The Biggest Upsets from March Madness History
With no upsets or Cinderellas to be found this year, we’ll have to relive the past. These were the 25 biggest single-game upsets in March Madness history…
TWO YEARS AGO, IT FINALLY REALLY HAPPENED. College basketball fans had waited for years for the moment. We scoreboard-watched and texted friends and boss-buttoned, got our hopes up time and time again. Albany had a good run. Penn got our hopes up. Princeton was just one point away. But every single time, our hopes were dashed. In 135 straight NCAA men’s basketball games, every 16-seed came up short. Every single 1-seed survived to fight another day.
Until 2018.
We had our guards up, after so many years of collective heartbreak. We knew how Virginia had struggled in recent years and never even flinched when they went to halftime tied against some random combination of letters called UMBC. We didn’t panic when the Retrievers came out on fire in the second half, remained unconvinced when the lead hit double digits, and then some. And before we even realized it, the little Cinderella University of Maryland-Baltimore County had taken down the 1-seed Virginia Cavaliers, winning by 20 in a game that was over half an hour before the rest of us finally realized it.
So where did that UMBC upset rank in modern March Madness history? These are the 25 biggest March Madness upsets of the modern tournament era, since it expanded to 64 teams in 1985…
25. (14) Mercer vs (3) Duke, 2014 first round
This game gets forgotten, overshadowed by a Duke loss further down this list. It’s more impressive now, looking back on a talented but underachieving Duke roster that featured Jabari Parker and Rodney Hood, both near NBA stardom before injuries. Mercer’s five seniors had a late 20–5 run to spring the upset in Raleigh, just 25 miles down the road from Duke’s campus.
24. (10) Davidson vs (2) Georgetown, 2008 second round
You could almost make a top-10 list of just Georgetown upsets. This was the first of five straight Hoya exits to double-digit seeds. It was also the national coming out party for Stephen Curry, whose 25 second-half points helped Davidson overcome a 17-point deficit. Curry scored 40 against Gonzaga and upset 3-seed Wisconsin too before falling just short of the Final Four.
23. (9) Wichita State vs (1) Gonzaga, 2013 second round
Everyone knows Wichita now, but this was the upset that started it all. Led by Cleanthony Early and Tekele Cotton, Wichita also featured two plucky freshmen guards Fred Van Vleet and Ron Baker who would go on to the NBA, VanVleet winning a championship with the Toronto Raptors. Gonzaga was the Associated Press #1 team at 32–2. The Shockers rolled all the way to the Final Four, plus a 34–0 record and 1-seed the following season.
22. (9) Boston College vs (1) North Carolina, 1994 second round
“Boston College” is still a dirty word around Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels have been a 1-seed a record 12 times in the modern era and have never lost to a team below a 2-seed before the Final Four… besides this. BC’s senior core had gone 1–15 in the Big East their freshmen year and came a long way back to knock off this talented Rasheed Wallace and Jerry Stackhouse squad.
21. (1) Wisconsin vs (1) Kentucky, 2015 Final Four
It’s crazy that a 1-seed winning could be considered a top upset, but this will look more and more incredible as time passes. UK was 38–0 and ranked #1 wire-to-wire. They featured 4 lottery picks, including NBA stars Karl-Anthony Towns and Devin Booker. Perhaps no team in the modern era was as talented. This same Wisconsin team had just lost to a very different 8-seed Kentucky the year before in the Final Four. Revenge was sweet.
20. (15) Norfolk State vs (2) Missouri, 2012 first round
Mizzou entered the tournament 30–4 behind a high-flying offense and was a 21.5-point favorite in this game before Norfolk’s Kyle O’Quinn put up a monster 26 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Spartans to victory. Their win was eclipsed just hours later by a second 15v2 upset by Duke, the only year ever with multiple 15-seeds winning. Missouri’s loss remains the biggest upset by point-spread in March Madness history.
19. (14) Weber State vs (3) North Carolina, 1999 first round
Believe it or not, this is UNC’s only first-round loss in the modern tournament era. Store that one away the next time you fill out a bracket. Weber State was led by Harold Arceneaux’s 36 points, including two game-winning free throws in the final minute.
18. (14) Bucknell vs (3) Kansas, 2005 first round
Kansas had entered the year as the preseason #1, led by seniors Keith Langford and Wayne Simien. The upset win was not only the first ever tournament win for the Patriot League; it was also Bucknell’s first postseason win ever in their 110-year basketball history.
