Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Now that we avoided a First Round upset (I did NOT want to mess around with jinxing us!), I wanted to look back at the especially major First Round upsets since 2000. I am using #4 seeds as a cutoff since they are "protected seeds," even if a #4/5 are more similar to each other than a #3/4.
Hopefully this brings back some fun March Madness memories!!
2000
N/A
2001
#15 Hampton 58, #2 Iowa State 57
#13 Indiana State 70, #4 Oklahoma 68
#13 Kent State 77, #4 Indiana 73
2002
#4 UNC-Wilmington 93, #4 USC 89
2003
#13 Tulsa 84, #4 Dayton 71
2004
N/A
2005
#14 Bucknell 64, #3 Kansas 63
#13 Vermont 60, #4 Syracuse 57
2006
#14 Northwestern State 64, #3 Iowa 63
#13 Bradley 77, #4 Kansas 73 (GO BRAVES!! Peoria, wooh!!)
2007
N/A
2008
#13 San Diego 70, #4 UConn 69
2009
#13 Cleveland State 84, #4 Wake Forest 69
2010
#14 Ohio 97, #3 Georgetown 83 (John Groce!)
#13 Murray State 66, #4 Vanderbilt 65
2011
#13 Morehead State 62, #4 Louisville 61
2012
#15 Lehigh 75, #2 Duke 70
#15 Norfolk State 86, #2 Missouri 84
#13 Ohio 65, #4 Michigan 60
2013
#15 Florida Gulf Coast 78, #2 Georgetown 68
#14 Harvard 68, #3 New Mexico 62
#13 La Salle 63, #4 Kansas State 61
2014
#14 Mercer 78, #3 Duke 71
2015
#14 Georgia State 57, #3 Baylor 56
#14 UAB 60, #3 Iowa State 59
2016
#15 Middle Tennessee 90, #2 Michigan State 81
#14 Stephen F. Austin 70, #3 West Virginia 56 (Daddy Brad!!)
#13 Hawaii 77, #4 Cal 66
2017
N/A
2018
#16 UMBC 74, #1 Virginia 56 (first #16 win of all-time)
#13 Buffalo 89, #4 Arizona 69
#13 Marshall 81, #4 Wichita State 75
2019
#13 UC Irvine 70, #4 Kansas State 64
2021
#15 Oral Roberts 75, #2 Ohio State 72 (OT)
#14 Abilene Christian 53, #3 Texas 52
#13 North Texas 78, #4 Purdue 69 (OT)
2022
#15 Saint Peter's 85, #2 Kentucky 79 (OT)
2023
#16 Fairleigh Dickinson 63, #1 Purdue 58
#15 Princeton 59, #2 Arizona 55
#13 Furman 68, #4 Virginia 67
2024 (After One Day)
#14 Oakland 80, #3 Kentucky 76
So, two things jumped out at me.
1. It definitely seems like upsets are becoming more common ... and this does not include less extreme upsets like 12/5 or 11/6, which I feel like we see very regularly now a days.
2. People are often hard on Underwood for not making a Sweet Sixteen yet at Illinois ... in TWO realistic tries (no #9 seed should expect to make the Sweet Sixteen, sorry). And really only 2021 was a "failure" because we didn't. To give some perspective, these are the coaches on that list above that won NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS since 2000 and yet flopped hard enough (at least once) in March Madness to be listed above:
Mike Krzyzewski (Duke)
Jim Calhoun (UConn)
Jim Boeheim (Syracuse)
Bill Self (Kansas)
John Calipari (Kentucky)
Rick Pitino (Louisville)
Tony Bennett (Virginia)
Scott Drew (Baylor)
And these additional ones at least made a Final Four since 2000:
Mike Davis (Indiana)
Kelvin Sampson (Oklahoma, Houston)
John Beilein (Michigan)
John Thompson III (Georgetown)
Shaka Smart (VCU)
Bruce Weber (Illinois) ... though I'm sure some here won't want to count this one!
