With each year of March Madness comes a new year of surprises. Cinderella teams making it farther than even the most optimistic expectations and top teams not being able to take it on the highest stage, ducking out early are just some of the few possible surprises. Last year it was Middle Tennessee pulling the unthinkable upset over number one seeded Michigan State, the year before that it was number seven seed Michigan State making it all the way out of the east. College basketball's premier tournament is known as March "madness" for a reason. Here are some of the upsets that have played out this year.
1. Villanova bows out in the round of 32
In possibly the biggest shocker so far, the reigning champions and number one seeded Villanova lost to Wisconsin in the round of 32. After dominating in their first game against 16th seed Mt. St. Mary's, Villanova came into Saturday's game looking to steamroll another opponent, but Wisconsin had other plans. The Badgers were up by three to end the first half before nova surged back to put them up by three with less than four minutes left. Wisconsin tied it up before hitting the game-winner and ensuing free throw to knock out the defending champions and head to the sweet sixteen four the fourth straight year. Villanova's loss likely busted many brackets with some experts even predicting them to win the title again.
2. Vanderbilt tossing the game against Northwestern
This just had to be on here, not because of the winner, but because of how the game was won. With the game tied at 66 and under ten seconds to go, nine seeded Vanderbilt and eight seeded Northwestern looked just about ready to go into overtime until a Vanderbilt player intentionally fouled Northwestern, giving them the two free throws to win the game. The foul wasn't even on accident, Vanderbilt literally gave Northwestern the game. It was quite a turn of events, surprising and shocking everyone that had tuned in to watch the game.
3. Middle Tennessee does it again
They did it last year as the sixteen seed against the number one seed Michigan state and this year, they've done it again as the twelve seed against the number five seed Minnesota whom some experts had pegged as a sleeper team for the tournament. In stunning fashion they defeated Minnesota in the round of 64 by a whole nine points and now look to face the four seed Butler who are coming off a dominant win over the thirteenth seed Winthrop.
4. FSU's stunning defeat
Eleven seeded Xavier was already a sleeper team coming into the tournament, so when they pulled off the upset on Maryland, not too many people were surprised. They went into the round of 32 thinking, it can only get better, and low and behold, they come in to face the three seeded FSU team that had looked good all season. Not on Sunday though, FSU was steamrolled 91-66 by an Xavier team hungry for wins. In making it the sweet sixteen, they've already exceeded expectations. Who knows whats more to come.
