5. Wisconsin, 2000
Tradition? About the only thing the Badgers had going for them was a rich tradition of ineptitude in basketball. They had been to just five previous NCAA Tournaments before the 2000 event and had never been to the Final Four.

Style? Under Vince Lombardi disciple Dick Bennett, the Badgers played a slowdown game and embraced their “winning ugly” label. But winning they were, taking 11 of 12 to become an unlikely No. 8 seed still dancing at the Final Four. “Big Red is going to the show!” junior forward Maurice Linton bellowed as he climbed onto a media table in Albuquerque, N.M., and rejoiced following Wisconsin’s 64-60 victory over Big Ten rival Purdue.

The Badgers were indeed a badgering team, led by Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Mike Kelley. The magic ended in the semifinals, when eventual champion Michigan State triumphed, 53-41. Ugly indeed.

6. Pennsylvania, 1979
It’s easy to forget the accomplishments of the first Ivy League team to reach the Final Four since Bill Bradley took Princeton there in 1965. After all, the ’79 NCAA Tournament featured Larry Bird of Indiana State and Magic Johnson of Michigan State.

However, Penn was mighty, too. Mighty surprising that is. Led by sharp-shooting Tony Price, they were only a ninth seed so no one took them seriously. Until they started slaying giants. First came Iona, with its monstrous center Jeff Ruland. Then No. 3 North Carolina. Then a shocker over Syracuse, which had a feared front-line tandem of Roosevelt Bouie and Louis Orr. Price was right with 21 points in a 64-62 squeaker over St. John’s.

Then the Quakers’ magic ran out when they faced the real Magic. Johnson helped the Spartans take a 38-8 lead in the national semifinals en route to a 101-67 triumph. But merely getting there was a big story ... written in Penn.

7. Mississippi State, 1996
The Bulldogs were so overlooked that season that when they arrived at The Meadowlands, site of the Final Four, the commemorative hats they were given read “Mississippi,” not “Mississippi State.” Ouch!

Hard hats would have been more appropriate for coach Richard Williams’ team, which prided itself on tenacious defense, anchored by NBA-bound center Erick Dampier, a shot-blocking force in the middle. The fifth-seeded Bulldogs allowed its first three tournament opponents 51, 41 and 55 points. The latter figure was especially impressive because the opponent was No. 1-seed Connecticut.

Senior guard Darryl Wilson hurt the Huskies with 7-of-11 shooting on 3-pointers and 27 points. No. 2 seeded Cincinnati concentrated on stopping Wilson, but couldn’t contain Dantae Jones, who had 23 points and 13 rebounds in a 73-63 victory that sent the school to its first Final Four.

8. Gonzaga, 1999
Three straight Sweet 16 appearances, beginning in the 1999 tournament, have made the Cinderella label an inappropriate tag for the Zags. But oh that first sweet taste of March mayhem.

Tenth-seeded Gonzaga, led by guard Matt Santangelo and forward Casey Calvary, beat No. 7 seed Minnesota and then stunned No. 2 seed Stanford for the school’s first-ever Sweet 16 berth. By the time Calvary’s last-second tip-in jolted Florida, 73-72, the country had discovered not only the school’s talent and location (Spokane, Wash.), but also its proper pronunciation. It’s Gon-zayg-ah, not Gon-zog-ah.

But, finally, it was Gonzo, as eventual champion Connecticut forced the Zags into 5-of-21 shooting from beyond the 3-point line in a 67-62 victory that sent the Huskies into the Final Four and the Zags home to a hero’s welcome. Ever since, Gonzaga and Cinderella do not belong in the same tale.

9. Navy, 1986
When Navy met Cleveland State in the Round of 16, it was as if Cinderella had a twin sister. The seventh-seeded Midshipmen had stunned Syracuse on the latter’s home court, with NBA-bound senior David Robinson lighting up the Carrier Dome for 35 points, 11 rebounds and 7 blocked shots.

Robinson was only 6-6 when he came to Annapolis as a freshman, the legal height limit to attend that elite military academy. But oh how he grew — in size and stature — in four years. The 14th-seeded Vikings, led by a slippery point guard named Mouse McFadden, had shocked Bob Knight’s third-seeded Indiana team as well as stubborn St. Joseph’s. Cleveland State defended Robinson well for most of the airtight contest ... until the final minutes.

Robinson scored 13 of Navy’s final 17 points, including the game-winning basket with six seconds left for a 71-70 triumph. Duke ended Navy’s bid for a trip to the Final Four.

10. Loyola-Marymount, 1990
This is a bittersweet tale. The 11th-seeded Lions captured the nation’s imagination with their run-and-gun style, but also tugged at its heartstrings after All-American center, Hank Gathers, died of heart failure just days before the tournament began.

Led by Gathers’ best friend from their old Philadelphia neighborhood, Bo Kimble, Loyola lit up the scoreboard for 111 points in a first-round victory over New Mexico State. In that game, Kimble, a righty, shot and sank his first free throw left-handed, to honor his southpaw friend. “It may sound corny, but it makes me believe I’ve got a little bit of Hank inside me. I feel his strength,” Kimble said. Michigan felt the Lions’ wrath in the next game as Kimble (37 points) and Jeff Fryer (11-for-15 on 3-pointers) sparked a 149-115 victory.

Loyola nipped Alabama, 62-60, in a slowdown affair to reach the Elite Eight, where eventual champion UNLV won a 131-101 shootout.

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