Maryland-Baltimore County. Sharpie.
The No. 16 UMBC Retrievers took down the No. 1 overall seed Virginia 74-54 Friday night to become the first 16 seed in NCAA Tournament history to beat a No. 1 seed.
No. 1 seeds have beaten No. 16 seeds 135 consecutive times before Friday, but the Retrievers stopped the drought and made their page in the college basketball history books. And it was also the fashion in which UMBC did it, which it made even more of a surprise.
Virginia has the No. 1 overall defense according to Ken Pomeroy's rankings and the Cavaliers, ACC champions, gave up the most points to an opponent all season. Virginia hasn't given up more than 70 points all season long, and it coughed up 74 to the America East Conference champions.
UMBC is familiar team to the Arizona Wildcats. Back in early November, the Wildcats beat UMBC 103-78 at McKale Center in the second game of the season when the UA was ranked No. 3 in the AP Top 25. UMBC guard Jarius Lyles scored 25 points against Arizona, and he certainly carried the ship against Virginia with 28 points, the only player on his team to score more than 20 points.
Against the Wildcats, UMBC shot 50 percent from 3-point range, knocking down 14 of them. Here is Sean Miller after the game:
Arizona head coach Sean Miller on UMBC after the Wildcats beat the Retrievers by 25 in the second game of the season: pic.twitter.com/V7qcjTL7PU
— Justin Spears (@JustinESports) March 17, 2018
“They spread us out,” guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright said in November. “Their bigs are like guards. They can make shots and put it on the floor and No. 10 (Lyles) led the charge. He was terrific all night.”
Against Virginia, the Retrievers also hit 50 percent of their 3-pointers and clobbered the Cavaliers to advance to the Round of 32 and will now face No. 9 Kansas State in the South Region. If UMBC gets by Kansas State, it will play the winner of No. 13 Buffalo, the team that knocked out Arizona in the first round, and No. 5 Kentucky.
March. Madness.
