Top 5 15 vs 2 Seed Upsets in March Madness

15-vs-2-upset-march-madness

March Madness is an incredible time of the year. Small schools get a big shot at making a name for themselves, big name teams such as Duke and Kentucky get a change to add to their schools proud tradition, and not a single expert can predict the finish to the tournament. The tournament is always filled with amazing games and astonishing upsets and this year has been no different (shout out to Georgia State who had us going bonkers). Since a no. 16 seed has never defeated a no. 1 seed I thought it was best to rank the top five 15 vs 2 seed upsets in March Madness history.

5. Santa Clara def Arizona (1993)

Santa Clara was only the second team to shock the world in the NCAA tournament and they did so in incredible fashion. They held the Wildcats to zero field goals for nearly fifteen minutes. Fun Fact: Steve Nash choked in the game by missing two free throws with 7.3 seconds left with a score of 64-61. He is the NBA’s all time free throw percentage leader at 90.43%.

4. Norfolk State def Missouri (2012)

A no name school out of Virginia came out to shock the world. The best part about this story is that a player from Norfolk State was screaming, “We messed up brackets, we messed up brackets!” Just shoving it in the face of every Mizzou player and fan in the place. Because who wouldn’t be cocky in that situation?

3. Coppin State def South Carolina (1997)

Coppin State is a school out of Baltimore Maryland and at the time South Carolina were some of the strongest hustlers. The Gamecocks were 30 point favorites for the game and Coppin State came to play as they out hustled South Carolina 78-65. At the time, this was only the third time a 15 seed defeated a 2 seed.

2. Florida Gulf Coast University def Georgetown (2013)

It all went down in 2013. A school no one heard of and was so new it just gained tournament eligibly in 2012. Bracket buster is an understatement of what this team did. And the worst part about it? After they were eliminated from the tournament they got to return to beautiful weather in Florida to I’m sure a swarm of women ready to hear their Cinderella story.

1. Richmond def Syracuse (1991)

Richmond is the OG of number 15 seed upsets. With a ton of blowout games going on in the country, CBS tuned into the game to broadcast the magic live. Nearly 25 million people saw Richmond defeat Syracuse in one of the greatest upsets in NCAA Tournament history.