Gottfried draws on underdog experience

MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA - If Mark Gottfried learned anything in the NCAA tournament five years ago, it&#39;s beware the underdog. <br> <br> Gottfried&#39;s Murray State team entered the tournament as a No. 15 seed and nearly shocked Duke. Now, he finds himself on the opposite end of the spectrum with No. 2 seed Alabama (26-7) a heavy favorite over 15th-seeded Florida Atlantic in Thursday&#39;s opening round of the South Regional in Greenville, S.C. <br> <br> That 1997 experience makes Gottfried especially wary of the Owls (19-11), who earned the Atlantic Sun Conference&#39;s automatic bid. <br> <br> ``Our players felt like we could beat anybody in the country,&#39;&#39; he said. ``The players feel it, the fans feel it. If it&#39;s the Lakers, bring them on: &#39;We can do it.&#39; <br> <br> ``They&#39;re not going to back down from Alabama or anybody in the country. That&#39;s the way our team was when we were at Murray.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> And what happened? <br> <br> The Racers were tied with the powerhouse Blue Devils at halftime and got back-to-back 3-pointers in the final 9.8 seconds. A desperation 3-point attempt went wide right as time expired for a 71-68 loss. <br> <br> On the court, Murray State wasn&#39;t overly impressed with Duke&#39;s pedigree. Afterward, reality sunk in and at least one Murray State player got an autograph from Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski, which still brings a chuckle to Gottfried. <br> <br> ``That kind of put things back in perspective, I guess,&#39;&#39; he said. <br> <br> Alabama doesn&#39;t have a similar hoops pedigree, making its first tournament trip in seven years. <br> <br> The current players&#39; only postseason experience came in the NIT last year, but Alabama made the championship game. <br> <br> ``Probably, it&#39;s a factor, but at the same time there&#39;s nothing we can do about it,&#39;&#39; Gottfried said. ``There&#39;s no sense making an issue about it. <br> <br> ``Our guys have worked hard, and they&#39;re not afraid to play anybody. We may lack experience, but I don&#39;t think we lack courage. So we&#39;re going to go play.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The Tide are coming off their first SEC regular season championship in 15 years, losing 61-58 to Mississippi State in the league championship game on Sunday. <br> <br> With four three-year starters, including SEC Player of the Year Erwin Dudley, Alabama isn&#39;t lacking confidence even with the prospect of having to go through No. 1 overall seed Duke to make the Final Four. <br> <br> ``I don&#39;t think there are a whole lot of teams that sincerely believe they&#39;re good enough to win the national championship,&#39;&#39; Gottfried said. ``I want our team to believe we can. I think they do.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Gottfried got a taste of winning it all as an assistant at UCLA in 1995. That&#39;s the goal he&#39;s been setting for his players since he took over at his alma mater four years ago. <br> <br> ``When I recruited everyone on this team, I told them I want to win a national championship,&#39;&#39; Gottfried said. ``And if they don&#39;t want to win a national championship, they can go somewhere else. <br> <br> ``I want our players to believe it. I want them to dream it. I want them to want it. They&#39;ve got to want it. I don&#39;t think it&#39;s something they should ever be afraid of.&#39;&#39;