It's time for basketball fans to start tearing up their March Madness brackets. The biggest upset in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament history has just been embarked upon us, and by a team that not many people even knew about. On March 16, the Retrievers from University of Maryland-Baltimore County became the first No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 seed in the history of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. But this is not your typical upset. This year marked the 136th time that a No. 16 has played a No. 1. However, out of all of those games, this game marked the very first time that a No. 16 beat not just any No. 1, but the best No. 1 of all four regions. The Virginia Cavaliers had easily earned their spot in the brackets with 31 wins and two losses. They were projected to be the best team in college basketball and the favorite to win this tournament.
So, yes. There are no more perfect brackets. Before the game, there were only 25 perfect brackets left, and only 2.18 percent picked the Retrievers to pull off the upset.
After the game, basketball fans across the nation hung their hands over their heads in disbelief, wondering how in the world something like this happened. Well here’s how: The Retrievers did it. And it wasn’t even close.
The Cavs did not look put together from the start. Both offensive and defensive ends couldn’t seem to break away from the close-scoring game in the first half. The first half ended with a 21-21 tie. And by the time the second half started, the Retrievers took advantage. UMBC splashed three-pointer after three-pointer, outscoring Virginia 53-33 in the second half, which is something that Virginia had not allowed since 2013. UMBC overall held a high 54 scoring percentile for the game with lead-scorer, Jairus Lyles, completing nine of his 11 field goal attempts and scoring a game-high of 28 points. Overall, the Retrievers outworked and outplayed Virginia. They earned this win. They deserved to make history.
Virginia now will have to sit in the discomforting and unfamiliar environment of embarrassment and loss. However, for a school that had proudly worn and adorned its name as a No. 1 team - no coach seemed to handle this kind of loss better than Tony Bennett. "If you play this game and you step into the arena, this stuff can happen," Bennett said. "And those who haven't been in the arena or in the competition, maybe they don't understand that. But there's chances for wonderful things to happen, but when you're in the arena, stuff like this can happen and all those who compete take that on. And so, we'll accept it."
On the other hand, the Retrievers encompass the perfect underdog victory, which is especially fitting when you consider their team name. Previously, UMBC’s program sunk to rock bottom and was labelled as the worst of Division I, winning only four games total three seasons ago. They weren’t even supposed to make it into this year’s tournament to begin with. Before the tournament, they held a 23-game losing streak against its league rival, Vermont. Yet somehow, in the America East championship game (which decided who’d get into the tournament), the Retrievers barely managed to win by pulling off a miracle a buzzer-beater at Vermont and made it into the tournament.
No matter what else happens in this tournament, this game’s outcome characterizes this year's tournament. It doesn’t matter who makes the Final Four or which team wins the championship. March Madness 2018 is defined by the game where a No. 16 finally beat a No. 1. It is the year UMBC beat Virginia. It was not by luck. It was by sheer dominance. UMBC was the better team during the game. They outscored Virginia by 20 points which is the largest margin of victory ever for any team with that low of a seed. This dead-beat program turned college basketball upside down. For one nig ht, UMBC looked like the best team in college basketball.