Lawrence High's Preston Scheibler, left, Marcus Ray, center, and Drake DeBiasse show their nervousness in the Lions' 50-48 victory over Olathe North in Saturday's' sub-state final. LHS will open the Class 6A state tournament Thursday against top-seeded Manhattan.

As the only team at the Class 6A state tournament without a winning record (11-11), it would be easy for Lawrence High’s boys basketball team to feel out of place while jostling with the big boys.

Lawrence need not worry, though. History suggests the type of monumental upset the Lions are attempting isn’t as impossible as some might think.

Examples of underdog triumph abound, but the eighth-seeded Lions won’t require a rock and a slingshot in their first round matchup against No. 1 seed Manhattan High (20-2) on Thursday. Instead, all they need is a stroll down memory lane and a skip across town – where Free State High’s boys basketball team pulled off the same gargantuan feat at state just one year ago.

“Every once in a while, it’s been brought up,” Lions point guard Dorian Green said. “Right now, we’re looking a lot like Free State did last year.”

The Firebirds entered last year’s state tournament as the No. 8 seed, shocking top-seeded Shawnee Mission West and emerging as the tournament’s third-place winner a few days later. All this from a team that was 9-11 and given little chance to make it out of sub-state play.

If the last part of that equation sounds familiar, it’s because Lawrence overcame the same scenario in its sub-state field this season: a No. 7 seed and a 9-11 record before scoring two big upsets.

But the similarities between the two teams don’t end there.

“At the end of last season, Christian Ballard really stepped up for Free State, and John (Schneider) is really stepping up for us right now,” LHS forward Baba Diallo said of the teams’ big men. “Their point guard, Nick Devin, was trying to get everybody together as a team. I think we have exactly the same thing with Dorian.”

LHS coach Chris Davis said once he realized his team wouldn’t have a good enough record to earn home-court advantage in sub-state’s first round, he looked to last year’s Firebirds for inspiration. Davis first broached the subject of Free State’s late-season success to his players while LHS was in the middle of a four-game losing streak at mid-season.

The Lions responded by winning five of their last six.

“Their whole team came together,” Davis said of the Firebirds. “I feel like our whole team is right now. Every single guy has realized how important this is to them, and now we’re seeing more guys diving on the floor. I think there are some similarities there.”

Davis compared the way last year’s Firebirds and this year’s Lions underachieved during the regular season. But one parallel was even more important, according to Davis: “Both teams share the ability to strap it on when, all of a sudden, everything is on the line.”

For the Lions, everything will be on the line at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Emporia. No rocks. No slingshots. They’ve got something else they can bank on, thanks to Free State’s impressive run.

“It just gives us confidence,” guard Preston Scheibler said. “Now we know we can do the same thing.”