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Josh Gross
Everybody loves upsets. Upsets in the NCAA Tournament are like no other because everything is on the line, and it doesn’t matter who you are. If you lose, you go home.
However, before you begin to fill out your brackets and select this year’s upsets, let’s dive into some of the biggest upsets against the spread in tournament history.
Pro tip: When filling out your first-round brackets, be sure to check each line to find out if your upset is really an upset. Vegas knows who the better teams are, and that is revealed by the spread, not their seed.
Biggest Upset in NCAA Tournament History
Below, we’ll look at the top five upsets (by pre-game betting line) in NCAA Tournament history.
2001 – No. 15 Hampton (+17.5) beats No. 2 Iowa State 58-57
This matchup had all the elements of a classic upset that adds to the reason the tournament has been nicknamed March Madness.
Future pro Jamaal Tinsley and the Iowa State Cyclones were expected to throttle the lowly Hampton Pirates. They were the Big 12 regular season champions and had reeled off multiple extended winning streaks. However, they came out sluggish and allowed the Pirates to build confidence and even take a lead into halftime. The Cyclones would get in gear in the second half and eventually reclaim the lead, but Hampton was far from done.
Iowa State would go ice cold over the final eight minutes of the game — they only totaled two points over that time and saw their 11-point lead evaporate. Then, with 6.9 seconds remaining, Tarvis Williams would play hero, sinking a four-foot shot to put the Pirates ahead. The Cyclones would have the ball last, but Tinsley’s layup would not go down, and Iowa State left the court in shock.
1997 – No. 15 Coppin State (+18.5) beats No. 2 South Carolina 78-65
This upset was one for the little guys as Coppin State put the MAC on the map by giving the conference its first NCAA tournament win. The Eagles did it in style as the backcourt duo of Danny Singletary and Antoine Brockington would go on to outscore South Carolina’s talented trio of Larry Davis, Melvin Watson and B.J. McKie — all first-team All-SEC players — 42-31. That scoring output led a 14-4 run in the second half to tie the game, and the run did not stop there as the Eagles eventually went on to bury the mighty Gamecocks.
1993 – No. 15 Santa Clara (+20) beats No. 2 Arizona 64-61
Much like the aforementioned two seeds in this piece, the Arizona Wildcats came out sleepy and were down double-digits in the first half. Arizona would battle back to take a two-point lead into halftime and built on their momentum, as they scored 11 straight to open the second half and extend their lead to 13.
Santa Clara seized the opportunity when Arizona’s leading scorer, Chris Mills, was forced to sit with foul trouble. They would go on a big run and cut their deficit to just three before Mills came back in. However, his return would not slow down the Broncos as they would complete the comeback and seal it with one final three-pointer.
2018 — No. 16 UMBC (+20.5) beats No. 1 Virginia 74-54
We all knew this one was coming in this piece somewhere. The only 16 seed to ever win a game comes in as the second-largest upset in tournament history. The Ramblers put on a basketball clinic as they dominated Tony Bennett’s Cavaliers wire to wire and fed off the crowd that quickly turned in their favor. It was a memorable performance that should be cherished, as we might never see anything like it again for a long, long time.
2012 — No. 15 Norfolk State (+21.5) beats No. 2 Missouri 86-84
This was the last time we saw Missouri be an elite program. They were Big 12 champions and had Final Four aspirations that year, but they ran into future New York Knick Kyle O’Quinn. O’Quinn would go on to put up the game of a lifetime as he poured in 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds and kept his team in it until they were finally able to seize the lead 35 seconds to play.
In the end, the Spartans would outhustle the Tigers to a loose ball and subsequently draw a foul, hit both free throws and retake the lead 86-84. Missouri would have one last chance, but they came up short, and the biggest upset in NCAA Tournament history was in the books.
