The bands. The buzzer-beaters. The unproductive offices. It must be the start of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. To mark this year’s edition, we scoured the record books to find the best first round upsets in tournament history. With one full day or madness already behind us and the conclusion of the opening round matchups coming today, there is no better time than the present to share The Campus Socialite’s five favorite first round Cinderella stories.
5. 1998 – (13) Valparaiso 70, (4) Mississippi 69: The play was called “The Pacer,” after the NBA team from which Valparaiso (Ind.) coach Homer Drew stole it. And Pacer was just perfect. With 2.5 seconds left and Valpo down two, Jamie Sykes, standing under his own basket, floated a pass to Bill Jenkins, who jumped, caught it, and before his feet touched the ground, shuffled the ball to Homer’s son, Bryce, who was streaking down the right side. Drew stopped, popped, and the three-pointer dropped, giving Valpo an incredible win.
4. 1986 – (14) Cleveland State 83, (3) Indiana 79: Cleveland is not a state, but this school’s unlikely triumph over Bob Knight’s Hoosiers briefly made the school a household name. “Pressure is insidious,” said Cleveland State coach Kevin Mackey of his team’s “Run N’ Stun” style. “It wears people down. I tell our players they play as hard as they can or they don’t play.” The Vikings stunned Indiana, and even advanced to the Sweet 16, where they fell to a Navy team that featured future NBA great David Robinson.
3. 1996 – (13) Princeton 43, (4) UCLA 41: Princeton’s Hall of Fame coach, Pete Carril, had announced his retirement less than a week before the game, giving him one more shot at an upset after his Tigers lost by an average of 4 points in the opening round from 1989 to 1992 (Princeton’s 50-49 loss to Georgetown in 1989 is still the closest a 16th seeded team has come to beating a top seed). Thanks to the final play, Carril avoided another tragic near-win. Princeton’s Gabe Lewullis cut backdoor once, but the opportunity wasn’t there. He cut again: Steve Goodrich bounced a perfect pass, Lewullis made a tricky lay-up, and the Tigers toppled the defending champs.
2. 1991 – (15) Richmond 73, (2) Syracuse 69: Dick Tarrant’s Richmond Spiders were famous giant killers: in 1984, Richmond downed Charles Barkley and Auburn; four years later, defending champ Indiana got caught up in their web. The ’91 upset of Syracuse, however, was Richmond’s greatest hit. The Spiders became the first 15-seed to down a number two seed. More importantly, it was the first year that CBS had the rights to the opening round of the tournament. Richmond shocked the world, in prime time, on network television, and CBS has paid the NCAA billions to keep every game on its airwaves since.
1. 2001 – (15) Hampton 58, (2) Iowa State 57: Hampton, of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, was considered an afterthought for Big 12 power Iowa State, which featured future-pro Jamaal Tinsley at point guard. But Hampton’s Travis Williams flicked in a four-footer with seven seconds left, giving the Pirates the lead, and Tinlsey’s last-second lay-up bounced off the rim. Amidst the post-game mayhem, a Hampton player lifted Viking coach Steve Merfeld off the ground. Merfeld’s kicked his legs through the air like a hyperactive child, creating the most memorable post-game reaction by a coach since North Carolina State’s Jim Valvano ran aimlessly around the court in 1983, searching for someone to hug after he won the title.
