CLEVELAND (AP) – Bruce Pearl still loves Boston.

He has an autographed picture of Bobby Orr, and is quick to point out they share a birthday. He loves to tell stories about “The Gah-den.” He has a diploma from Boston College, which he left just as Doug Flutie arrived.

Pearl even filled in as the Eagles’ mascot for one NCAA tournament game in 1981, flapping his arms during a first-round win.

Now, he’s standing squarely in the way of more Boston glory. His Wisconsin-Milwaukee team pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the first round Thursday, beating No. 5 seed Alabama for the school’s first NCAA tournament win. Up next is the hometown school he loved so much that he was willing to dress like a bird to help it out.

“The only thing I see is Boston College, and we’re trying to get to the Sweet 16 and they’re in our way,” Pearl said Friday. “It’s a formidable road block.”

One he knows very well.

Boston College (25-4) uses some of the same defensive terminology as Milwaukee (25-5). Both play tough, high-energy defense, though Milwaukee presses much more often. Both owe a lot to Pearl, the former mascot who faces his alma mater in the second round of the Chicago Regional on Saturday.

In the other game at Cleveland State, No. 2 seed Wake Forest (27-5) plays West Virginia (22-10) in the Albuquerque Regional, another game that matches a coach against his alma mater. Wake Forest’s Skip Prosser coached high school basketball for 13 years in West Virginia and got his master’s degree in secondary education from the university.

No coach has a closer tie with an opponent than Pearl, who failed to make Boston College’s team as a walk-on and wound up promoting the basketball program in various ways as a student. “I spent an awful lot of years knocking on doors, selling tickets, trying to get the faculty to go to games,” he said.

And there was that one day during the 1981 NCAA tournament when the mascot got sick and he was asked to fill in. He agreed, the Eagles won, he quickly put the moment behind him, not bothering to tell his players or even his 17-year-old son about it until this week.

“I don’t blame a guy for not slipping in that he was a mascot,” junior Adrian Tigert said, chuckling. “We had some fun with it. He was a good sport about it.”

For the players, Pearl’s “I-was-a-mascot” confession was a much bigger surprise than their first-round win, which extended an NCAA tournament upset tradition. Since 1989, a No. 12 seed has beaten a No. 5 every year except 2000.

History also leans the Panthers’ way in the next round.

Of the last 15 No. 12 seeds to win in the first round, eight went on to win another game. The recent trend is even more pronounced: Four of the last five have advance the round of 16.

Southwest Missouri State beat Wisconsin and Tennessee in 1999. Gonzaga beat Virginia and Indiana State in 2001. Missouri beat Miami and Ohio State in 2002. Butler beat Mississippi State and Louisville in 2003. Last year, Manhattan beat Florida to open the tournament, then lost to Wake Forest 84-80 in the second round.

The Panthers are familiar with the showing by Butler, a fellow Horizon League member.

“That’s the one we liken ourselves to,” Tigert said. “It gives you extra confidence that somebody like you has done it.”

Boston College seems to have its confidence back after a 20-point win over Pennsylvania in the opening round. The Eagles started the season 20-0, then slumped to a 4-4 finish that momentarily sapped their swagger.

The first-round win restored what was missing.

“We’ve seen the type of team that we can be,” junior guard Louis Hinnant said.

Wake Forest isn’t back together yet. The Demon Deacons got point guard Chris Paul back from a one-game suspension for hitting an opponent, but were out of sync and struggled to pull away from Chattanooga in the first round.

“We got the jitters out of the way,” center Eric Williams said Friday. “We’re more calm and at ease. We’re not as uptight as we were last night.”

The Demon Deacons won’t be the crowd’s favorite on Saturday. Thousands of West Virginia fans have made the 3-hour drive to support the Mountaineers, who fell behind 10-0 but rallied to beat Creighton 63-61 on Tyrone Sally’s fastbreak dunk with 2.9 seconds left in the opener.

The Mountaineers expect the home-court advantage again.

“That was a good crowd,” Sally said. “It got us going. We got off to a slow start, and it got us pumped up. That started to play to our advantage at the end.”

AP-ES-03-18-05 1705EST