Georges Niang was too paranoid about upset to sleep

Georges Niang is happy to get the first win of the tourney out of the way.

The Iowa State star said after leading his Cyclones to victory over Iona in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Thursday that he couldn’t sleep the night before because he was too paranoid about being upset.

“I didn’t get any sleep last night because I was just so paranoid about hearing about UAB,” Niang said in his postgame interview. “I’m just glad we got this one out of the way so we can move forward.”

Niang was referring to Iowa State’s first-round loss to UAB last year when the Cyclones were a three-seed. They screwed a lot of brackets — mine included — by bowing out so early. This year they were more focused and didn’t allow the upset to happen, winning handily 94-81.

Maybe Niang can now get some rest.