Gregg Marshall (Wichita State)
So, March Madness is a crapshoot and nobody in his/her right mind judges a coach on TWO attempts with a high seed. I'm excited for Bard to get this (unfair) monkey off his back this year!!
Hopefully this brings back some fun March Madness memories!!
2000
N/A
2001
#15 Hampton 58, #2 Iowa State 57
#13 Indiana State 70, #4 Oklahoma 68
#13 Kent State 77, #4 Indiana 73
2002
#4 UNC-Wilmington 93, #4 USC 89
2003
#13 Tulsa 84, #4 Dayton 71
2004
N/A
2005
#14 Bucknell 64, #3 Kansas 63
#13 Vermont 60, #4 Syracuse 57
2006
#14 Northwestern State 64, #3 Iowa 63
#13 Bradley 77, #4 Kansas 73 (GO BRAVES!! Peoria, wooh!!)
2007
N/A
2008
#13 San Diego 70, #4 UConn 69
2009
#13 Cleveland State 84, #4 Wake Forest 69
2010
#14 Ohio 97, #3 Georgetown 83 (John Groce!)
#13 Murray State 66, #4 Vanderbilt 65
2011
#13 Morehead State 62, #4 Louisville 61
2012
#15 Lehigh 75, #2 Duke 70
#15 Norfolk State 86, #2 Missouri 84
#13 Ohio 65, #4 Michigan 60
2013
#15 Florida Gulf Coast 78, #2 Georgetown 68
#14 Harvard 68, #3 New Mexico 62
#13 La Salle 63, #4 Kansas State 61
2014
#14 Mercer 78, #3 Duke 71
2015
#14 Georgia State 57, #3 Baylor 56
#14 UAB 60, #3 Iowa State 59
2016
#15 Middle Tennessee 90, #2 Michigan State 81
#14 Stephen F. Austin 70, #3 West Virginia 56 (Daddy Brad!!)
#13 Hawaii 77, #4 Cal 66
2017
N/A
2018
#16 UMBC 74, #1 Virginia 56 (first #16 win of all-time)
#13 Buffalo 89, #4 Arizona 69
#13 Marshall 81, #4 Wichita State 75
2019
#13 UC Irvine 70, #4 Kansas State 64
2021
#15 Oral Roberts 75, #2 Ohio State 72 (OT)
#14 Abilene Christian 53, #3 Texas 52
#13 North Texas 78, #4 Purdue 69 (OT)
2022
#15 Saint Peter's 85, #2 Kentucky 79 (OT)
2023
#16 Fairleigh Dickinson 63, #1 Purdue 58
#15 Princeton 59, #2 Arizona 55
#13 Furman 68, #4 Virginia 67
2024 (After One Day)
#14 Oakland 80, #3 Kentucky 76
So, two things jumped out at me.
1. It definitely seems like upsets are becoming more common ... and this does not include less extreme upsets like 12/5 or 11/6, which I feel like we see very regularly now a days.
2. People are often hard on Underwood for not making a Sweet Sixteen yet at Illinois ... in TWO realistic tries (no #9 seed should expect to make the Sweet Sixteen, sorry). And really only 2021 was a "failure" because we didn't. To give some perspective, these are the coaches on that list above that won NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS since 2000 and yet flopped hard enough (at least once) in March Madness to be listed above:
Mike Krzyzewski (Duke)
Jim Calhoun (UConn)
Jim Boeheim (Syracuse)
Bill Self (Kansas)
John Calipari (Kentucky)
Rick Pitino (Louisville)
Tony Bennett (Virginia)
Scott Drew (Baylor)
And these additional ones at least made a Final Four since 2000:
Mike Davis (Indiana)
Kelvin Sampson (Oklahoma, Houston)
John Beilein (Michigan)
John Thompson III (Georgetown)
Shaka Smart (VCU)
Bruce Weber (Illinois) ... though I'm sure some here won't want to count this one!
Gregg Marshall (Wichita State)
So, March Madness is a crapshoot and nobody in his/her right mind judges a coach on TWO attempts with a high seed. I'm excited for Bard to get this (unfair) monkey off his back this year!!
