Stunner in March Madness Virginia Becomes First No1 Seed to Lose to a 16 Seed

UMBC's K.J. Maura (11) and Jourdan Grant celebrate the team's 74-54 win over Virginia in a first-round game in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament in Charlotte, N.C., Friday, March 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

UMBC's K.J. Maura (11) celebrates after a basket against Virginia during the first half of a first-round game in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament in Charlotte, N.C., Friday, March 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

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UMBC's Jairus Lyles (10) loses the ball as Virginia's Ty Jerome (11) defends during the first half of a first-round game in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament in Charlotte, N.C., Friday, March 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

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UMBC players celebrate a teammate's basket against Virginia during the second half of a first-round game in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament in Charlotte, N.C., Friday, March 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Bob Leverone)

UMBC's Jourdan Grant celebrates after a basket against Virginia during the second half of a first-round game in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament in Charlotte, N.C., Friday, March 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Stunner: Umbc Becomes First No. 16 Seed To Beat No. 1 In Ncaa Tournament

Virginia's Isaiah Wilkins, left, walks off the court after the team's 74-54 loss to UMBC in a first-round game in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament in Charlotte, N.C., Friday, March 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

UMBC's K.J. Maura (11) and Jourdan Grant (5) celebrate the team's 74-54 win over Virginia in a first-round game in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament in Charlotte, N.C., Friday, March 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

The University of Maryland-Baltimore County stunned the college basketball world by pulling off the most shocking upset in men’s NCAA Tournament history, hammering Virginia 75-54 on Friday night to become the first No. 16 seed ever to beat a No. 1 seed.

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Virginia entered the NCAA Tournament as tourney favorites — the No. 1 overall seed after going 31-2 this season, including 20-1 in ACC competition.

And really, who was UMBC anyway — a team most glanced over, or simply didn’t know when they filled out their NCAA bracket?

But UMBC didn’t just beat Virginia, it dominated throughout the second half. Senior guard Jairus Lyles scored 28 points and the Retreivers cruised to an easy victory before racing off the floor together in their yellow-and-black uniforms with one finger pointed toward the sky.

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Chaminade’s 77-72 stunner over Ralph Sampson and then No. 1-ranked Cavaliers in 1982 in Hawaii was generally considered the most remarkable upset in college basketball history. But that was the regular season.

The Cavaliers couldn’t get anything generated on offense and the nation’s top-ranked defense couldn’t contain the American East Conference champions who won their conference tournament at the buzzer.

The 74 points were the most Virginia had allowed this year. Virginia had allowed just 54.3 points per game this season, the fewest in the nation.

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He diced up Virginia’s defense in the second half, getting to the hole easily on six different occasions and making easy layups. He also knocked down a pair of 3-pointers as UMBC built a 16-point lead.

UMBC

The game was tied at halftime, but the Retrievers came out confident and motivated in the second half and built a double-digit lead that Virginia could never erase.

He scored on an and-1 drive and then knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the key after a behind-the-back pass from KJ Maura. After Virginia made a foul shot, the shifty 5-foot-8, 140-pound Maura drove the lane for uncontested layup.

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A Tony Bennett timeout couldn’t stop the bleeding, as Lyles hit two more 3’s and Sherburne hit one more to extend UMBC’s lead to 14 with 14:57 left in the game. Lyles was fouled on a 3-point shot and suddenly the Retrievers led by 16.

A corner 3-pointer and a layups off a fastbreak by Arkel Lamer gave UMBC its biggest lead at 67-48. From there, the party was on as chants of “UMBC” rang through the arena.

Virginia: This isn’t the first time Virginia has struggled as the No. 1 seed. The Cavaliers trailed by five at halftime in 2014 to Coastal Carolina but went on to win 70-59.

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San Diego State lost to a better Connecticut team, allowing the Huskies to celebrate their fifth national title and affording the Aztecs all sorts of heartache.

UMBC

Connecticut has steamrolled its way to the NCAA championship against San Diego State, winning five straight by an average of 20.6 points while going 5-0 ATS.

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UNLV basketball coach Kevin Kruger watched from the front row at NRG Stadium in Houston as San Diego State beat Florida Atlantic in the Final Four on Saturday.

Junior guard Lamont Butler made a last-second shot Saturday night as San Diego State shocked Florida Atlantic in the Final Four in Houston.

The Final Four is a time for tall people to tell even taller tales about the past, including Bill Walton’s gem detailing Jerry Tarkanian’s efforts to keep him from UCLA.

No. 1 Virginia Stunned By Umbc, 74 54

It began back in 1999, the Aztecs eyeing the defensive end of the floor as a way to create a successful program.

Handicapper Wes Reynolds won the SuperBook’s NFL season wins challenge last season and also swept three Review-Journal college contests while going 61-36 ATS.

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It finally happened. And when it did, it wasn’t by way of a miracle last second shot, or a gritty come-from-behind effort where everything went right for David and everything went wrong for Goliath. It was a straight up ass kicking.

UMBC — which stands for the University of Maryland Baltimore County, a fact the entire country is about to become very familiar with — scored the biggest upset in the history of the NCAA tournament Friday night with a 74-54 throttling of No. 1 seed Virginia. The 20-point victors had entered the game as 20-point underdogs.

It feels fitting that when a No. 16 seed finally did the unthinkable, it wasn’t a win over a team that most had already deemed unworthy of its lofty status. It was a thumping of the freaking No. 1 overall seed in the entire Big Dance.

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Sure, Virginia had its fair share of doubters because of its failure to breakthrough and crash a Final Four in recent years. But there was no one doubting the Cavaliers’ 2017-18 resume. There was no one who thought Tony Bennett’s team was overly susceptible to being on the wrong end of an all-time stunner at some point this weekend.

We’re talking about a Virginia team that played 21 ACC games this season and won 20 of them. A Cavalier squad that wasn’t just rated (by opinion and statistics alike) as the best defensive team in the country this season, but as one of the best defensive teams in the modern era of college basketball.

That same team got torched by a UMBC Retrievers squad that had tasted defeat 10 times. A UMBC team that lost to Albany 83-39 in America East play on Jan. 21, and 81-53 to Vermont (at home!) two weeks later.

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Try and process this: Heading into this game, Virginia was allowing just 53.4 points per game and had held 16 of its 32 opponents to 53 points or fewer. UMBC scored 53 points on the Cavaliers in the second half. The Retrievers wound up scoring more total points than any UVA opponent this season. More than North Carolina, more than West Virginia, more than Duke.

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It also feels fitting that UMBC’s upset came in the rarest of years where there was actually significant buzz about a 16 seed potentially knocking off a one, but that buzz centered around a different team. The Penn Quakers were the squad everyone was keeping an eye on heading into the tournament’s first two days. While the Ivy Leaguers kept things interesting against Kansas for about 30 minutes on Thursday, they ultimately fell short of what their bottom seed brethren from Baltimore was able to accomplish.

Virginia was the last of the four No. 1 seeds to play its first round game, so heading into Friday night’s contest, top seeds had been a combined 135-0 against No. 16 seeds. The legitimate scares in those games had also been few and far between. Only five of those 135 games had been decided by five points or fewer, and