Keeler: March Madness’ Upset City? Denver. Yale’s scrappy Bulldogs counting on altitude, attitude to bust your NCAA Tournament bracket

The Force was already strong in the Yale locker room when Bez Mbeng began wheezing like a young Darth Vader.

Hooooo-ahhhhhh

Hooooo-ahhhhhh

The best defender in the Ivy League had grabbed an aerosol-sized can full of oxygen. Mbeng pressed the business end to his mouth, leaned back at his locker stall and took a series of very loud, very deliberate breaths.

Hooooo-ahhhhhh

Hooooo-ahhhhhh

Dancing at 5,280 feet above sea level? Smart kids don’t miss a trick.

“My trainer and her assistant have done an unbelievable job in making sure my guys have oxygen, altitude sickness (medicine) and doing all those things to prepare them,” said Yale coach James Jones, whose No. 13 seed Bulldogs will take on No. 4 seed Texas A&M at 5:25 p.m. Thursday in the third of four first-round NCAA Tournament games at Ball Arena. “But I don’t think twice about it, to be honest with you.”

Deep breath, kids. This could get weird. Nobody does March Madness this century the way the Mile High City does March Madness. Of the last 12 first-round NCAA tourney games played at Ball Arena, five were won by a team seeded 11th or lower. Since 2011, no first-round Big Dance site has seen more upsets by an 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 or 16 seed than Denver.

Brendan Haywood has a theory for that last one. Actually, he’s got two.

“If you come out here as a higher seed with the wrong type of mindset,” the CBS Sports analyst and former North Carolina center told me as we sat courtside Wednesday, “and then on top of that, you can’t breathe for the first five minutes of the game, it feels like your lungs are on fire.

“Next thing you know, you get down. It can become too much for you to overcome.”

Ask Purdue. Ask Seton Hall. Ask Vanderbilt. Ask Louisville. The only thing worse than not being able to breathe on national television is not being able to breathe on national TV while 19,000 people decide to get on your back.

“And you also understand in these types of settings, when you’re the higher seed, especially when you’re a 3 seed taking on a 14 seed, when the game is close, the whole building turns against you,” Haywood continued. “It turns into a road game.

“They want you to lose. … They want the upset, they want to see Goliath go down. So, if you’re the 3 seed or the 2 seed, and that game’s close, it’s going to turn on you very quickly. So, I say that, combined with the altitude, is probably the reason.”

San Jose and Spokane also have seen five bracket-busting upsets since 2011. Could be a West Coast thing. Could be something else.

“Could be the time zone,” Haywood said with a grin. “But if you come out with the wrong type of mindset, it’s going to take you five minutes to get it (back).”

Deep breath. This could get funky.

On paper, Thursday’s first round has the potential for all kinds of beautiful chaos. The Big Ten blue bloods here, No. 3 seed Wisconsin and No. 5 seed Michigan, flew in after slugging it out in the conference title game on Sunday. Montana, the Badgers’ opening-round foe, Big Sky champs and perennial Greeley killjoys, are already used to running around at altitude. Plus, the Grizz have maybe the best name of any team here in guard Money Williams, a Bay Area kid (13.3 points per game, 56 3-pointers) with ice in his veins.

Save your strength for the final game of the night. Michigan’s dance partner, 12th-seeded UC San Diego, comes into downtown making roughly 11 treys per tilt. The Tritons won 30 games. Their mascot, King Triton, looks as if The Good Lord decided to cross a shirtless Jason Momoa with a Cabbage Patch kid. He’s fun. They’re fun. They’ve also got just one player on their roster taller than 6-foot-8, while Michigan has three.

“We’ve got six Division II transfers,” Tritons coach Eric Olen said Wednesday. “We don’t look the part. Yeah, I think we embrace that a little bit.”

So do the Bulldogs. Like a warm blanket.

“I think we like being the underdog, to be honest,” Yale guard Trevor Mullin told me. “I think we like being rooted against, we like being undervalued. And I think that’s what makes Yale basketball great is that we prove everyone wrong.”

Yeah, but what happens when half the office pools in the country think you’re the right sleeper? The ‘Dogs have been down this road before, having knocked off 4th-seeded Auburn in Spokane at this time a year ago. Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams can pop in the Auburn tape to scare the crud out of his guys, so the element of surprise is toast.

“We lost the nerd advantage,” Yale forward Riley Fox chuckled. “Now it’s just pure basketball.”

Fortunately, Jones’ Bulldogs are air-tight, bright and don’t beat themselves. Yale ranks among the top 25 nationally in three critical Madness statistical indicators: turnover rate (19th); defensive rebounding rate (22nd) and 3-point shooting percentage (ninth). The Aggies, meanwhile, roll into the Front Range having dropped five of their last seven.

“Back when I played, they used to just let us come to Denver and die the first five minutes of the game,” Haywood recalled. “We didn’t have any (oxygen). When I played, Denver would come out — (the Nuggets) had Allen Iverson, Marcus Camby, Kenyon Martin, they would just run the court like gazelles. We’re over there, our mouths are white, our lips are chapped, we can’t breathe. We’re subbing out, and they’re just fine.

“Let’s just say my conclusion, or my reason for it, would be the altitude.”