By Dave Caldwell

Source: The New York Times

March 19, 2010

OKLAHOMA CITY — Ali Farokhmanesh’s father, Mashala, played volleyball for in the 1980 Summer Olympics, but that was not as prestigious as it might seem. For one thing, Mashala played most of his games on concrete courts. And volleyball players need to dive.

“He taught me about work ethic,” said Ali, who has become a nationally known senior guard for the Northern Iowa basketball team overnight.

Farokhmanesh swished in a jump shot of nearly 30 feet with 4.9 seconds left to lift the Panthers to a 69-66 victory Thursday over Nevada-Las Vegas in the opening round of the tournament. U.N.I. (29-4), the No. 9 seed in the Midwest, will play top-seeded Kansas (33-2) on Saturday.

Although U.N.I., in Cedar Falls, is making its fifth tournament appearance in seven years, the Panthers are generally seen as big underdogs — a potential Cinderella. During a news conference Friday, U.N.I. players were asked how many of them would start at Kansas.

“I don’t know the answer to that one,” Adam Koch, a senior forward, said.

The players feel as if they have earned the right to play the Jayhawks. The Panthers, most of whom come from the upper Midwest, work hard and get along. Farokhmanesh, who averages 9 points a game, is one of the main reasons for their success, and for a reason.

He has had to make a name for himself. When he played at West High School in Iowa City, the public-address announcers flubbed the pronunciation of his last name (fuh-ROAK-muh-NESH) so many times that they referred to him simply as Ali when he made a basket.

Northern Iowa wanted him then, but Farokhmanesh had to go to Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids to improve his grades. Ben Jacobson, who had just become the U.N.I. head coach after serving as an assistant, kept after Farokhmanesh.

“He’s carried himself with a level of confidence that has just helped this program,” Jacobson said Friday.

Farokhmanesh grew up on the West Coast before his family moved to Iowa when he was a teenager because his mother was a native. Farokhmanesh tried playing volleyball, but he moved to basketball because most Iowa boys play the sport.

“It’s something he doesn’t really talk about,” Koch said of Farokhmanesh’s athletic background, “but to have one of your parents be in the Olympics, that’s pretty big-time. I guess we’re just fortunate he’s playing basketball.”

His parents have struggled at times; Farokhmanesh says his father has told him stories about how he used to fill up on 49-cent McDonald’s cheeseburgers. His father’s decision to leave Iran was abrupt and not without its drawbacks.

Ali says he has never seen his father’s grandparents or his aunts and uncles in Iran.

His father has taught him only rudimentary Farsi — “not enough to keep a conversation going,” he said — because he did not want to appear to be keeping secrets from Ali’s mother.

“I’d like to go back there at some point,” Ali said.

Because of the political turbulence in Iran, he knows that the chance to visit might not come for a while. But the values he learned from his father, and, by extension, his family have helped him become a better basketball player. He says he shoots 600 to 700 jump shots a day.

“He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever met,” said Jordan Eglseder, U.N.I.’s 7-foot, 280-pound center. “The shots he makes are unbelievable. Someone could be right in front of his face, and it wouldn’t faze him at all.”

Farokhmanesh knows Kansas will be a formidable opponent. U.N.I. has made it this far by playing tight defense, and the Jayhawks run the floor as if they are being timed. If he can make some long-distance shots, Northern Iowa probably has a better chance.

“When you’re a small program like this, you want to get your name out there,” he said.

Northern Iowa does not carry the players’ last names on the backs of their purple jerseys. Farokhmanesh says that is fitting, because it has been a team effort. He was surrounded by television cameras in the locker room Friday, but he could see over the bright lights.

“Look over there,” he said, pointing to about a dozen of his teammates watching him. “They’re all laughing at me.”