CSU assistant Ali Farokhmanesh will always be known as an NCAA tournament legend

For as long as the NCAA basketball tournament exists, Ali Farokhmanesh knows what will happen every March.

No matter what city or school he is coaching at, he’ll be asked about that team.

That NCAA tournament.

That Sports Illustrated cover.

That game.

That day — March 20, 2010 — when the name Ali Farokhmanesh became nationally known. The Kansas killer.

Farokhmanesh — now an assistant coach at Colorado State University — hit one of the shots that makes fans love March Madness, a late 3-pointer to boost No. 9-seeded Northern Iowa past overall No. 1-seed Kansas in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Farokhmanesh is asked to re-live those moments every year. He’ll smile every time he's asked.

“Everyone’s like ‘oh are you sick of it?’ I’m like ‘no, it brings back awesome memories,'” Farokhmanesh said. “Those are some of the best times of my life.”

What the casual fan might forget is Farokhmanesh already hit the shot of a lifetime in the game prior to that epic upset of Kansas.

The Panthers played eighth-seeded UNLV in the first round and the tight game was decided by a game-winning Farokhmanesh 3-pointer with 4.9 seconds left.

For most college basketball players, that would be the shot of their career.

But Farokhmanesh topped it two days later.

Northern Iowa led Kansas 63-62 with just less than 40 seconds left when a teammate found Farokhmanesh wide open at the 3-point arc with 32 seconds left on the shot clock.

Most would expect the leading team to hold and kill the clock. Farokhmanesh paused, fired and nailed it. Northern Iowa won 69-67 and days later Farokhmanesh was on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

After the game the Northern Iowa team went to an Applebee’s in snowy Oklahoma City. Farokhmanesh was called for a phone interview with ESPN’s SportsCenter, which was playing on all the TVs in the restaurant.

Well, Farokhmanesh can take the story from there:

“I was talking on the phone to the people on SportsCenter while we’re all watching it up there. I had to go into the bathroom to talk because I could hear the echo of what I was saying,” Farokhmanesh said. “I knew I sounded like an idiot because I could hear myself, but it was delayed. I’m trying to remember the questions. It was all pretty surreal.”

Farokhmanesh was back in an 8 a.m. class the following Monday when he received a text saying he would be on the Sports Illustrated cover. One still hangs in his office — his parents “probably have 1,000” copies he jokes.

The 30-year-old Farokhmanesh is a highly regarded assistant for the Rams, a rising star in the NCAA coaching ranks. He’s become an important mentor for many of the players and is known as an excellent recruiter.

Nine years after that highlight shot he says most of his sharpest memories are about celebrating with his teammates after the big wins, not the game action. Three of his teammates were in his wedding. He was in theirs.

Farokhmanesh missed the Rams’ Mountain West tournament game last week to be home for the birth of Liam, the third child for Ali and his wife, Mallory.

When Farokhmanesh was with now-Colorado State University head coach Niko Medved at Drake in Iowa, the assistant was the more famous of the pair. Everyone wants to talk to the Kansas killer.

He’s more anonymous here in Fort Collins. Walking down the street he may not be noticed.

But then there's the name. If “John Smith” had hit those shots for Northern Iowa they would still be memorable, but the Farokhmanesh (fuh-ROAK-muh-nesh) name sticks with you.

Fans hear it and the memory clicks. They remember where they were when the saw Farokhmanesh and Northern Iowa slay the Jayhawks.

“Honestly, that’s the best part, hearing different people come up to me and tell me what they were doing. That’s fun,” Farokhmanesh said. “There are certain games that you remember where you were at and it’s kind of surreal that people come up and tell me they remember where they were when that game happened.”

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