Throughout the history of sports we have seen some greatest and extremely unlikely upsets of underdogs defeating the favorites. Buster Douglas knocking out a previously undefeated Mike Tyson, the New York Giants defeating the Patriot’s perfect season and even the fifth ranked college football team, the Michigan Wolverines, losing to a lower division Appalachian State team. However, one upset we have never seen before was a 16 seed beating a number 1 seed in the men’s NCAA basketball tournament.
That was until UMBC defeated top ranked Virginia 74-54 last Friday night, March 16th, 2018.
The University of Maryland Baltimore County had only ever made the NCAA tournament once in the history of their program before this season. In fact, they had only ever beaten one power conference team in the history of their program when they beat Nebraska in 2008. Considering that Virginia was the number one ranked team in the country, with a record of 31-2, winners of the ACC with wins over top teams such as Duke and North Carolina, almost nobody thought UMBC stood a chance in the first round tournament game.
Many expected Virginia to win this game with ease; Las Vegas had them as a 20.5-point favorite. However, that was not the case, in fact UMBC dominated Virginia in a way nobody had all season. They were the first team to score more than 70 points against Virginia and the only team all season to hold a 15 point lead over the Cavaliers. It was UMBC who looked like the number one seed, the very same UMBC team who lost by 44 to Albany earlier and was the regular season runner up in the America East Conference, who undoubtedly turned in the best performance by any underdog in sports history.
A viable argument can be made for the performances I have already mentioned to earn the title of “greatest sports upset ever”. However, it only took one punch for Buster Douglas to end the fight against Tyson; UMBC had to perform for 40 minutes against the best team in the country. If you wanted to argue the “Miracle on Ice” at the 1980 Winter Olympics was better, I would point out that the USA hockey team only beat the USSR by one goal. A similar argument can be made against the Giants or Appalachian State, they won by only a couple of points while UMBC dominated by 20.
Additionally it cannot be stressed enough how big a deal it is that UMBC is the first 16 seed to beat a number one seed in the men’s tournament. This was one of the very few sports feats that had not yet been accomplished. In multiple sports wildcard winners have won championships, low ranked teams have beaten high ranked teams in all college sports, however none had been on a stage as big as the NCAA tournament or beat a team as good as Virginia.
UMBC exemplified exactly what it is that we love so much about sports. When you go to the movies or a concert, you know exactly what you are going to get. However, the mystery and possibility of seeing something groundbreaking is what helps maintain sports as the greatest form of entertainment.
