Every Selection Sunday, without fail, Ricky Blanton scans the NCAA tournament bracket with a purpose: Find all the No. 11 seeds, then daydream about whether any will get to write their own Cinderella stories the way he and his teammates did 32 years ago.
His LSU team became the first No. 11 seed to make the Final Four, in 1986. It was a scrappy but veteran group that survived injuries, suspensions and a chicken pox epidemic to become the only team to take down the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 seeds in the tournament. Since then, George Mason, VCU and now Loyola-Chicago have followed, creating their own improbable runs toward history.