Enlarge By Jared Soares for USA TODAY Artsiom Parakhouski and the Highlanders upended VMI to claim the Big South title and earn a bid to the NCAA tournament. "In a couple days, maybe I will understand we're going to March Madness," Parakhouski said after the victory. "Right now, I still can't believe." RADFORD HIGHLANDERS RADFORD HIGHLANDERS Location: Radford, Va.

Founded: 1910

Size: 8,155 undergraduate students, 92% from Virginia.

Arena: Dedmon Center (capacity: 5,000)

Coach: Brad Greenberg Last dance: In their only other tournament appearance, the Highlanders, seeded No. 16, lost to top-seeded Duke 99-63 in the first round in 1998. Quick hit: Radford is the first men's or women's team in Big South history to improve from seventh place one year to regular-season champ the next. Sources: Radford, Big South Conference Enlarge By Jared Soares for USA TODAY Radford student David Szynal (bottom right) cheers on the Highlanders during their victory in the Big South title game over VMI on March 7. The trip to the NCAA tournament is just the second in the school's history. UPSETS ON THEIR MINDS UPSETS ON THEIR MINDS Other schools from traditional one-bid conferences that have qualified for the NCAA men's tournament by winning their conference tournament: School, conference NCAA appearances Last NCAA result Cleveland State, Horizon 1 1986, Sweet 16 Morehead State, Ohio Valley 5 1984, first round North Dakota State, Summit 0 -- Portland State, Big Sky 1 2008, first round Robert Morris, Northeast 5 1992, first round Siena, Metro Atlantic 4 2008, second round Source: NCAA, USA TODAY research COLLEGE HOOPS ESSENTIALS COLLEGE HOOPS ESSENTIALS Bubble tracker: Wild final weekend puts Dance's field of 65 into focus Conference tournament madness: Interactive calendar keeps up with all the title games March Mania: Register now, start pool for our bracket contest when the field is announced Automatic qualifers: These squads have already earned their league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament Coaches' poll: Check in on the USA TODAY/ESPN Top 25 (updated Mondays) Essentials: Sagarin ratings | Stats, numbers | Team reports RADFORD, Va.  Brad Greenberg got a text message moments after his Radford University Highlanders won their way into the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Get your dancing shoes on. The text was from Brad's younger brother, Seth, who coaches Virginia Tech. Their schools are 18 miles apart geographically, light years metaphorically. Radford is to Virginia Tech what Belarus is to Russia: smaller, lesser known — and aching to emerge from its neighbor's oversized shadow. Perhaps that's what makes the Highlanders (21-11) such a nice fit for Belarusian center Artsiom Parakhouski (art-SEE-um pair-uh-COW-ski), on whose broad shoulders Radford rides. The Beast of Belarus, as a sign Saturday in the student section styled him, is a 6-11, 260-pound junior who has been learning basketball for only five years — and English for 2½. The measure of how far he has come in both may be found in what he says about next week's first round. "The little schools are losing nothing if they lose," he says. "Nobody knows them. It's just going in and playing free. But big schools, they are under the big pressure. And sometimes small schools are beating big schools." That's a pretty fair summation of March Madness for a guy who never heard of it while growing up in Minsk. "I knew about the NBA, of course," he says, "but I didn't know anything about the NCAA tournament and how popular it is in the United States. I didn't know until I got to America." That was 2½ years ago to play at the College of Southern Idaho, a junior college in Twin Falls where he faced twin challenges: new language, new game. Parakhouski recalls the wonder of seeing the NCAA tournament on TV for the first time. "I watched like crazy all the games," he says. "I would say, 'Once, I am going to be on this TV. And I am going to play against some special team.' And now, dreams are true." Greenberg's dream was a longer time coming. He is 55, two years older than Seth, and a basketball lifer, yet last season was his first as a head coach. "It's a feel-good story about never losing sight of your dreams," Seth says. Greenberg was a young assistant at American University and Saint Joseph's in the late 1970s and early 1980s but then took a detour to the NBA as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Clippers and New York Knicks and as a player personnel executive with the Portland Trail Blazers. Greenberg was general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers when they selected Allen Iverson first overall in the 1996 NBA draft but was let go after one season. That still chafes his brother. "I'm the more outspoken Greenberg," Seth says. "Brad drafted the right guy but was never given a chance to continue. That wasn't right." Brad got back in the game as director of basketball operations for Seth's team at South Florida and then as an assistant for him at Virginia Tech. Brad applied for openings but says schools weren't much interested in a first-time head coach in his 50s. "Some athletics directors," he says, "would look at me and say, 'Wait a minute, this guy was an NBA GM. What does he want coaching my team? He's been dealing with agents and pros and flying on charter planes. Is he really going to be happy in a little, tiny office and getting on a bus?' " Deliriously, as it turns out. A nontraditional choice Radford's spring break began a week ago. Penelope W. Kyle, the