Hi everyone, thanks again for your participation on the Athlete Bracket. I will unveil the winner of Lebron Vs Mahomes on my social media accounts tomorrow Morning. With the six week bracket not about complete I am getting back to writing on all subjects of sports starting today and today is the most sports event of the year, March Madness!!! Who can forget that one shining moment playing in the background. Anyways, let’s get to the most noted fairytale in American pop culture, Cinderella. All of these upsets came from what we would call a form of Cinderella. Please response in the comments below with your agreements of disagreements. As always have yourself a great day everyone and enjoy the list!
#12 13 seed Princeton Over 4 seed UCLA 43-41 (1996)
There has been many 13-4 upsets since the field expanded in 1985 (29 to be exact) but what makes this one stand out is the context of the upset. UCLA had just won the championship the year prior and Ivy league Princeton was supposed to be easy work for the mighty Bruins. Princeton was able to muck up the game though and get a patented Princeton play, the back door cut by Gabe Lewullis to get the winning bucket. The celebration by Princeton’s legendary coach Pete Carill after UCLA’s Toby Bailey’s shot feel short is a thing of legend. A shining moment indeed.
#11 14 seed Bucknell over 3 seed Kansas 64-63 (2005)
Kansas was at the time and still is a college hoops Goliath and has had some great tournament runs over the years but a couple of times they have been beat by David. 2005 was one of the those years as the plucky Bucknell Bison would hang around with the Jayhawks the entire game and would steal the game late with a jump hook for the ages from Chris McNaughton with 10.5 seconds left. Kansas Wayne Semien would have a great look to win it for the Jayhawks but the shot would not go and the Bucknell Bison will forever lives in our hearts as a great Cinderella story.
#10 15 seed Florida Gulf Coast over 2 seed Georgetown 78-68 (2013)
Dunk City!!! Florida Gulf Coast was the only 15 seed to ever make it to the Sweet 16 and their run started in emphatic fashion. Just watch the game tape of alley oop after alley oop. It looked like the Clippers in the Early 2010’s with a bunch of DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin clones. It was a fun first weekend for sure down in Fort Myers.
#9 9 seed Northern Iowa over 1 seed Kansas 69-67 (2010)
The UNI purple panthers have had some great moments in the tourney in the past. Who can forget Paul Jesperson’s Half court buzzer beater against Texas in 2017. That was a nice upset but the upset that cracks this list is the upset over massive title favorite Kansas. The moment of the game and one of the coolest March Madness moments ever was Ali Farokhmanesh launching a three with 34 seconds left up one in a holy crap what are you doing/holy crap what a clutch shot moment.
#8 14 seed Mercer over 3 seed Duke 78-71 (2014)
Most would pick Lehigh over Duke in 2012 but that Duke team was a vastly overrated team and Lehigh had C.J McCollum (if you seen him play in the NBA he’s pretty darn good). I am going with what I thought was even a more shocking and awesome upset two years later when Mercer upset a very good Duke team. Mercer was a senior laden team and it showed down the stretch as Mercer would make big shot after big shot to pull away from the biggest blue blood of them all.
#7 15 seed Richmond over 2 seed Syracuse 73-69 (1991)
To put this game into perspective Syracuse won the Big East that year and if you watch college hoops the Big East was always the Goliath of College Basketball conferences in the 80’s and 90’s (ACC may say hold our beers age pending, remember 21 and over kids). Richmond played a ton of different defenses and stifled Syracuse potent offense. Maybe the more shocking fact about this game was that Richmond controlled the game throughout the second half. It was the first ever 15-2 upset.
#6 15 seed Norfolk State over 2 seed Missouri 86-84 (2012)
One of the biggest bracket busting losses in my history of filling out brackets was the Missouri losing to Norfolk State in 2012. Missouri had a four guard lineup and was one of the most efficient offensive teams in recent memory coming into this tournament. That all came crashing down against an aggressive Norfolk State attack as they pressure Missouri on the perimeter all game.
#5 11 seed George Mason over 1 seed UConn 86-84 OT (2005)
Before we had Butler, VCU and Loyola Chicago make awesome runs through the tourney we had the first Super midseed dark horse make it to the Final Four in 2006 George Mason. They beat Michigan State and North Carolina early in the tourney but their biggest upset came in the Elite Eight against the best team in College Basketball in 2006. The UConn Huskies which fielded NBA level talent throughout their roster. George Mason would be down 9 at half and looked to be doomed but would roar back with a flurry of threes to force OT. UConn would be down two in OT with a chance to win but Denham Brown’s three would not fall at the horn, Verne Lundquist call at the end of the game was one of the many epic calls in his legendary broadcasting career.
#4 8 seed Villanova over 1 seed Georgetown 66-64 (1985)
Hey, an 8 seed over a 1 must have been in the second round. Not so fast my friends, in the first year of the modern bracket we see today was the highest seed and still is the highest seed to ever win the whole thing. The 1985 Villanova Wildcats were the 2nd (you’ll see the first) biggest Cinderella story in the history of the tourney to win it all. Even with their great run no one game them a chance against Patrick Ewing and the juggernaut Georgetown Hoyas. Villanova would slow down the pace and being efficient offensively (79 percent from the floor). It also proved what was an experiment expanding the bracket to be what is bracket is still today.
#3 15 seed Middle Tennessee over 2 seed Michigan State (2016)
Now to the only time in my lifetime my National Champion was knock out in the first round. There was debate over the Spartans being on the 2 line instead of the one line in 2016. Maybe they read their press clippings too much because Middle Tennessee looked like the sharper and better team throughout this game. If you look at the history of Tom Izzo teams this also is the only time his Spartans would get clipped by a seed under an 11 seed. It shows that no blue blood is impervious to Cinderella.
#2 6 seed N.C State over 1 seed Houston 54-52 (1983)
The 1983 N.C State Wolfpack’s run is the most magical run in the history of American Sports History (I can’t find a parallel). Lorenzo Charles dunk at the buzzer is one of the most iconic moments in any sport ever. The run to even get to the Championship game was magical but beating a team with two of the top 25 players in NBA history on it to win it all is one of the biggest shockers in tourney history.
#1 16 seed UMBC over 1 seed Virginia 74-54 (2018)
Even the legendary N.C State over Houston upset cannot top this one. Let’s put this into context real quick. Virginia was the overall number one seed, won the best conference in the country. The only team that could really even play with the Hoos the entire season was Duke with Zion freaking Williamson at full strength. The following year all Virginia did was win the national Championship. It wasn’t even that UMBC did what hadn’t been done before, it was the absolute demolition of how it was done. This game wasn’t even close (If you want to see the worst March Madness game of all time watch UMBC’s second round matchup against Kansas State). UMBC over Virginia is in the conversation with many others (App St over Michigan football, Buster Douglas over Mike Tyson a couple of examples) for greatest upset in Sports History. Hmm, I smell a future Drew’s Top 12 list commencing. Thanks for reading, have a great Wednesday!