Dec. 12, Woodside dropped 60 points on Stephen F. Austin, another No. 14 seed in this year’s NCAA field. The 5-foot-11 point guard added eight rebounds and eight assists in a 112-111 loss. Kansas might want to keep Woodside away from the free-throw line. He hit 30 of 35 free throws in that game, placing him in the NCAA record book next to “Pistol” Pete Maravich, who hit 30 for LSU.

Woodside was the Summit League player of the year and averaged 22.8 points this season. As underdogs, it won’t take much for Woodside and the Bison to become crowd favorites in the Metrodome, which is only about 3 1/2 hours from Fargo. And Phillips has eight Minnesota natives on his roster.

Phillips, 42-19 in his career, told the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World it probably isn’t fair that Kansas has to play a tournament game against North Dakota State in Minnesota.

“But at the same time, hey, I’m not making any calls in protest,” Phillips said, the newspaper reported. “We’ll take any little advantage we can get, because if you go by what works in our favor throughout this whole matchup, that might be the little sliver that we can latch onto.”

The Bison obviously will need more than that to upset the Jayhawks, regular-season champions of the Big 12 Conference, but Kansas is young and could get rattled by a hostile environment. All things considered, the Bison are an extreme dark horse in this year’s tournament.

But here are eight teams (two from each region) that might be ready to upset a higher-seeded opponent.

Midwest
No. 10 Southern California: The Trojans lost six of seven in February, and it appeared they were losing control of their season. But Tim Floyd’s team got healthy and guard Marcus Simmons became a real spark. With freshman DeMar DeRozan living up to his expectations, USC is a threat from the No. 10 line. Boston College might find that out the hard way.

Special feature Players to watch From Evan Turner to John Wall, here are 40 difference makers for the NCAA tournament. NBCSports.com

No. 12 Arizona: The critics say the Wildcats don’t belong because they lost five of their past six games. But after everything interim coach Russ Pennell and his players went through since October, this is a nice reward. Jordan Hill, Chase Budinger and Nic Wise are as good as any trio in the field, combining to average 50 points and 20 rebounds. Arizona beat Kansas, Gonzaga, Washington and UCLA during the regular season. The Wildcats won’t be intimidated by No. 5 Utah.

West
No. 6 Marquette: The selection committee showed its love for the Big East in many ways. One of those demonstrations was awarding Marquette a No. 6 seed. It wouldn’t have been a surprise to see the Golden Eagles lower after the season-ending injury to point guard Dominic James. But this is a good spot. Marquette was having a tremendous season before James went down. Buzz Williams’ team deserves a chance to win some tournament games. If Marquette can get past Utah State, a very tough Missouri team probably will await in the second round.

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No. 9 Texas A&M: The Aggies sputtered to a 3-7 start in the Big 12 but finished 9-7 to wrap up an at-large bid. Coach Mark Turgeon was a battler during his playing days at Kansas and he coaches the same philosophy. Bryan Davis and Chinemelu Elonu give the Aggies size and production up front. No. 8 seed BYU will provide a stiff test and some déjà vu in the first round. The Aggies beat BYU in the opening round last season.