Top 4 Best Upsets Of March Madness 2015

By Christy Flom on April 4, 2015

This Saturday, April 4 begins the final days of March Madness with Kentucky, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Duke competing for a spot in the Championship game.

Kentucky’s road to the Final Four was highly expected, whereas other teams had to forge their own paths to receive a bid entering the tournament. In the first two rounds of the tournament, many top ranked teams were sent packing after their first games, highlighting the steep competition between all of the teams this year.

While the biggest upsets may still be in the future during these last couple of games, it is time to take another look back at four of the best upsets of the 2015 March Madness tournament.

To begin, let’s start at the Iowa State verses the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) game that occurred Thursday, March 19 on the first day of the second round of the tournament. Iowa State was a heavily favored team at the start of the tournament, with some people even thinking they could make it to the Final Four or Championship game.

Unfortunately for the No. 3 seeded Cyclones, the No. 14 seeded UAB got the best of them, sending them home after their first game, crushing the team’s hopes of making it to the final round. In a closer look of the game, Iowa State came out doing everything right, taking an early lead. However, UAB kept the game close, eventually heading into the half up by three.

Key aspects of the game were Georges Niang’s foul trouble that began early on in the game. Niang is one of Iowa State’s best players, if not their star player, and having him miss about nine minutes of action in the first half was costly to their team’s scoring ability.

With Niang playing with four fouls as the clock wound down, Iowa State kept the game close but just couldn’t finish it out.

The Cyclones got a last second shot to tie up the game, but missed the three-pointer. A quick put back got Iowa State within one point with a score of 60-59, but with .4 seconds on the clock all hope was lost as the buzzer sounded. UAB ecstatically advanced to the third round of the tournament where they unfortunately were ousted by UCLA 92-75.

Image via Flickr.com by Steve Johnson

One of the next games that took place in the second round was Georgia State against Baylor. Baylor was yet another team that was predicted to go far in the tournament.

Similar to Iowa State, Baylor came out strong taking a 10-point lead. It seemed like nothing, let alone the No. 14 ranked Georgia State team, could stop the No. 3 ranked Bears from moving forward in the tournament.

However, also similar to the Iowa vs. BAU game, Georgia State regained their footing and ended the half up by three.

In contrast however, after the half Baylor took back the lead and continued to stay up by 10 points until under three minutes to play. Failing to keep scoring, Baylor lost their momentum allowing Georgia State to slowly inch their way back into the game.

With just over a minute left to play, a pivotal moment was when R.J. Hunter for Georgia State quickly stole the ball from Baylor during an in-bounds play for an easy layup, cutting the lead down to only three points.

After missed free throws by Baylor, and one made by Georgia State, Hunter again found the ball in his hands. At the top of the point, well beyond the three-point arc, Hunter knocked down a shot putting Georgia State ahead by one, 57-56.

With 2.6 seconds left Georgia State’s victory was sealed as Baylor missed their last half court attempt. Like UAB, Georgia State also lost in the next round, but to Xavier 75-67.

In our third upset of March Madness, No. 1 seed Villanova and No. 8 seed North Carolina State (NCU) each took turns throughout the first half taking hold of the lead. With back and forth scoring, it was NCU who headed into the half with the lead and momentum after making a last second three-pointer.

NCU quickly extended their lead at the start of the second half, at one point being up by 12. Villanova tried their best to stay in the game but failed to come within five points until the final two minutes. Villanova had a couple more chances with under two minutes to play, but a travel and poor defense allowed NCU to keep scoring making it impossible for Villanova to take back the lead before the end of the game.

While there was no dramatic last second play to end this game, the big three pointers that NCU hit at the end of the game kept things excited as the underdogs knocked off top seed Villanova with a score of 71-68.

While it was a major accomplishment for NCU to make it to the Sweet 16, their journey ended there as they lost to Louisville, 75-65.

Image via Flickr.com

The last major upset of the tournament is No. 7 Michigan State vs. No. 2 Virginia in the third round.

In a rematch from last year’s Sweet 16 game, Michigan State came out taking the lead and keeping it throughout the entire game. Virginia never let Michigan State dramatically increase their lead, but they also could never dramatically decrease the lead to give themselves a shot at winning the game.

The clock finally ran out with the Spartans on top, 60-54, sending Michigan State to the Sweet 16. There, they were again the underdog team as they faced off against No. 3 seed Oklahoma and then No. 4 seed Louisville in the Elite 8.

Now, Michigan State has the chance at another huge upset, as they will play against the No. 1 seed Duke Blue Devils for a dream shot at playing in the National Championship.

These great upsets are the epitome of what makes March the best part of the basketball season. Underdogs are always worth cheering for in March since anything is possible when the best of the best compete for one national title.

Tune into TBS Saturday April 4 at 6 p.m. to watch Michigan State take on the Blue Devils and to watch two No. 1 seeds, Wisconsin and Kentucky, go head to head to see who will make it to the coveted championship game. Live coverage of the games and recordings of past games can be viewed here.

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Get Top Stories Delivered Weekly

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format