Who? The Bengals of Idaho State.
What? Oh, please let Idaho State end up in the same pod as Princeton- the Princeton Tiger begat the Idaho State Bengal. Benny is not the most original name, though.
Where? Pocatello, Idaho, where it was once illegal not to smile.
When? March 10th, on the campus of Idaho State University.
Why? They won the Big Sky Conference tournament.
How? Idaho State built up an eleven-point first half lead, went down by six to Northern Colorado in the second, and came back to win 49-46. Chelsea Pickering and Ashleigh Vella each had 12 points for the Bengals.
Surprise? Picked fifth in the preseason, they ran away with the conference in the regular season, finishing three games ahead of Northern Colorado.
RPI (as of 3/10): 67
SOS (as of 3/10): 153
Record: 24-7 (14-2 Big Sky)
Good wins: South Florida at Air Force's tournament.
Bad losses: South Dakota
Who's running this show? Seton Sobolewski, since 2009. He started out at Northern Arizona.
The scoring load is balanced for this team, with four players averaging in double figures, led by senior guard Chelsea Pickering with 12.1 points per game. Junior forward Ashleigh Vella and junior guard Kaela Oakes are also capable of taking over for the Bengals.