The first time I laughed so hard that I almost drove off the road between Kansas City, Mo., and Ames, Iowa, this year, it was while listening to a radio commercial ...

	Angie Welle, from Fargo, N.D., and Megan Taylor of Roseau, Minn., have helped turn Iowa State around.

"Come see the magic of 'The Sound of Music,' starring ... Barry Williams."

Of course, who hasn't longed for the Greg Brady version of Captain von Trapp? You live in this part of the country, though, and you figure you'll take your "culture" any way you can get it.

The second time was ... while listening to a radio traffic report. The announcer mentioned some (apparently insane) folks were riding their sleds down a hill and into a certain intersection.

"So that might cause some concerns," he said cheerily. Then continued, "For the most part today, though, things are going well. Drivers seem to be doing a nice job of missing each other."

Both times, this was the '80s station out of Des Moines, which gives us our touch of irony going into Saturday's Big 12 title game between Iowa State and Oklahoma here in K.C.

Back when those '80s songs were actually contemporary and I was a college yahoo covering Big Eight women's hoops for whomever might be willing to print a story, I never went to Ames.

It was the only Big Eight city never visited in my teeth-cutting days. There was no reason; Iowa State was hopeless. It was the only program that never made it to the Big Eight tournament title game. The Cyclones' one good season was 1985-86, and the night that I picked to finally go see them, it snowed and the trip was bagged. Figured it was fate.

Alas, in the past few years the Cyclones have heard such tales enough times that it might try ordinary souls. But not these kids. You could tell them the story of the infected hang nail you had 15 years ago and ...

		Tue, May 2 With Tennessee losing in the SEC semifinals, and Duke and Georgia winning their respective conference tournaments, the NCAA Division I women's NCAA Tournament selection committee is going to need a lot of Advil come Sunday. While three No. 1 seeds appear to be locked up -- Connecticut, Notre Dame and Tennessee are sure bets for a top seed -- there's still a lot of uncertainty when it comes to the final No. 1 seed, and deciding upon the No. 2 seeds. At this point, it looks like Connecticut will be the top seed in the East, with Tennessee No. 1 in the Mideast and perhaps Notre Dame going to the Midwest. Oklahoma must win the Big 12 tournament to prove it's a legitimate No. 2 seed. But even if OU tops Iowa State for the tournament title, I don't think the Sooners have a shot at the final No. 1 seed. Georgia has the better RPI, albeit by a slim margin, and the SEC is still viewed as the toughest conference to play in. Duke also has a chance of securing that fourth No. 1 seed, but its nonconference schedule isn't nearly as tough as Georgia's. In the latest RPI, Georgia was listed with the second-toughest strength of schedule, which is no surprise considering the Lady Bulldogs played Tennessee, Florida and Vanderbilt (three times), all of which are highly ranked teams. Other teams vying for No. 2 seeds are Purdue, Iowa State and Louisiana Tech. Despite the Boilermakers' loss to Iowa in the Big Ten final, Purdue is still a legitimate No. 2, as are the Lady Techsters, whose tough nonconference schedule counts for a lot. Iowa State needs to beat OU for the Big 12 title to be considered, but otherwise it might end up a No. 3 seed. Rutgers was in contention for a high seed but fell off a bit after getting routed in the Big East semifinals. And one last prediction: Vanderbilt is going to the be NCAA Tournament sleeper.

Angie Welle would say, "Ohmygosh, that's the weirdest thing because my friend's aunt's best friend had that happen to her in college and they said you have to take the test this day no matter what and she said how am I supposed to write with my left hand when I'm right-handed you know and they said wing it and she said OK and then she took the whole test left-handed and still passed and she teaches in Bismarck now and I've been working on my right hand as always but it's really hard and you know Oklahoma is just a great team and you know my dad hates it that I talk so fast and he says he can never understand me but in the summer he'll be talking to me in the morning and I'm just eating my cereal or whatever and I don't like to talk in the morning and I'll say please you just talk and I'll listen OK?"

And Tracy Gahan would say, "Oh, that's terrible. Is your finger better now?"

And Megan Taylor and Lindsey Wilson and Erica Haugen would be bored out of their gourds by your story, but would say, "Hmmm, wow."

These are the Cyclones, defending Big 12 tournament champions, and the last obstacle in the path of Oklahoma for a possible NCAA No. 1 seed. Possible. One figures Notre Dame, UConn and Tennessee have three No. 1 seeds wrapped up. The fourth would go to SEC tourney champ Georgia, ACC regular-season and tourney champ Duke or the Sooners if they win Saturday.

Big 12 regular-season champ Oklahoma is looking terrific right now. Colorado shot 56 percent from the field and 69 percent from 3-point range and still lost to the Sooners 102-93 in the semifinals.

The Sooners are the proverbial favorites on paper. In the stands on Saturday, though, Iowa State will be the preferred team by a large margin. For the third year in a row, the Cyclones have turned Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium into their home away from home. The 3½-hour drive from Ames to K.C. is a joyful journey for Iowa State fans hoping to see their women's and men's team repeat at tournament champions.

But you've heard this story, too, the one about the amazing Cyclone women's hoops fans who seemed to sprout overnight a few years ago and have grown and multiplied ever since.

