Explorers

DRIVING ACROSS INDIANA - It started as a simple trip. A doable 9 hours to Dayton was the plan. We could not afford to miss La Salle's first NCAA Tournament game in 21 years. Then the Explorers turned our week upside down. A win over Boise State in the First Four changed our plans. To Kansas City, it was. Back into the Hyundai Sonata we went for another 9 hours. The crew of Mike McCoy, Dave Grzybowski, Rachel Finkbeiner and I hopped on I-70 in hopes of good basketball and good barbecue.

Storybook tales are easy to write. The truth is messier. It doesn't hold still to be tied up with a neat bow. The truth can actually be a lousy storyteller. From the outside, La Salle is the perfect fairy tale for college basketball in March. The Explorers haven't been in the NCAA tournament for 22 years and now, after three wins in five days, they are in the Sweet 16. Isn't that cute? A 13 seed. Among the current survivors in the tournament, only Florida Gulf Coast University, a 15 seed, is more adorable.

KANSAS CITY - It will go down, quite simply, as the most memorable week in recent La Salle basketball history. And seriously, there really hasn't even been a close second. It started on Selection Sunday, when Dr. John Giannini allowed the cameras to be in the room with his team as they watched to learn their fate, knowing full well there was a chance they wouldn't get in. So the reaction when their name was finally called, on the last line of the bracket that it could have been, was priceless.

Several hundred La Salle students stormed the floor of the Tom Gola Arena Sunday night, celebrating the Explorers' win over Mississippi. "It's explosive," said Jeff Lucia, a sophomore from Boston. La Salle in the Sweet 16 "hasn't happened in [more than] 50 years. " "I'm at a loss for words," added Marina Hansen, a sophomore from Franklinville, N.J. La Salle's president, Michael McGinniss, watched the game at the arena along with 300 to 400 students and staff, mostly wearing some version of the school's blue and yellow colors.

KANSAS CITY - The questioner on Saturday was trying to be nice, but there was a patronizing undertone. It is common at this time of the year, when a 13-seed like La Salle starts to make a run. People don't mean anything by it, but the whole narrative just sometimes works better with the addition of a soupcon of Cinderella. But John Giannini was having none of it, as nicely as he could. His team won two games in the NCAA Tournament and the Explorers' coach said the result was "normal" and "rational" for a team that has won as many games and fared as well in the Atlantic 10 as La Salle has. "We have no self-esteem issues," Giannini said, with a smile.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - There were circumstances that would have sunk most teams with La Salle sprinting early, crawling late but doing enough to live another day.   The 13th-seeded Explorers continued their postseason run with Friday's 63-61 win over No. 4 Kansas State before 18,301 partisan Wildcats fans at the Sprint Center.   La Salle (23-9) meets SEC tournament champion and 12th-seeded Mississippi in Sunday's third-round game.   After a first half in which La Salle led by as many as 19 points and held an 18-point advantage at intermission, the Explorers held on for dear life by surviving both the Wildcats and their boisterous purple-clad fans.

While so much will be focused on La Salle stopping Ole Miss guard Marshall Henderson (20 ppg.), the Explorers true disadvantage is down in the blocks. Even considering 6-foot-8 Jerrell Wright having a monster performance of 21 points and eight rebounds in Friday's 63-61 second-round win over Kansas State, the Explorers will be at a disadvantage inside. That's because Ole Miss is physical with 6-9, 235-pound Reginald Buckner (9.5 ppg., 7.6 rpg.) and 6-7, 240-pound Murphy Holloway (14.5 ppg., 9.6 rpg.)

KANSAS CITY - Please feel free to dream on. For the first time since 1955 - when Tom Gola's team, the defending national champions, lost right here in the title game to Bill Russell and San Francisco - La Salle has won twice in the NCAA Tournament. Take time to digest that for a moment. The No. 13 seed Explorers (23-9), one of the last teams even to get into the field, somehow found a way to hang on, when it looked as if they had nothing left, and got past fourth-seeded Kansas State (27-7)

A giant blinking eye appears on the screen, followed by a close-up of how optic nerves are connected to the brain. Before long, viewers are whizzing through space. The computer-rendered graphics are worthy of any science-fiction film, but this is a movie about science facts. Called To Space & Back , coproduced by the Franklin Institute and a New Hampshire company called Sky-Scan Inc., the film explores the benefits of space exploration. It started showing daily at the science museum this week.