Beautiful Disasters: The Best Upsets in NCAA Tournament History

By 11W Staff on March 17, 2018 at 1:00 pm
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Last night UMBC became the first-ever 16 seed to win an NCAA Tournament game, doing it in resounding fashion at the expense of the top-ranked Virginia Cavaliers

It changed the tournament, forever. We now have a precedent for a 16 beating a 1 - and in dominating fashion - which means even if UMBC fails to win another game this month, it's going to be a participant in every montage in every March from now until college basketball is no longer played.

Which means now we need to decide what the second-biggest 1st round upset in March Madness history. All of those victorious double-digit seeds of the past now live on in another plane, beneath the current UMBC Retrievers. Here are the candidates for No.2:

BIGGEST 1ST ROUND UPSETS (64-TEAM TOURNEY HISTORY)
YEAR DAVID GOLIATH FINAL SCORE
1991 RICHMOND (15) SYRACUSE (2) 73-69
1992 EAST TENN. STATE (14) ARIZONA (3) 87-80
1993 SANTA CLARA (15) ARIZONA (2) 64-61
1997 COPPIN STATE (15) SOUTH CAROLINA (2) 78-65
2001 HAMPTON (15) IOWA STATE (2) 58-57
2005 BUCKNELL (14) KANSAS (3) 64-63
2006 NORTHWESTERN STATE (14) IOWA (3) 64-63
2010 OHIO (14) GEORGETOWN (3) 97-83
2012 LEHIGH (15) DUKE (2) 75-70
2012 NORFOLK STATE (15) MISSOURI (2) 86-84
2013 FLORIDA GULF COAST (15) GEORGETOWN (2) 78-68
2014 MERCER (14) DUKE (3) 78-81
2016 MIDDLE TENNESSEE (15) MICHIGAN STATE (2) 90-81

UMBC has the throne, possibly forever. Who's No.2? Sparty No? Duke? Almost Every Lute Olsen Arizona Team? Choose your top three:

 

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