17. (6) Kansas vs (1) Oklahoma, 1988 national championship
Danny and the Miracles led an unremarkable 21–11 Jayhawks team from a rather disappointing season all the way to a title. Danny, of course, was future #1 draft pick Danny Manning. He had 31 points, 18 rebounds, and 5 steals to cap off perhaps the greatest individual tournament ever, capping off a title run just a few miles down the road from campus.
16. (14) Cleveland State vs (3) Indiana, 1986 first round
Indiana had already won the title in 1981 and went on to win it again in 1987 with much of the same core that lost here in the first round. Cleveland State was the lowest seed ever to win at the time and remains one of two 14-seeds ever to make the Sweet 16.
16. (11) LSU vs (1) Kentucky, 1986 Elite Eight
The modern tournament was still figuring out its rules and seeding in 1986, so that helped these Tigers. They were clearly under-seeded as an 11-seed and somehow lucked into playing their first two games on their own home court. Still, LSU coach Dale Brown helped his team defeat 6, 3, 2, and 1-seeds to become the only seed below eight to make the Final Four in the first 20 years of the modern tournament.
14. (15) Lehigh vs (2) Duke, 2012 first round
This was the big Duke upset that overshadowed the Mercer-Duke and Norfolk-Missouri upsets above. Though shocking at the time, the upset has not aged quite as well. Duke’s roster featured Austin Rivers and a pair of ever-present Plumlees, while Lehigh was led by 30 points, 6 boards, and 6 assists from then-unknown guard C.J. McCollum. In hindsight, perhaps we should have seen it coming.
13. (15) Richmond vs (2) Syracuse, 1991 first round
The Spiders held a double-digit lead early in the second half against the Orange’s stingy 2–3 zone. They had to hang on for dear life against Syracuse and star Billy Owens, barely surviving for the first ever 15v2 upset, the biggest in March Madness history at the time.
12. (13) Princeton vs (4) UCLA, 1996 first round
This upset always feels much bigger than the seeds would indicate. Princeton was the underdog Ivy League, UCLA the greatest program in men’s basketball history and defending national champion. Really though, it’s how it happened that places this one among the top all time upsets. Legendary head coach Pete Carill in his final year drew up the perfect play in a tie 41–41 game, and Steve Goodrich hit Gabe Lewullis on the backdoor cut for the winning layup.
11. (15) Florida Gulf Coast vs (2) Georgetown, 2013 first round
We were used to Georgetown upsets by this point, but never quite like this. FGCU had only been a university since 1997. They’d only even been tournament-eligible twice. Youth was an advantage here, as the Eagles ran up and down the court on the Hoyas. Their dominant win included a 21–2 run punctuated by multiple alley oops and showtime dunks, earning Gulf Coast the nickname Dunk City en route to the only Sweet 16 appearance ever by a 15-seed.
10. (2) Duke vs (1) UNLV, 1991 Final Four
UNLV was the defending national champion. They were 34–0, led by future #1 NBA Draft pick Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, Greg Anthony, and towel-chewing head coach Jerry Tarkanian. UNLV had defeated this very Duke team by 30 in the previous year’s title game and certainly came in more than confident. But Mike Krzyzewski’s Blue Devils broke through, en route to the first national title in school history and the last time Duke will be considered an “underdog” for a very long time.
9. (15) Coppin State vs (2) South Carolina, 1997 first round
The record books are a bit fuzzy now, but Coppin State is supposed to have been something like a 30-point underdog before shocking the Gamecocks with a convincing 13-point victory. The Eagles nearly advanced to the Sweet 16 as well, falling short by a single point to Texas in the second round.
8. (15) Santa Clara vs (2) Arizona, 1993 first round
Arizona entered this one as healthy 20-point favorites, while Santa Clara was led by an unknown floppy-haired Canadian kid named Steve Nash. With the underdog Broncos up three and only seven seconds remaining, the future all-time NBA-record free-throw percentage holder stepped to the line with two free throws to ice it… and bricked both. Santa Clara’s Kevin Dunne got the offensive rebound and was fouled before missing two free throws of his own! Damon Stoudamire had a tying three at the buzzer for Arizona, but it rimmed out and the Broncos survived for the upset win.
7. (9) Northern Iowa vs (1) Kansas, 2009 second round
Until UMBC, this was probably the most memorable early exit by a 1-seed in tourney history. Kansas was the #1 overall seed, the only such team to lose on the opening weekend until it happened in 2017 with Villanova and again with Virginia in 2018. The game was back and forth late when the result was punctuated by one of the tournament’s all-time shots. Up one with 34 seconds left and a full shot clock, UNI guard Ali Farokhmanesh pulled up and drained the dagger three — the ultimate no-no-no-YES moment!
