So, SportsLine.com senior writer Mark Alesia followed the real underdog -- Southern Utah -- behind the scenes in Fort Wayne, Ind., for the 24 hours leading to the league's tournament final.

The laughs keep coming

12:35 a.m. ET

Coach Bill Evans never had a chance to address the entire team in private after the game. Players were scattered among family, friends and fans. They cut down the net, did interviews and took pictures. Some danced.

Eventually, a group of players was ready for a van ride back to the hotel. But even then, there was energy to burn.

"They're looting and setting fires in Cedar City!" joked guard Justin Sant, sitting in the back with his arm around his wife, Jenny.

That comment, about their remote, conservative town of 25,000, prompted much laughter.

"I just know somebody turned my car over," guard Stan Johnson said.

Guard Jeff Monaco tried to gain support for his idea of diving into the hotel pool while still wearing a uniform and warm-ups.

When the players arrived, they found signs all over the lobby. One of them, on the door, said, "Dear Mom, Send More $$. Going to the Big Dance."

Celebrating with the ones they love

Tuesday, 11:38 p.m. ET

When Fred House stole the ball with 6.7 seconds remaining and drained a pair of free throws to put the finishing touches on a 62-59 victory, chaos enveloped the tiny Southern Utah contingent on the court.

One of the players found a cell phone and called a former teammate who graduated last year -- swingman Jim Faulkner, was in the program for seven years, wrapping his basketball career around a Mormon mission.

The postgame celebration was like that.

It was a time for family.

Star guard Monaco's mom, Elaine, was crying. She was comforted by Sant's wife, Jenny.

The only one who didn't seem to be enjoying the celebration -- at least not right away -- was Parker Chandler.

Parker, the son of junior forward B.J. Chandler, will celebrate his first birthday Wednesday. Initially spooked by the crowd noise at the end of the game, he eventually calmed down enough to be paraded around the floor by his proud papa.

Assistant coach Patrick Harrington celebrated with his 11-month-old daughter, Kelly.

The Thunderbirds and their extended team -- their families -- had reached their goal. And now it's on to just more excitement in the NCAA Tournament.

Previously ...

'Please, please please!'

Tuesday, 11:26 p.m. ET

The Thunderbirds came out of the locker room as if the first half never ended, extending their lead to 15 points.

SUU successfully forced Valparaiso into the halfcourt game Evans sought. Unfortunately, the Crusaders showed why they had won six consecutive Mid-Con tournaments.

Behind a barrage of 3-pointers, Valpo erased the entire 15-point deficit. With 6:39 left, Evans called a timeout.

There was no screaming, no throwing of clipboards.

"I'm proud of you guys," Evans said. "They made a run, you answered.

"Six minutes. Be composed."

They were.

With 2:32 left, and SUU back up three, Fredrick House launched a 3-pointer. As the ball sailed through the air, the significance of the shot wasn't lost on assistant coach Jeff Guiot.

"Please, please, please ..." he said, rocking back in his chair.

Swish.

It put T-Birds up 59-53 -- a lead they wouldn't relinquish.

'Don't be denied -- this is our game'

Tuesday, 10:28 p.m. ET

Up by 12 on Valparaiso at halftime, the goal can be seen. Right there within reach.

The Thunderbirds are determined not to rest on their superior first half.

With the coaches outside the locker room preparing to address the team, senior guard Jeff Monaco, the Mid-Con player of the year, took the opportunity to do some addressing of his own.

"Twenty more minutes the way we played," he said. "They're scared, they're scared right now ... God, it would be great to dance after this, wouldn't it?"

Evans entered, and wrote a simple "D" on the blackboard.

"I'm going to tell you, this is what we're going to win with," he said. "It's nothing-to-nothing, we have to go out and get after it again."

He's concerned about SUU's transition defense. He wants the T-Birds to force Valpo into a halfcourt game.

"Don't be denied tonight, this is our game," assistant coach Jeff Guiot said.

Said Evans: "We've got 20 minutes. You can realize your dream if you bust it for 20 more minutes."

And it was back to the floor.

'We've got the 30'

Tuesday, 9:30 p.m. ET

With 24 minutes left until tip, his team warming up for the biggest game of the year, coach Bill Evans sat on the bench next to assistant coach Barret Peery.

He leaned over and said, "This is what you live for."

They tapped fists.

Warmups completed, his team back in the locker room, Evans talked some last-minute strategy with his players.

And imparted some final words of wisdom.

