Hlas column: Get ready for your close-up, Panthers

On the back covers of Sunday's New York Daily News and New York Post were large photos of Ali Farokhmanesh after Northern Iowa's basketball win over Kansas Saturday.

That's right, the New York Daily News and New York Post. That's right, UNI.

The Panthers know their Friday night opponent in St. Louis' Edward Jones Dome. That's Michigan State. But they have something else to overcome this week.

The sports covers of the Big Apple's tabloids are usually New York-centric. But UNI belongs to America this week. That brings the kind of attention that is foreign. It can easily be distracting and even suffocating, no matter how focused you try to remain.

The Panthers are now, to use the cliche, rock stars.

This is a team that seems to have a natural impulse for staying grounded. But the bridge from the first week of the NCAA tournament to the second week has tested the mental toughness of many a surprise team headed into the Sweet 16.

Michigan State is an established resident in the Sweet 16. Tom Izzo's story has been told and told. Nothing new to see here folks, move along.

UNI, meanwhile, is oozing with all these upbeat stories for the national press, with a situation, a coach, and players the media is finding to be fresh and captivating.

Who is this Ben Jacobson, people are asking, this young magic man who won a lot of hearts when he cracked a wry grin after Lucas O'Rear airballed a free throw against Kansas?

Who is this Farokhmanesh, the shiniest and gutsiest star of the whole tournament so far, this short player with the long name media types are learning to spell?

(He played at Kirkwood Community College two years ago, folks. Maybe Kanss will start recruiting Kirkwood in the future.)

The attention will be massive. Fortunately for the Panthers, Jacobson never seems to have a problem getting his players to listen when he has something to say. He has the right kind of personality for this moment.

But though this is a wonderful moment for this program, it's also very unnatural. Which adds to the degree of difficulty in continuing to advance in the tourney.

However, we've already seen that the Panthers don't seem to have a ceiling on their level of satisfaction. They had an NCAA spot clinched before playing Wichita State in the Missouri Valley Conference final.

They didn't care. They wanted to win.

When they beat UNLV in the first round of the NCAAs, that would have been enough for everyone to tell them “Great season,” even if Kansas had mopped the Ford Center floor with them.

They didn't see it like that. They wanted to win again.

The victory over the top-ranked Jayhawks was a game-changer for the university. Never has the school or one of its teams received the national focus it got this weekend and will continue to get through at least Friday night.

This won't be a Missouri Valley game in the McLeod Center, with a few newspaper writers, a few area TV folks, and five or six thousand people in the stands.

This is an NFL stadium, a CBS audience, and a week-full of poking and probing from reporters from all over the country.

If that's a problem, it's one of the best ones a team can have. The Panthers will feel no sympathy coming from Lawrence, Kan., that's for sure.