Underdog stories make March Madness soar

They are the schools that bring the madness to March. Underdogs hefting double-digit seeds into the 68-team NCAA tournament that are capable of turning the bracket’s orderly lines into chaos.

They’re expected to be early-round fodder for college basketball’s name-brand programs. But one routinely sheds small-school anonymity to pull down a giant and, in the space of a 40-minute basketball game, becomes known the nation over.

They waited 29 years for this chance at Mercer. That’s in Macon, Ga., for those who aren’t Atlantic Sun Conference aficionados.

Over at Wofford, in Spartanburg, S.C., they want you to know the name is pronounced Wah-ford, not Woe-ford.

No pronunciation guide is needed at Coastal Carolina, where the veteran coach could barely keep his composure after his band of upstarts from Conway, S.C., qualified for their chance to break up the brackets.

These aren’t the schools that see college basketball’s ultimate stage as a birthright. Instead, their journeys to the cusp of madness have evoked tears, awe, even bliss.

Here are five of their stories:

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Not so long ago, Wofford Coach Mike Young had to spell out his school’s name during calls to high school guidance counselors seeking academic information on recruits.

Wofford has a tick less than 1,600 students in a town better known as the headquarters of Denny’s restaurants.

Three NCAA tournament appearances since 2010 — the latest secured last week by winning the Southern Conference title — brought something Young never expected: some name recognition.

“In the Midwest, we can go to Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota,” the coach said. “We’re like a household name out there.”

That wasn’t always the case in Young’s 25 years at the school, the last 12 as head coach.

“No,” he said, drawing out the word. “No. Absolutely not.”

At Wofford, players from Colorado, Tennessee and seven other states occupy a roster that rebounded from a 7-10 start and has won 13 of 15 heading into its NCAA Midwest Regional opener against second-seeded Michigan (25-8) on Thursday at Milwaukee. Young still isn’t certain what caused the turnaround — Wofford (20-12) has lost twice since Jan. 18 — but he’s not asking too many questions.

“Without getting too hokey,” he said, “to see a team like this battle and grind and struggle and then to see the lights come on and see them successful and continue to get better and endure, that’s the ultimate to me.”

Along with having a name people recognize.

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A strange thing happened to Cliff Ellis in the minutes after Coastal Carolina earned an NCAA tournament berth with last week’s victory in the Big South tournament.

Emotion welled up in the coach and, for a moment, the past seemed to come alive.

“It was a flashback,” Ellis said. “It was an out-of-body experience.”

He thought of the three other schools — Auburn, Clemson and South Alabama — he has led to the NCAA tournament. He thought of players he coached, including Elden Campbell and Horace Grant. He thought about meeting John Wooden for the first time at a Florida coaching clinic in the 1970s. He thought about his career, which started when he was an assistant coach at Ruckel Middle School in Niceville, Fla.

“It was like CinemaScope,” Ellis said. “It was like a reel running fast. I couldn’t help but think this was for them.”

He meant all the men who played for the 68-year-old coach over a career that includes 665 Division I victories. The years of effort seemed to coalesce in this Coastal Carolina team, which will make the school’s first NCAA appearance in 21 years.

Ellis had expected another rebuilding year.

“A lot of people like to go out and play golf,” said Ellis, whose Chanticleers (21-12) are seeded 16th in the East and open against top-seeded Virginia (28-6) on Friday at Raleigh, N.C. “I like to teach kids to play basketball.”

So, the coach found himself trying to hold his emotions together as he looked into a television camera last week after his team defeated Winthrop.

Ellis knows his career is winding down. That only added to the moment’s intensity.

“I don’t have 10, 15, 20 years left,” Ellis said. “When you’re on a short string, you know that it’s something special.”

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Before Mount St. Mary’s faced Brigham Young this season, Jamion Christian didn’t have any problem picking his role on the scout team offense during practice.

The coach wanted to be BYU scoring machine Tyler Haws. “So I could get a lot of shots up,” Christian said.

Assigning himself whatever role he wants on the scout team — and playing it out during scrimmages — is one of the advantages of being the fifth-youngest coach in Division I . Christian is 31.

The hands-on approach Christian has taken in his second season leading the Emmitsburg, Md., school resulted in a Northeast Conference tournament title. The Mountaineers (16-16) play Tuesday against Albany (18-14) in an NCAA South play-in game at Dayton, Ohio.