"The crowd's going to be loud and they're not for us," he said. "We really have to concentrate.

"There are 3,030 people out there. We've got the 30.

"Got any questions?

"You know what? Now it's up to you. Enjoy yourselves."

With that the players gathered for one final huddle.

"One, two, three ... 'Birds!"

The plot thickens, the mood changes

Tuesday, 8:20 p.m. ET

The mood changed completely from earlier in the afternoon as the players gathered in the hotel lobby for their final trip to the arena. As they piled into vans, an assistant coach handed out a sheet of inspirational sayings.

"In Psalms, it says where there is unity, God always commands a blessing." The words unity and always each were underlined twice.

As the van he was driving started to pull away, assistant coach Patrick Harrington got a message: "Coach (Evans) isn't here. But you know how he wants it on the way over."

And quiet, focused, it was.

A sneeze, a "Bless you," and a "Thank you," were about the only noises during the 10-minute drive.

Once at the arena, about five players watched the awards ceremony for the champion of the Mid-Con women's tournament, Oral Roberts.

The players watched intently without saying a word.

Nervous, they're not

Tuesday, 5:45 p.m. ET

In one of the vans on the way back to the hotel, players hooted loudly at the driver, an assistant coach, for not getting to an intersection in time for a left-turn arrow.

They kidded forward Dan Beus for an innocent comment that, for the sake of humor, was twisted by his teammates into him sucking up to the coaches for more playing time.

"You already played -- what? -- 39 minutes yesterday," somebody said to laughter.

This did not seem like a nervous bunch of players.

"If you were here earlier in the week, you would have seen us more quiet," Beus said as the team headed to a film session at the hotel. "I think we're relieved to be where we're supposed to be. Now we have to make the most of it."

Hoping Dickie V knows what he's talking about

Tuesday, 5:20 p.m. ET

Dinner conversation included good-natured kidding of teammates, other players in the Mid-Con and the Southern Utah coaches (who weren't present).

It also included a prediction that one of Valpo's players with mono would indeed play and that the Crusaders' not showing up at the shootaround was some kind of psychological ploy.

The Thunderbirds say they take no encouragement from their opponent's physical condition. Everyone is beaten up at this time of year, they said.

Later, Stan Johnson looked up from his cheesesteak.

"I heard Dick Vitale said today that we're going to win, that Valpo's run is over," Johnson said.

"Did he say why?" forward Fred House said.

Nobody knew the answer. Perhaps surprisingly, the players let it go at that, seemingly not the least bit interested in the impact of Dickie V's opinion, one way or the other.

"We try not to pay much attention to that," guard Justin Sant said.

Too excited to nap

Tuesday, 4:30 p.m. ET

The players had two hours to kill before a pregame meal at Chili's.

"I napped," said sophomore guard Stan Johnson as he waited for the vans to take the team to the pregame meal. "Then I watched Oprah. I was too excited to nap."

Forward Dan Beus checked on his wife of eight months, Eden, a Southern Utah student who was writing an English paper on a hotel computer. His wife, discouraged by her slow progress typing what had been written out in longhand, gave the keyboard to her husband, who typed a few lines.

Beus' parents didn't make the trip, because they're watching his sister, Caroline, a senior center for Brigham Young. She plays Wednesday night against UNLV.

Beus said his parents are hoping this won't be Southern Utah's final game of the season.

"They're banking on us going to the NCAA Tournament," Beus said. "If we win, I'm hoping we go to Boise (Idaho, one of the first-round sites). That's 25 miles from where I grew up."

Johnson is banking on the outcome of tonight's game, too.

"I don't want to go to the NIT," Johnson said. "Not Invited Tournament."

Even the shootaround feels big

Tuesday, 12:40 p.m. ET

The players pile into vans to drive to Memorial Coliseum for a one-hour shootaround.

They go through their paces knowing Tuesday night's game could be their last game of the season ... or it could be just the start of something very big.

Even the shootaround has actual national TV announcers in attendance.

Fact is, even though they are 24-5 and they defeated Utah this season, they might not even get into the NIT if they lose to Valpo.

But they won't hear that from the coaches.

"You don't want to talk about that," assistant coach Patrick Harrington said. "That's negative thinking. For 365 days, these guys have been thinking about the NCAA Tournament."

Valparaiso, which has one player out with mononucleosis and another who recently returned from a bout with mono, decided to skip its one-hour of time at Memorial Coliseum, something Evans mentioned to his team before they broke their huddle at the end of the shootaround.

