Associated Press
Radford became the symbol for what some think is wrong with the NCAA tournament this week, portrayed repeatedly by talk radio hosts and others as a team from a no-chance conference that has no business taking some tradition-rich bubble team’s spot in the field of 65.
Coach Brad Greenberg is offering no apologies for his team’s bid, earned when the Highlanders beat Virginia Military Institute in the Big South championship. Radford will play top-seeded North Carolina a short drive from the Tar Heels campus in Greensboro.
“In some ways, our team is built more for playing outside our conference than it is for playing in our conference,” the second-year coach said, noting that several teams in the Big South play an up-tempo, guard-oriented game while his team uses a traditional frontline.
And it’s that frontline, with help from a veteran backcourt, that could make the Highlanders (21-11) anything but pushovers for the perennially powerful Tar Heels (28-4).
In Artsiom Parakhouski, the Highlanders have a 6-foot-11 center who blocks shots, scores and rebounds effectively and was an easy winner as the conference’s player of the year.
Parakhouski has played organized basketball for just five years, but 26 points and 18 rebounds against VMI.
And he’s not the Highlanders only big-time big man.
The Highlanders also have 6-8 power forward Joey Lynch-Flohr, who averages almost 14 points and six rebounds.
“Just a gritty, tough, very, very strong, fiercely competitive kid,” Greenberg said.
So gritty that Lynch-Flohr is delighted to be heading to Greensboro.
“I don’t feel like a 16 seed, but I’m not disappointed with that,” he said before dismissing talk that the Highlanders don’t belong. “I really think that’s what makes the tournament what it is, seeing the 15s beat the 2s, and when it happens, when a 16 does beat a one, those are some of the greatest moments in March madness history, or they will be.”