As Alabama’s Rod Grizzard stepped to the line for two shots late in the Tide’s 71-58 second-round loss to Kent State, one of the Golden Flashes sidled up for a few words.

“Remember me?” asked guard Trevor Huffman, who balled with Grizzard at last summer’s USA Basketball tryout. “Yeah,” Grizzard replied. “You’re that short white guy.”

	Cruz: Brandin Knight & the Panthers are on the prowl. Palmer Steve Blake makes it all work for Maryland. Keown: Jared Jeffries is turning it on for the Hoosiers. Wickersham: Keith Bogans is back on his game, making the Cats a scary team. Gustafson: Trevor Huffman is out to prove the Golden Flashes are the real deal. Kirkpatrick: Channing Frye is quickly becoming the beast of the Big Dance.

No denying: Huffman is relatively short (6'1") and undoubtedly white. But in leading Kent State to its first-ever Sweet 16, the scrappy senior from rural Petoskey, Mich. (“in the ring finger of the mitt,” he helpfully explains), proved he was much more than that. He had 18 points and three assists in a first-round upset of Oklahoma State. And following the big win over Bama, in which Huffman dominated heralded frosh point Maurice Williams, scoring 20 points, dropping 5 dimes and forcing 6 turnovers, Tide coach Mark Gottfried gave him his full endorsement: “I think Trevor’s going to play in the NBA.”

Not bad for a guy who just eight months ago didn’t even know if he could play for his own team.

After Kent’s Tourney trip last season, easy-flowing coach Gary Waters left for Rutgers. His replacement, former Michigan State assistant Stan Heath, imported Spartan structure as well as Tom Izzo’s infamous rebounding drills. Huffman was shell-shocked. “I was pretty much afraid to talk to him in the beginning,” he says.

The tension boiled over early in the season when Huffman missed a morning meeting, then went toe-to-toe in a war of words with Heath, in front of the entire squad. “It was just an argument over the way things used to be and what he wanted to change,” Huffman says.

But his teammates were just as slow to adapt: The Golden Flashes dropped four of their first eight. Finally, after a loss to Youngstown State on Dec. 15, the boys decided they’d had enough. First they called a players-only meeting, then told Heath they were ready to buy into his system. Kent’s gone 25-2 ever since, riding a 20-game winning streak into the Tourney’s second weekend.

Ironically, it’s their combativeness with each other that makes this team tick. At times, the Flashes seem on the verge of breaking into an on-court squab. “We pretty much say whatever we want,” Huffman says. “Whether it’s ‘Get your head out of your butt,’ or ‘What are you doing?’ Demetric Shaw smacked me in the face a couple of times and I wanted to punch him. As soon as that moment is over, it’s back to patting each other on the butt. We’ll do anything to win.”

Even if that means making peace with old enemies. Huffman and Heath are now on a first-name basis. “I love playing for Stan,” Trevor says. “I love the system. It’s helped me take my game to another level.”

His team, too.

This article appears in the April 1 issue of ESPN The Magazine.