Top 10 Biggest Upsets in College hoops

[biggunsbob]

In the last decade according to SI.

https://www.si.com/college-basketba...sets-march-madness-umbc-middle-tennessee-fgcu

1. 2017. #16 Umbc 74-54 thumping of #1 Virginia . Had to be number one.

2. 2017. Women?s #2 Mississippi st 66-64 over #1 UConn. Women?s hoops. Odd choice for me I guess it was because it broke the Huskies 111 game winning streak.

3. 2016. #15 Middle Tennessee st 90-81 over #2 MSU. Least MSU didn?t get smoked like Virginia.


4. 2013. #15 Florida Gulfcoast 78-68 win over #2 Georgetown

5. 2010 . #9 Northern Iowa 69-67 win over #1 Kansas.

6. 2012. #15 Lehigh 75-70 win over #2 Duke.

7. 2014. NJIT 72-70 win at #17 Michigan. ( Non tournament game).

8. 2012. #15 Norfolk st. 86-84 win over # 2 Missouri. (Largest betting line underdogs by 21.5 to 22.5). So almost as big of upset as UMBC was last year.

9. 2015 Final Four semifinal. #1 Wisconsin 71-64 0ver #1 Kentucky who was 38-0 at the time.

10. 2010. Women?s Stanford 71-59 over uConn breaking the Huskies 90 game winning streak in this non ncaa tournament game.

Bunch of honorable mention games at the bottom of the article. I would not put Mississippi sets as high.

 

[Michchamp]

That's weird that NJIT win over us was a bigger upset than the tournament loss we had to Ohio after we came off a Big Ten regular season championship (I think that was '11-'12?) which wasn't even on the list.

 

[biggunsbob]

That's weird that NJIT win over us was a bigger upset than the tournament loss we had to Ohio after we came off a Big Ten regular season championship (I think that was '11-'12?) which wasn't even on the list.

Ohio is a Mac school. I guess that is the reason.

 

[tomdalton22]

how can #1 seed Wisky, beating another #1 seed, be on the list?

 

[Michchamp]

how can #1 seed Wisky, beating another #1 seed, be on the list?

I think that's more an upset in the minds of people who bought into the hype.

That Wisconsin team had Frank Kaminsky and Bo Ryan an actual coach compared to Calipari, who was a recruiter.

That Wisconsin-Duke final that year made Duke Haters out of all the Badgers I know.

I was like "Welcome to the Club..."

 

[Spartanmack]

we actually did get smoked by MTSU - the outcome wasn't really in any sort of doubt for at least the last 12 minutes or so. MTSU was a mis-seeded 15, so I question it being so high on the list but whatever, these lists always have some big flaws and that isn't the only one on this particular list.


Also, using tournament seeds is misleading since these aren't all tournament games on the list. For example, Northern Iowa was a 9 seed, not #9 when they beat KU (and KU may have been #1, but that's not clear)

 

[MSUMatt28]

Agree the Wisconsin-UK game shouldn't even be on the list. I actually felt, correctly as it turned out, Wisconsin had a decent chance in that game. UK had barely escaped in the previous game vs Notre Dame.

As far as upsets suffered by MSU, I would put losing to Texas Southern in 2015 in the regular season as a bigger upset than the MTSU loss.

 

[Spartanmack]

Agree the Wisconsin-UK game shouldn't even be on the list. I actually felt, correctly as it turned out, Wisconsin had a decent chance in that game. UK had barely escaped in the previous game vs Notre Dame.

As far as upsets suffered by MSU, I would put losing to Texas Southern in 2015 in the regular season as a bigger upset than the MTSU loss.

I'd also put the 3 seed Respert/Snow team losing to #14 seeded Weber State in '95 as a bigger upset than the MTSU loss.

 

[boogerlovejoy]

I'd also put the 3 seed Respert/Snow team losing to #14 seeded Weber State in '95 as a bigger upset than the MTSU loss.

I don’t agree.....that team was a one man show that rode Respert, the best shooter in college basketball history, to a 3 seed. Without him.....they don’t even make the tournament. They were primed for an “upset” unless Respert was unconscious every game or the other team just played well.

They played exactly 3 games against top 25 teams all season.....none against top 20.....and were 1-2 in those games. Their win was by 1 and their losses by 9 each time. They simply were not a good team. They were a .500 team with a phenomenal player.

I’d say it wasn’t even that big of an upset.

 

[Spartanmack]

I don’t agree.....that team was a one man show that rode Respert, the best shooter in college basketball history, to a 3 seed. Without him.....they don’t even make the tournament. They were primed for an “upset” unless Respert was unconscious every game or the other team just played well.

They played exactly 3 games against top 25 teams all season.....none against top 20.....and were 1-2 in those games. Their win was by 1 and their losses by 9 each time. They simply were not a good team. They were a .500 team with a phenomenal player.

I’d say it wasn’t even that big of an upset.

one man show? Respert and Snow were better than any two players on the '15/16 team. The top 3 averaged 47.7ppg vs. 44.3ppg for Valentine's squad. Both teams had 3 guys averaging double digits and the drop off from there is about the same for both teams. Do you think that team makes the tourney without Valentine? Forbes at the point backed up by McQuaid and Tum? No chance.

After Valentine, Snow was better than any other PG on the 16/17 team by MILES and the best defender on either team. The team that lost to MTSU wasn't anything special beyond Valentine (nobody else could take over a game) and Valentine wasn't as good as Respert. Would you take Valentine over Respert? I wouldn't nor would I take Forbes over Snow - no chance. The Valentine team peaked in November when they beat a very young Kansas team that would have kicked the shit out of them at the end of the year.

The '15/16 team was .500 against ranked teams in the regular season AND they lost to Iowa when they were unranked so they're actually sub .500 against ranked teams - it gets even worse when you account for the fact that Louisville (24th at the time) finished the season unranked. They lost at home to a shitty Nebraska team and they got smoked by Iowa twice - first by 13 on the road then by 17 at home. conversely, the '94/95 team beat Minnesota when they weren't ranked then lost to them when they were.

Guards win championships and that was one of the best back courts we've ever put on the floor. The '94/95 team would beat the '15/16 team 60% of the time or more.