And we will talk more about Oklahoma and its phenomenal turnaround soon. But today, in an endeavor to either present fresh material or repackage something stale and make it appear fresh ... we will focus on geography and its impact on two of the Cyclone starters. Taylor is from Roseau, Minn., about 10 miles from the Canadian border. Welle is from Fargo, N.D. And before talking to them a few weeks ago, I felt it crucial to do a bit of research beforehand and rented the movie "Fargo."

"I haven't seen it," Welle said. "Should I see it?"

Welle is told that if she liked "Pulp Fiction," she'd probably like "Fargo," which is very violent at times but very funny throughout.

"Do they make fun of the way people talk?" she said. "Like, do they say, 'Yaaah?' "

Ohhhh, yaaah.

Of course, the movie isn't really about Fargo at all, there's just one scene there where the hapless husband talks to the bumbling but dangerous kooks he has hired to kidnap his wife, and then the rest of the movie's set in Minnesota.

And you can laugh at that Minnesota-Dakota accent all day, 'cause it is hilarious, but the thing that sticks with you is how Frances McDormand's character muses at end about how the crooks could be so venal, how they could even be mean to people -- let alone kill them -- for money.

How could you not just appreciate the sun when it was shining and the blue sky and the great food bar at Shoney's?

Of all the stereotypes we have of different regions of our country, this north-central one might be the sweetest. This idea that most folks have grown so accustomed to cold and snow and isolation that they are deliriously happy over the simplest of comforts, like having an electric blanket and discovering that there really is one more raspberry jelly doughnut left in the box.

Look at the suicide rates in Minnesota or the recent "Newsweek" data that showed North Dakota leads the nation, per capita, in binge drinkers, and you know it's just a nice fantasy that people in that region are happier than anywhere else.

Except the Welle family, that is. They are a jolly bunch.

"I don't think my mom's ever been in a bad mood," Angie says.

Why should she be -- how many people have two 6-foot-plus, left-handed daughters who earn Division I basketball scholarships? Carrie Welle starred at Creighton from 1994-98, earning Missouri Valley player of the year honors in '97. Little sister Angie is 3 inches taller (6-4) and has become one of the top centers in the country.

By the way, the wee Welle -- little brother Matt is at least an inch taller than Angie now, last time she checked -- plays high school hoops, of course.

It's like some kind of new-millennium version of "The Waltons" with four less kids and sans sappy dialogue. Sometimes when the whole family gets together at their lake house across the state line in Minnesota, they have these two-on-two basketball tournaments incorporating various other people who happen to be around.

Angie and her partner at last summer's tournament -- "some guy" as she described him -- took second but, as she says in fabulously mock seriousness: "There was bad call at the end. Really bad. I'm thinking we're probably going to need instant replay next year."

Meanwhile, Taylor is from a place even way farther north than Fargo, which is itself a seven-hour drive from Ames. Roseau is 10 hours away. Sometimes, Taylor has made the drive herself. To be in the passenger seat drives her batty.

As everyone in Ames knows, Megan is the youngest of the five children of Terry and Terry Taylor. Dad Terry is a math teacher and mom Terry delivers the mail. Iowa State got her because the Cyclone coaching staff was about the only bunch willing to go find Roseau.

The term "folk hero" is often used to describe Taylor, but it's not good enough. Taylor is all over the court and she's forever rolling up the shoulder straps of her jersey even though they're not very wide to begin with and her hair is in this gloriously messy ponytail/bun thing and she says her "o's" funny and she has very blue eyes and an amused smile that could look like a smirk on anybody else and ... she appeals to everyone from the self-indulgent frat boy to the tofu-eating pioneer-sister-woman, if you catch my drift.

That's just Megan, OK? Everybody loves her. If this penetrates a centimeter into her gray matter, she doesn't reveal it. Which makes her all the more appealing, and when she hits a 3-pointer with that funky shot of hers ... well, that's when these folks really are deliriously happy.

The great thing for coach Bill Fennelly in recruiting these type of kids -- besides the fact that they're really good and he adores them -- is that he doesn't even have to explain to them about the way your nostrils will freeze shut while walking from the parking lot to Hilton Coliseum in February.

People from Roseau and Fargo do not think Ames is unusually cold.

"I like the four seasons," Taylor said of living in the North, although many people think there are only three where she's from: Winter, Not-Exactly-Winter and Sort-of-Summer.

Whatever. For her, it is a different world, but a fun world, one that may be just a little like "Fargo" without the bullets and people stuck in a wood chipper.

Like what Taylor told a newspaper when she was about to set the Minnesota high school girl's scoring record her senior year. Her mom had to be out of town, but her dad and her Uncle Gary would be at the game plus ...

"Aunt Mitzi, Gary's wife, will be there," she said. "Aunt Jean from Pengilly. Grandma Lois will be there, too, because it's a Friday. Grandma bowls on Thursdays."

Luckily, I didn't read that while I was driving back from Ames -- or I really would have gone off the road.

Mechelle Voepel of the Kansas City Star is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. She can be reached via e-mail at mvoepel@kcstar.com.