The UMBC Retrievers are the talk of the college basketball world right now after the fight they put up against Virginia on Friday night produced one of the most surprising upsets in basketball history.
The Retrievers’ win sent hoops fans into a frenzy, but also a chance to show off some very good dogs on social media as the upset bid went from potential history to reality. As Virginia continued to fade and the Retrievers lead grew to as much as 20, social media was flooded with photos of golden retrievers.
Now, UMBC’s mascot is technically a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, specifically, but those are not nearly as prevalent as their golden brethren and no one should complain about pictures of good dogs anyways. As Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post pointed out, it was started by the very feisty UMBC Athletics Twitter account, which was a lot of fun on Friday night.
https://twitter.com/UMBCAthletics/status/973369342707601416
But that was days before the game even got underway. As the game started and UMBC held tough, people started to get excited. And in the second half, as they pulled away, it was raining retrievers on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/amandahess/status/974852235602644993
There were also a few eaten brackets.
The UMBC Retrievers have officially torn up all the brackets. They feel kinda guilty about it but IT WAS SO FUN pic.twitter.com/Uoo3qFwMLB
— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) March 17, 2018
Of course not all of these are really dog owners watching the game, but retrievers definitely took notice. Seriously, look at these good boys watching the upset.
Golden Retrievers watching the Retrievers upset Virginia is the best picture on your timeline
(📷@rubesss91) pic.twitter.com/zHH6b3ImXx— Kent (@RealKentMurphy) March 17, 2018
This dog even has the receipts to prove they believed history would be made.
https://twitter.com/alcohawk/status/974852846612041728
Even Bill Simmons got in on the act.
Let’s goooooooooooooooooooooo… pic.twitter.com/XKzLbTfVNF
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) March 17, 2018
There were also some very good dog GIFs out there, too.
https://twitter.com/rubieeliz/status/974848889676328960
The Dog Rates account was wise to what was happening in the hoops world, too.
THEY’RE GOOD RETRIEVERS, BRENT
— WeRateDogs (@dog_rates) March 17, 2018
Ice in their veins, those Retrievers.
https://twitter.com/thecajunboy/status/974851890264641536
But not all of them kept their game faces on. Look at the happy doggos!
https://twitter.com/Bahler/status/974849750477557760
Congrats to my dog on the big win @UMBCAthletics pic.twitter.com/LWg14q3rq2
— Gags (@TooSweetKyle) March 17, 2018
.@UMBCAthletics Can my dog be your mascot? #Retrievers pic.twitter.com/7ZcA7zD7dv
— UCF Jaguar (@UCF_Jaguar) March 17, 2018
The point is that more teams need to be named after dog breeds. Twitter is just a happier place when dog teams win.
