SOMEWHERE ON THE EAST COAST, USA – This year’s NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship, aka March Madness, the NCAA Tournament, the Big Dance, or anything else you might call it, is full of big-time upsets. There was Harvard over Cincinnati on Thursday, Mercer over Duke and Stephen F. Austin over VCU on Friday, Dayton over Syracuse on Saturday, and Stanford over Kansas and Kentucky over Wichita State on Sunday. Has your bracket been busted yet?
But which upset was the most upsetting of them all?!? Let’s find out!
Let’s look at Duke’s 71-78 loss to Mercer. Was this a shocking lost? Most definitely, but not unpredictable. Duke has pulled this stunt off in the past, losing to much lower seeds (a la 2012’s First Round loss to 15-seed Lehigh and 2008’s Second Round loss to 7-seed West Virginia as a 2-seed,) not to mention Mercer beat last year’s Cinderella team in Florida Gulf Coast in the conference tournament a couple weeks ago. Yes, this year’s early exit for Duke was a bit surprising, but all too familiar at the same time.
How bout Syracuse’s 53-55 Third Round loss to Dayton. If Syracuse didn’t enter this year’s tournament on such a cold streak offensively, than this would have been the biggest tournament upset. But with Syracuse’s latest drought, many analysts had a hard time envisioning Syracuse making it out of the first weekend, and that’s what happened. It’s hard to win a game when all you make are layups.
Then there was Kansas’ lost Sunday to Stanford; the loss busted my bracket. Did it bust yours? But still, it isn’t the biggest upset of the tournament. Kansas was playing without one of their best players in center Joel Embiid. Embiid is a potential No. 1 draft pick this June, and without him, the Jayhawks are missing something upfront. Stanford has a veteran frontcourt, which took advantage of the absence of the freshman sensation. And not to mention Andrew Wiggins, aka the next LeBron James, forgot to show up for yesterday’s game.
“The biggest upset of the tournament has to be undefeated Wichita State losing to Kentucky right?” Wrong! Look, it’s extremely hard to go an entire season without losing a single game. It was impressive that the Shockers even made it to 35-0. Facing Kentucky, who opened as the preseason No. 1 team in November, was too tall of a task for Wichita State. It was easy to see this coming, and many thought if Wichita made it past the Wildcats, then they would certainly lose to Louisville in the Sweet Sixteen.
Then which game was the biggest upset of the first weekend? It was 55-85 loss Dougie McBuckets and his Creighton Bluejays took in the Third Round Sunday to the Baylor Bears. There were high hopes for this Creighton squad entering the Big Dance. Doug McDermott was considered the best player in the nation this year, they had a good draw, and they were the higher seed, what could go wrong for the Bluejays? One thing, McDermott didn’t show up (he had 15 points and two rebounds.) The Baylor Bears absolutely blew out the Bluejays from start to finish leaving a sour tastes in the mouths of Creighton fans around the nation. Was Creighton good enough to win a National Championship? Probably not. But they were good enough not to lose by 30 in the Third Round to a team they should have beat.
That is why Baylor blowing out Creighton is the biggest upset of the first weekend. Tune in for someone who is always upset, Fake Sandy Alderson… tomorrow.
