Friday was an all-time great day for upsets in the NCAA Tournament as an 11, 13, 14, and 15 seed all won a game. There were two buzzer-beaters, including a half-court heave to beat Texas for Northern Iowa that will go down as one of the top shots in the history of March Madness.
The game that will be most remembered from Friday’s chaos though is Middle Tennessee State, the 15-seed in the midwest region, knocking off Michigan State in one of the most surprising upsets of all time. The win by the Blue Raiders had us at UPROXX thinking about some of the other great NCAA Tournament upsets, and our top six has been laid out in the latest UPROXX Video.
Unsurprisingly, we have Villanova’s shocking win over Patrick Ewing and Georgetown in the 1985 national championship game as the biggest upset in the history of the big dance, with NC State and Jim Valvano taking out Houston’s Phi Slama Jama as the runner-up.
The third spot belongs to the George Mason Patriots and their improbable run in 2006. Jim Larranaga’s team ran through their region as an 11 seed and beat top-seeded UConn in the Elite Eight. Rounding out the list is three of the biggest first-round upsets ever, including C.J. McCollum and Lehigh shocking Duke in 2012, Dunk City knocking off Georgetown in 2013, and Princeton stunning the mighty UCLA Bruins in 1996.
Are there any major upsets that we missed? And where would Middle Tennessee State’s big win rank on the list? Let us know in the comments.
