The best college basketball team in California probably isn't the one you think

No, this year, the best college basketball team from California might just be the University of California, Irvine.

Yes, you read that right. The Anteaters. (Zot! Zot! Zot!)

“We’re one of the top teams on the West Coast, and we have proven we’re probably the best team in California,” Ryan Badrtalei, an assistant coach at UC Irvine, said in a telephone interview Monday.

Of course, claims like these are hotly debated at this time of year. But Sunday, the NCAA selection committee announced the 68 teams that will play in the Division I men’s basketball tournament, and only two of them were from California: UC Irvine and Saint Mary’s, which earned its bid by winning the West Coast Conference Tournament.

Badrtalei certainly has a case. UC Irvine beat Saint Mary’s this season on its way to a 30-5 record, good enough to earn the team a No. 13 seed in the South Region of the NCAA Tournament. UC Irvine will play Kansas State on Friday in San Jose.

The No. 13 seed means the Anteaters are an underdog in that game. But the team has also been a trendy upset pick among experts, some of whom think the team could make something of a Cinderella run.

“The Anteaters are a terrible draw for Kansas State, and their upset odds are two times better than you would expect for a typical No. 13 seed,” The Washington Post’s Neil Greenberg wrote Sunday after the bracket was unveiled.

Badrtalei said this year’s team features several upperclassmen who have helped them beat squads like Texas A&M and Saint Mary’s on the road — wins that give the Anteaters confidence that they can hang with stiff competition.

Veteran players like Jonathan Galloway, who is a first team all-conference selection, has helped anchor the Anteaters defensively. The team prides itself on rebounding well and being a “a real stubborn defensive team,” Badrtalei said, adding that Kansas State plays a similar style.

“We’re going to have to go out and play really well,” Badrtalei said of Friday’s matchup. “But these guys know their roles. They know what they’re doing. We purposely recruit guys who have a chip on their shoulders. We like that. We like being in the position where we have to perform.”

So can they pull off the upset?

Said Badrtalei: “There’s not a question in our minds.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.