6. (11) George Mason vs (1) Connecticut, 2006 Elite Eight
George Mason was a controversial tournament selection after losing its conference tournament and seeing a key player suspended for its first Marhc Madness game. But they made it anyway and defeated NCAA blue bloods Michigan State, North Carolina, and this Connecticut team to make a shocking Final Four run. Jai Lewis outplayed Rudy Gay, and the Patriots won in overtime just 20 miles from home to become the first double-digit seed Final Four team in two decades.
5. (15) Hampton vs (2) Iowa State, 2001 first round
The Pirates were 17-point underdogs and looked the part most of the game, trailing 55–44 with a few minutes remaining against one of the tournament’s favorites, a Cyclones team featuring NBA first-round picks Jamaal Tinsley and Marcus Fizer. But the Pirates closed the game on an epic 14–2 run, capped by Tarvis Williams’ jumper in the final seconds, to win by one. Hampton coach Steve Merfeld got a lift in one of March’s most iconic celebration photos.
4. (11) Virginia Commonwealth vs (1) Kansas, 2011 Elite Eight
VCU was a shocking inclusion into the tournament field with analyst Jay Bilas memorably exclaiming “Do they even know the ball is round?” VCU survived a play-in game before riding a favorable draw all the way to the Elite Eight, where they were a sizable underdog against Kansas. Second-year coach Shaka Smart’s team exploded with a huge 17-point first-half lead, and the Rams held on to take down the 35–2 Jayhawks en route to the Final Four.
3. (15) Middle Tennessee State vs (2) Michigan State, first round
This was the upset we thought we’d always remember, the one that took down bracket pools everywhere, the closest we’d ever been to a 16v1 upset. Michigan State was a 2-seed but they were treated like the tournament favorite, one of the most popular picks in bracket all around the country. And this was not just any old team — this was Tom Izzo and a bunch of seniors and Final Four streaks, the surest thing on the bracket. Until they were out.
2. (16) UMBC vs (1) Virginia, first round
Virginia entered the game as 20.5-point favorites and lost by 20 instead. UMBC covered the spread by 41 points! The Cavaliers didn’t just lose. They panicked and floundered and basically quit in front of a shocked national audience. Only twice before had the #1 overall seed even lost on opening weekend, and this Virginia team could barely even muster up the courage to finish one game. It’s not just that they did it, but how they did it, too.
This is the same UMBC team that ranked 168th in the nation in KenPom metrics, one that lost 82–39 just two months prior to Albany. It’s a team that needed a conference-tournament buzzer beater just to qualify for March Madness with the worst seed and presumed worst draw possible. I thought so little of UMBC that I literally wrote an 8000-word tournament preview and gave the Retrievers zero of the words. And then they made history.
Of course, as crazy as the UMBC upset was, we must not forget what came after. In last year’s March Madness tournament, no one dared believe in Virginia again after their 16v1 disaster. But the Hoos believed in themselves and rode Kyle Guy and others all the way to the national championship, where they defeated Texas Tech in overtime to cut down the nets for the first time ever. Talk about going from worst to first!
Still, recency bias aside, one other game remains the one college basketball upset against which all others must be measured…
1. (8) Villanova vs (1) Georgetown, 1985 national championship
Georgetown was the defending national champion and rode National Player of the Year and #1 NBA Draft pick Patrick Ewing to a 35–2 record, entering this game as prohibitive favorites. They featured the nation’s top defense and held opponents to just 39% shooting on the season. This was the last time conference foes played for a title, and Georgetown had already notched two victories over Villanova that season.
Villanova had already defeated #1 Michigan, #2 North Carolina, and #2 Memphis just to get here but would still need a miracle to overcome such a dominant opponent that came in confident an ready. And a miracle is what they got.
Georgetown out-shot Villanova 53 to 28 (28 shots! in 40 minutes!) and Nova’s bench recorded just a single assist and no points. But the Wildcats shot an incredible 79% for the game, including an astounding 90% in the second half, missing just one second-half shot. They held on to win 66–64, the perfect basketball game and the greatest upset in NCAA tournament history! ■
Follow Brandon on Medium or @wheatonbrando for more sports, television, humor, and culture. Visit the rest of Brandon’s writing archives here.
