KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- He was in the third row near center court, and he didn’t stop yapping at the refs from the moment the game began until the second it ended.

“Yeah, I just thought we weren’t getting some calls we should have been getting,” Lionel Simmons said with a huge laugh.

Simmons, the third-leading scorer in college basketball history, was a big part of the last La Salle team to win an NCAA tournament game, and he’s a big part of this one, too.

In 1990, Simmons was college basketball’s Player of the Year, leading La Salle to a 30-2 record, a No. 1 ranking during the season and an NCAA tourney win over Southern Mississippi in Hartford.

On Wednesday night, when La Salle won a play-in game over Boise in Dayton, Simmons was right there with the Explorers.

On Friday night, when La Salle advanced to the Round of 32 for the first time in 23 years with a win over Kansas State in Kansas City, Simmons was right there with the Explorers.

“I’m very proud,” said Simmons, the only player in NCAA history with 3,000 points and 1,100 rebounds. “It’s been a complete turnaround. John [Giannini] has done a great job with the program. The players believe in each other, care for each other. It’s a great feeling right now for us.

“Everybody likes a winner and now these guys are rolling. They’ve been through some tough times, but now it’s turning and just really proud of them. They’re playing hard, and they deserve it.”

La Salle had success for a couple years on the momentum of that 1990 team, reaching the NIT in 1991, losing to UMass in the first round, and the NCAAs in 1992, losing to Seton Hall in the first round.

But from 1994 through 2005, the program endured 12 consecutive losing seasons, and during the 18-year span from 1994 through 2011, the Explorers had just two winning seasons and didn’t reach the postseason once.

Last year, La Salle went 21-12 and reached the NIT, losing to Minnesota in the first round, and this year, the Explorers have put themselves back on the map with 23 wins and two NCAA wins – granted, one of them in a play-in game.

On Friday, La Salle built an early 19-point lead, fell behind by two, then recovered and held K-State without a basket for the final 4:54. The Explorers trailed until 30 seconds remained, when sophomore forward Jerrell Wright hit two foul shots to give La Salle the lead for good.

“They showed a lot of resilience I thought,” Simmons said. “They held it together, Jerrell got big rebounds and made some big free throws. They just hung in there. They deserved the win.”

At 7:20 p.m. Sunday, La Salle will play for a berth in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1955 when the Explorers face Mississippi at the Sprint Center in a West Regional quarterfinal. The winner moves on to the Staples Center in Los Angeles for the Regional semis.

Simmons said the whole 1990 crew has been in touch the last week as La Salle puts together its first NCAA tourney run since they were the ones doing the running.

“Everybody’s blowing me up,” he said. “I’ve got calls from Jack Hurd, Bobby [Johnson], from Craig Conlin, from Bron [Holland], all the guys who’ve played together. We all been in touch. It’s just an exciting time. We’ve all been talking, keeping together.”

Simmons, who played scholastic ball at South Philly High in South Philadelphia and still lives in Philly, went on to an eight-year NBA career with the Sacramento Kings after leaving La Salle.

He averaged 17.1 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.1 blocks his first four seasons, and from 1991 through 1994, he was one of only two NBA players to average 17 points, five rebounds, four assists and one block per game. Scottie Pippin was the other one.

Injuries ended his pro career after the 1996-97 season at the age of 29, but nothing will slow down his support of his alma mater.

“I’ve always believed there are cycles,” Simmons said late Friday night after addressing the La Salle team following its win.

“Teams are good for a while and then they have their down time. I think our down time was a little longer than we’d like, but it’s our time now. It’s been long enough.”