12-vs-5 upset watch
Northern Iowa — the classic 12 seed spoiler — is positioned to try to derail St. John’s in a 12 vs 5 March Madness matchup, and a recent extended clip breaks down the underdog mentality at play (youtube.com). The video is a tight study in resilience and preparation — useful viewing if you’re mapping sports leadership lessons to team management under pressure (youtube.com).
St. John’s beat Northern Iowa 79-53 in the East Region first-round game on March 20, 2026 at Viejas Arena in San Diego. (espn.com) Zuby Ejiofor led St. John’s with 14 points and 11 rebounds while Bryce Hopkins scored 13 and Oziyah Sellers added 11. (espn.com) St. John’s improved to 29-6 on the season and had won 20 of 21 games entering or through this stretch, and the Red Storm advanced to face No. 4 Kansas next in the East Region. (espn.com) Northern Iowa entered the tournament after winning four games in four days to capture the Missouri Valley Conference tournament as the MVC’s No. 6 seed and earned its first NCAA berth since 2016. (espn.com) St. John’s built a dominant first-half lead (47-28 at the break) and held Northern Iowa to 3-of-14 from three-point range for the game. (espn.com) Pre-game odds heavily favored St. John’s, with sportsbooks opening the Red Storm as roughly double-digit favorites, reflecting the gap between St. John’s Big East title run and Northern Iowa’s status as a mid-major automatic qualifier. (sports.yahoo.com) The extended clip linked in the card sits on YouTube at the provided URL and frames Northern Iowa’s approach around resilience and preparation ahead of this matchup. (youtube.com)
