When he senses his players feeling a little intimidated, La Salle's basketball coach looks to Villanova.

Dr. John Giannini looks to the 2005-06 Wildcats, specifically; an undersized team that played ravenously. In the bruising Big East Conference, they slayed giants all season en route to the Elite Eight.

Giannini knew this edition of Explorers, rebuilt for the third time in his nine seasons, might do something special, too. They might win the Big 5.

They might make the NCAA Tournament. They might win a game.

But only if they believed that bigger is not always better.

"G (Giannini) always compares us to that Villanova team, with Kyle Lowry, Randy Foye and Allen Ray," point guard Tyreke Duren said. "He told us they made a run and that nobody expected them to. They played teams that were way bigger than them.

"He always shows us that film where beat Georgetown when Georgetown had Roy Hibbert. He says, 'This can be our team. This is what we have to do.' "

It is, to a large degree, what they did. They rode role players and 63.3 percent shooting to their first NCAA win in a generation, 80-71, over Boise State on Wednesday night, securing the No. 13 seed in the West Region. They take their backcourt magic to Kansas City, where they face fourth seed Kansas State on Friday.

"We had five guards that played at a high level. We had a quickness advantage," Giannini said. "That was the difference."

The flaw in the plan is obvious: Using four guards at all times virtually surrenders the paint. The entire team must seek to rebound, to help defending the post, even at the expense of fastbreak points.

The genius of the scheme lies in depth, and quickness, and, most important, multiple weapons.

Boise State focused on shutting down La Salle scorer Ramon Galloway and Duren, whose offense drives the team.

Most of the time.

Wednesday night, in the Explorers' first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 1992, defensive specialist Sam Mills and sixth man Tyrone Garland combined for 37 points on 14-for-18 shooting.

On its 150th Charter Day, that pair as much as anyone gave the institution and anniversary gift: a return to basketball relevance.

Lionel Simmons sat tucked into a flock of La Salle fans midcourt at the University of Dayton Arena.

"How cool was that!" Giannini gushed.

Simmons proudly wore a gray sweatshirt with a blue-and-gold logo on its front as he witnessed the team return to the significance he ensured when he played there ... back when the team made NCAA trips with regularity. It was as if the La Salle faithful knew what was going to happen.

A couple of hundred Explorers fans heartened Galloway and Co.

"When I saw we had our own little section there, it made us play so much harder," Galloway said. "We knew we had support. I ain't gonna lie: I didn't think there would be that many people traveling to Ohio. They proved me wrong."

They are the vanguard of a resurgence for La Salle as a program and, perhaps, as an institution.

"Universities talk a lot about branding. Basketball is part of our brand," athletic director Tom Brennan said.

The brand can only flourish further now.

"We didn't just come here to make the tournament," said Garland, who scored 22. "We came to win games."

Nobody cared who spurred the winning.

Galloway's alley-oop dunk might make the highlights, but Garland's second-half spinner, as well as three-pointers by him and Mills, who had 15 points, finished off by a drive-and-dish by Garland to Jerrell Wright, were what kept the Boise State at bay.