DENVER — If you’re like most of America, then the first time you watched a Little Rock basketball game was Thursday afternoon when the Trojans upset Purdue in double overtime. 

Little Rock, a 12-seed, comes out of the Sun Belt Conference, where the Trojans absolutely dominated this season, running up a 30-4 record. 

“When you’ve won 30 games, you think you’re winning every night,” said ISU coach Steve Prohm. “That’s just how it is. That’s just in your mindset and so it’s in your DNA.”

The Coach

Little Rock coach Chris Beard turned around a struggling Little Rock program in his first season at the helm, leading the Trojans to 30 wins, a 17-win increase from last season.

Beard’s fiery personality has been on display, notably in locker room celebrations. He also broke his hand by punching a whiteboard in the Sun Belt Conference tournament.

Mosh pit! #BracketBusted https://t.co/HXZ8ble8OP

— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) March 17, 2016

He’s got a wild side to him, and the team seems to follow suit. Whatever he’s doing must be working, as Little Rock has had the best season in program history. 

Beard admitted that he got after his star player, Josh Hagins, at halftime of the Purdue game. The result was Hagins providing one of the most impressive performances of the tournament with 29 second-half points.

Beard was voted Sun Belt Coach of the Year and has been credited with turning around Little Rock and putting the program back on the map during a re-branding effort.

“At our banquet this year we’ll probably have steak and lobster instead of grilled chicken because it’s been an unbelievable year,” Beard said. “There’s a lot of things in the past and future, but right now is the precious present. Right now is an opportunity to advance to the Sweet 16.”

The Star

Josh Hagins became a star overnight after an impressive performance against Purdue in the first round. Hagins scored 31 points, grabbed seven rebounds, dished out six assists and had five steals in the double overtime win.

After a slow first half, Hagins scored 29 points in the second half and overtimes, including a fadeaway deep 3-pointer down the stretch of regulation. 

“We just fight, man,” Hagins said. “Bottom line is we got a lot of guys that don’t have any quit in ’em.”

Hagins averages 13.4 points per game and more than four rebounds and assists per game this season. Monté Morris said he will start out guarding Haggins, but Prohm said Iowa State might switch things up by putting someone with length on Hagins and seeing if that bothers him.

The Style

It will be a complete change in styles for Iowa State, who just played Iona, who liked pushing the pace almost as much as Iowa State does. Little Rock is one of the slowest pace of play teams in the country, but also changes up the style of play to best fit their opponent.

Purdue’s height gave Little Rock fits for most of the game, but Little Rock used a 10-0 run down the stretch that was sparked by pressing Purdue and turning them over.

A team that plays a slow style of play like Little Rock would seem to be a big advantage for Iowa State, but Little Rock’s ability to shake things up can be challenging.

“Purdue had a size mismatch on everybody and [Little Rock] seemed to handle that good,” said Jameel McKay. “We just got to go out and play our game. Our game is finding a mismatch.”

The Cinderella 

Little Rock’s exciting victory against Purdue propelled them to Cinderella status in the NCAA tournament, which is bolstered by the special turnaround the program has had.

Little Rock is under the direction of a first-year head coach, and underwent a massive roster overhaul from last season. Little Rock’s turnaround this season is one of the most dramatic turnarounds of the season.

Coach Beard preaches a one-day-at-a-time process, something he’s picked up from his days as an assistant coach under Bobby Knight, but the attention from Little Rock’s win has made that tough.

“I turned my phone of yesterday at 11 a.m. before the game,” Beard said. “I turn it back on yesterday at eight because I wanted to check on my youngest daughter… and my phone had completely blown up. I mean, like just destroyed.”

He joked about all the attention.

“So if any of my friends or family or recruits are out there, I’m not getting a big head, I’m not turning into somebody else,” Beard said. “My phone’s not working. But I hope that you’ll text me again so I can thank you for the text.”

Not satisfied 

A lot of lower seed teams are happy to steal one win and make some noise on the national stage.

Not Little Rock.

Beard and his players have repeatedly stated that they are not done yet and that they believe they have a team that can advance in the tournament. 

“The bottom line is we came here to play, we came here to win,” Hagins said. “That’s our goal right now.”