Between CBS Sports, ESPN, Yahoo, and the a few other websites, more than 25 million brackets were entered into various tournament challenge games. None of them are perfect any longer.
UMBC as a school has an enrollment of 13,839. In contrast, the seating capacity of the John Paul Jones Arena on the campus of Virginia University in Charlottesville is 14,593. So how does their drubbing rank in terms of all-time David vs. Goliath?!
Certainly, the 1985 Villanova Wildcats upset of Georgetown, Jim Valvano’s 1983 North Carolina State Cinderella run to the title, and the 2007 Appalachian State upset over Michigan all have to take one step back in line. The Villanova and NC State wins were great underdog stories, no doubt. However, running all the way to a championship eventually shows you deserved to be there, and the seeding was far too low by the Selection Committee. App State was a I-AA school, and upset the mighty Wolverines in Michigan Stadium. The Wolverines were ranked fifth in the nation, but ended up finishing a disappointing 9-4.
It was the greatest upset in the history of basketball--at any level--in this country. It was certainly the greatest upset in the history of the NCAA. However, to put it ahead of the 1980 United States Olympic “Miracle on Ice” hockey upset over the Soviet Union, that discussion may go a bit too far.
I can understand the argument, as UMBC needed a three pointer at the buzzer to win the America East tournament over heavily-favored top-seed Vermont, just to get into the NCAA Tournament. However, the Soviets had won three consecutive hockey gold medals, and were by in large considered a professional team. This was 18 years before the NHL would start allowing their players to compete in international competitions like the Olympics or World Championships. The Soviets also pasted the US team 10-3 just 10 days earlier in an exhibition match. Remember, the US team was made up of entirely collegiate players. The best player who could have joined was ineligible, when Joey Mullen signed a contract with the St. Louis Blues just months before the Lake Placid games.
UMBC pulled off something we may never see again in the history of the NCAA Tournament, men’s or women’s, and at any Divisional level. We knew one year a 16 seed was going to upset a 1. It happened on the women's side in 1998, when Harvard upset Stanford 71-67. In the women's tournament, the first two rounds are played in the home arenas of the top four seeds in each region. No one could have predicted that UMBC's victory would be that dominant.
I had Virginia pegged to win their first National Championship when this tournament concluded, based entirely on how savage and stingy their defense was all season long. The Cavaliers gave up an average of just 53.4 points per game all season, en route to a 31-2 record. UMBC put up 53 points in the second half alone. It was also the first time all season that Virginia allowed an opponent to break the 70 point mark.
Most of the time you see the schools from the “one bid” conferences hoping to make some magic, but they’re really just trying to cover the point spread, and keep the game respectable. UMBC was a 20.5 point underdog.
Be realistic, and admit you all thought Xavier would be the first of the four top seeds to be heading home. All the Musketeers did were put up a tournament-high 102 points in their opening round matchup against Texas Southern.
Think about this...Virginia was a top seed for the third time since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. All three times the Cavaliers have failed to make it past the Elite Eight.
-JC24