“There are some people who coach for 20, 25 years and they don’t get an opportunity like this,” Christian said.

Virginia Commonwealth Coach Shaka Smart sent one of the first congratulatory text messages. Christian was an assistant at VCU in 2011-12 and considers Smart a mentor. That’s why Mount St. Mary’s “mayhem” style of play may look familiar. Smart used a similar up-tempo pace to reach the Final Four with VCU in 2011.

The Mount St. Mary’s version also features suffocating defense and rapid-fire three-point shooting. On defense, the Mountaineers press and trap, hoping to wear out opponents.

Christian’s twist is to recruit players who are scorers first. Defense, he says, can be taught.

Whether Christian is running the scout team’s zone offense or chatting about life and academics in his office after practice, the coach strives to relate to his players.

“I tell our guys I love them every day,” said Christian, who graduated from Mount St. Mary’s in 2004 after three years as the basketball team’s captain. “There are a lot of hugs and smiles in our program.”

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Saul Phillips is different.

“I’ve always been an underdog myself,” North Dakota State’s coach said. “I don’t really look like the typical college basketball coach. I don’t talk like the typical basketball coach. I don’t act like the typical basketball coach. I’m looser than most in my attitude toward the game.”

After the Fargo, N.D., school won the Summit League tournament to advance to the NCAA tournament for the second time since 2009, sleep eluded thecoach. Generating enthusiasm has never been a problem for the 41-year-old Phillips.

“This is absolute bliss,” said Phillips, whose Bison (25-6), seeded 12th in the West, open against fifth-seeded Oklahoma (23-9) on Thursday at Spokane, Wash. “The satisfaction of seeing a group of guys that you really love accomplish their wildest dreams is about as fulfilling as it gets as a basketball coach, no matter the level.”

Since third grade, Phillips said, coaching basketball is the only job he wanted. He followed a circuitous path that included playing Division III basketball for Bo Ryan, then following the coach to the Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Wisconsin. Ryan reminded Phillips to coach to his personality, to be true to himself.

Phillips doesn’t pretend to be another buttoned-down cliche machine. Instead, you hear about the time he beat Doug McDermott, Creighton’s do-everything star, in a game of one-on-one.

“I’m probably the only guy in the [NCAA] tournament who has beaten him one-on-one,” Phillips said.

So what if McDermott was 5 at the time?

Phillips, then a graduate assistant for McDermott’s father, Greg, at Wayne (Neb.) State College, handled baby-sitting duties. Handing a basketball to the youngster did the trick.

Phillips, who took over as North Dakota State’s coach in 2007, sees some of himself in a veteran Bison roster that includes six seniors. His players were overlooked by larger schools and they’re eager to demonstrate that was a mistake.

Their coach is loving every minute.

“I’m really enjoying myself,” he said.

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Through pain and surgeries that seemed without end, Jakob Gollon imagined finishing his college basketball career in the NCAA tournament.

“But reality isn’t like dreams,” Mercer’s sixth-year senior forward reminded himself.

Then Mercer defeated Florida Gulf Coast in the Atlantic Sun Conference title game to advance to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1985.

Gollon’s wait lasted four surgeries and 152 games. After he broke his left foot as a high school junior in Stevens Point, Wis., doctors inserted a 4.5-inch screw in an unsuccessful attempt to fix the problem.

Gollon played briefly in his first two seasons at Mercer, but even a second surgery didn’t heal the foot. What came next was major reconstructive surgery — re-breaking the foot, shaving and rearranging the bones — and, at the same time, microfracture surgery to repair a troublesome right knee. Then, eight months of rehabilitation.

This time, though, the surgeries worked. Gollon returned a step slower, forcing a shift from small forward to power forward. Running and jumping didn’t feel the same, but Gollon has played in Mercer’s last 141 games.

In the meantime, he earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and used the extra eligibility to finish a master’s degree in educational leadership.

Mercer (26-8) learned Sunday it was seeded 14th in the Midwest and would open against third-seeded Duke (26-8) Friday at Raleigh, but in the days leading up to the announcement just knowing the Bears were headed to the NCAA tournament was enough for Gollon and his teammates.

“We just look at each other and say, ‘We did it,’” he said.

nathan.fenno@latimes.com