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The Underdog: March's Best Friend

Updated: Thursday, March 21 2013, 11:32 PM CDT

If dogs are man's best friend. Underdogs are March's best friend.

"The underdog role is always, the best role," said Pacific forward Lorenzo McCloud.

And this weekend in Austin, the underdogs stick out like neon orange laces on black shoes. Northwestern State and Pacific are the two lowest seeds here and the only two teams not from a major conference.

NSU, the 14th seed, is not just another small conference cupcake. The Demons lead the NCAA in scoring thanks to their up-tempo offense.

"When we get teams going faster than they usually do, it causes turnovers in our favor," said Demons forward Marvin Frazier.

And sometimes, like in last weekend's Southland conference title game, that high octane offense is too much to take in a natural state - even for Donna Anderson, the Demons number one fan.

"I ran out of Tylenol, I ran out of nerve pills, the sleeping pills didn't even help sleep that night," said Anderson.

Sleeping pills or no sleeping pills, don't blame Pacific if this postseason run feels like a dream. Tigers head coach Bob Thomason has already announced his retirement after 25 seasons at his alma mater, so every win extends his career one more game.

"It's been movie-like almost, to try and be able to send him out like this," said Pacific forward Tony Gill. "Hopefully we can get a win or two in the NCAA tournament and that would be just icing on the cake."

"He's [Coach Thomason] a great guy and we've got a great program," said Pacific fan Bing Kirk. "We pride ourselves for graduating 98 percent of our players the last 25 years."

Pacific and Northwestern State, two teams with geographic names hoping to map out the same destination - the next round.

The Underdog: March's Best Friend