"One, two, three ... 'Birds!"

Extra motivation

Tuesday, 11:45 a.m. ET

As the coaches were watching tape, center John Wheeler came into the room. The coaches encouraged him to join his teammates for breakfast.

"I'm saving my meal money for pregame," Wheeler said, referring to the $18 a day players are allowed.

"Go to the NCAA Tournament, and you get $50 a day, so you can have breakfast," coach Bill Evans said.

It was unclear whether Wheeler was actually going to skip breakfast as he walked out he door and said, "That's good information coach."

Late night, early morning

Tuesday, 11:15 a.m. ET

After the semifinal victory over Oral Roberts on Monday night, coach Bill Evans was up with assistants Barret Peery and Patrick Harrington until 3 a.m. watching tape, preparing for Tuesday's Mid-Con championship game.

By 9:15 a.m., Evans was in the hotel restaurant with his assistants, having a bowl of fruit, talking about Fred House's rebound dunk the night before. It made the highlights on SportsCenter -- a special occasion for the Thunderbirds.

Southern Utah isn't used to such publicity, unlike Valpo, which had a prominent headline this morning in USA Today -- something, by the way, SUU coaches couldn't help but notice.

"It takes a special guy to play here," Evans said. "It's a small, conservative town. There's no mall. There are 25,000 people, 6,000 in school -- predominantly LDS (Mormon). I'm LDS. I'm probably not a very good recruiter, because I'm too damn honest with them. I recruit toughness and character -- two things you have to have anywhere."

Toughness and character might be the only things SUU players have in common with most of their opponents. Six players for Southern Utah are married, seven have been on Mormon missions, and the youngest starter is 22.

Valparaiso relies on foreign players.

The Thunderbirds rely on older players. The leading scorer, House, is a junior college transfer.

He is among just a few minorities on campus.

"There are two blacks on the basketball team, and six blacks on the football team, and eight or nine just going to school," said House, a 6-5 senior forward from Killeen, Texas. "It's hard sometimes, but the people in town are nice. They're not ignorant. If they were ignorant, I wouldn't be there. They don't stare.

"It's the first place I've been at where the people want to learn about my background and my culture."

After sleeping in this morning, the players went out to breakfast while the coaches watched more tape, of their two previous games against Valpo this year (each won once).

And they formulated a game plan.

A game of this magnitude

Tuesday, 1:10 a.m. ET

The children of Southern Utah guard Justin Sant, ages 2 and 11 months, are said to look pretty darn cute at home games in their little basketball jerseys.

But late Monday night, after the Thunderbirds' victory in the semifinals of the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament, the kids were back home with grandma.

Dad stood outside his team's locker room, describing a reason other than small children for his impending sleepless night.

"Right when your head hits the pillow," Sant said, "the game hits your mind, especially a game with this magnitude."

Sant's roommate was going to be a teammate, not his wife.

His wife made the trip with Sant's parents, but ... well ... this is a basketball trip.

"She asked if they could stay in the same hotel, but I said I'd appreciate it if they stayed somewhere else," Sant said. "I'm trying to keep this as normal as possible."

Normal?

For the second consecutive season, Southern Utah (24-5) is a game away from its first NCAA Tournament appearance.

This is a team that helps to give college basketball its unique appeal.

If it were only media savvy coaches and pampered players and "power" conferences, it wouldn't be March Mayhem. It would be the NBA playoffs.

March Mayhem needs a head coach like Southern Utah's nice guy Bill Evans, who made peanuts working his way up, has had only two technical fouls in his life and, having coached in Alaska, named one of his children after former Duke sharpshooter Trajan Langdon, who's from that state.

March Mayhem needs places like Cedar City, Utah, home of Southern Utah, where road trips often start with a two-and-a-half hour ride ... just to get to the Las Vegas airport.

March Mayhem needs a radio announcer like Art Challis, who has worked 28 years of Southern Utah games, begging off on only a few occasions, including his brother's wedding and a case of appendicitis.

It needs players who cherish a single appearance on ESPN2 tonight and their five points in the latest coaches' poll.

The nation's fans think of Valparaiso as the very definition of an underdog. But here, the Crusaders (24-7) are the big dog, having won the past six Mid-Con Tournaments.

Southern Utah and Valpo split their season series. After Monday's victory over Oral Roberts, SUU center Dan Beus was asked how the Thunderbirds might handle Valpo's size on the front line.

"Get a ladder," Beus said.

Maybe he'll need it after the game, too.

To cut down the nets.