university president, got word out that the dorms and cafeterias would remain open so students could stick around for Saturday's Big South championship game against Virginia Military Institute. Many stayed — and painted their faces and cheered themselves hoarse and, when Radford won 108-94, stormed the court. "The exuberance and joy was very satisfying for me to see," Kyle says. "I want them to feel proud. A taste of winning breeds more winning, and I don't mean just in athletics." Kyle hired Greenberg. It didn't bother her that he was a nontraditional candidate. "That's why we hit it off," she says. "I was a nontraditional choice, too." She ran the state lottery in Virginia and, before that, was a business executive and a lawyer. She liked his NBA credentials. "I liked the idea that he knew about Radford from living across the hill" in Blacksburg, Kyle says. "Years ago, Radford was the women's division of Virginia Tech, so there is a strong connection in our history, even if we aren't formally related anymore." Brad and Seth are related by birth, never by schedule: Radford and Tech won't play while they're coaching. "Our mother wouldn't like it," Brad says. The brothers talk nearly every day, trading strategies and pep talks. "There's no better sounding board," Seth says, "than one that comes with unconditional love." Virginia Tech remains alive for an at-large or automatic berth after Thursday's 65-47 win against Miami (Fla.) in the first round of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. Brad delayed Thursday's practice so he could watch the game in his office, just as Seth watched Radford beat VMI last week from a Florida hotel room. Parakhouski had 26 points and 18 rebounds against VMI. His season averages of 16.3 points and 11.2 rebounds earned him the Big South player of the year award, but Parakhouski won't take the trophy. He says it belongs to the team, not to him, and so it sits in Greenberg's office. "I think I disappoint him sometimes, because I don't yell at him enough," Greenberg says. "He wants me to push him more. But he's such a nice kid, how can I yell at him?" Radford students yelled with him as they stormed the court Saturday. Just then, Parakhouski spotted a man waving a Belarusian flag. He waded into the stands, snatched the flag and returned to the frenzy, holding it high as the Highlanders cheered. "I told myself, 'Why not?' I'm going to grab this flag to celebrate," Parakhouski says. "I guess nobody from my country has done what I did, go to March Madness with Radford. That's just pretty cool feelings." Parakhouski had the flag draped around his neck in an interview room an hour after the game, sitting with guards Amir Johnson and Kenny Thomas. What do they think of him? "Just beast, man, just monster," Thomas says. "Whenever we go on the court, Art tells me, 'I support you. I got you.' " "We needed one more piece," Johnson says. "He is the big piece that completed the puzzle." Basketball on a lark Parakhouski moves well for a man of his size, especially one with so little basketball experience. Greenberg thinks he can play in the NBA some day. But Parakhouski will tell you he isn't his family's best athlete: "I will say my sister is best." Yana hopes to swim for Belarus in the 2012 Olympics, Parakhouski says. His mother coaches swimming and his father heptathlon for national teams, he says. His sport was soccer, from ages 6 to 16. By then, Parakhouski was 6-8. "In soccer, it's better if you are smaller for tactics," he says. "All my friends around me said, 'You should be good in basketball.' I said to myself, 'I can't live without sports, so I should try.' And two years later I was in junior college in America. For me, it was a surprise." Ali Ton is a Radford assistant who played at Davidson and hails from Turkey. Ton saw Parakhouski at the under-20 European Junior Championship in 2005, when Parakhouski was 17 — and ineligible under NCAA academic guidelines. It wasn't just that he had not taken the SAT or ACT. He spoke almost no English. Ton suggested Southern Idaho, a top junior-college program. When Greenberg was named coach at Radford before last season, he hired Ton. And Ton suggested recruiting Parakhouski. "We were fortunate," Greenberg says, "because he was looking for a smaller school where he could play right away." Bigger programs made inquiries, but Parakhouski committed to Radford early. Besides, when Parakhouski watched his first NCAA tournament games on TV he imagined himself with the underdogs, not the bluebloods. That's now a certainty. The Big South entrant typically gets a No. 15 or No. 16 seed; only Winthrop has done better over the years, including 2007, when the No. 11 Eagles beat Notre Dame. Some lesser-known school emerges as a darling in the first round each March, though never a No. 16 seed and rarely a 15. Perhaps that's why one red-clad Radford fan at Saturday's Big South final held up a sign that was more plea than rallying cry: "14 Seed." Virginia Tech's Greenberg thinks Radford will give some big-name school fits, thanks to Parakhouski and 6-8 forward Joey Lynch-Flohr. "Most 15s or 16s, or whatever they're going to be, don't have Art and Joey," Seth says. "They have a legitimate D-I frontcourt. And that gives them a chance." A chance is all Parakhouski asks. "I like our chance," he says, flag on shoulders, smile lingering. "I feel shock. In a couple days, maybe I will understand we're going to March Madness. Right now, I still can't believe." Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more