Friday, April 23, 2010

Basketball Upset

UPSETTING TOURNAMENT
In the 2010 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, nothing ever goes perfectly. During the 2010 Tournament, however, there was a particularly high number of upsets. In the finals, the Duke Blue Devils beat the Butler Bulldogs, 61-59. It was a very close game, considering Duke was a 1st seed, and Butler was a 5th seed. In the Sweet 16, Butler had surprised the nation by proving themselves victorious against the 1st seed, Syracuse, and later by beating the 2nd seed, Kansas State. This was one of many upsets: here are some more surprising ones.

First Round, Large Upsets.
14th seed Ohio beats 3rd seed Georgetown, 97-83. 13th seed Murray State beats 4th seed Vanderbilt, 66-65. 12th seed Cornell beats 5th seed Temple, 78-65. 11th seed Washington beats 6th seed Marquette, 80-78. 11th seed Old Dominion beats 6th seed Notre Dame, 51-50.

Small Upsets.
9th seed Northern Iowa beats 8th seed UNLV, 69-66. 10th seed Georgia Tech beats 7th seed Oklahoma State, 64-59. 9th seed Wake Forest beats 8th seed Texas, 81-80. 10th seed Missouri beats 7th seed Clemson, 86-78. 10th seed St. Mary's beats 7th seed Richmond, 80-71.

Second Round, Large Upsets. Probably the biggest upsets in the tournament.
Northern Iowa beats 1st seed Kansas, 69-67. 6th seed Xavier beats 3rd seed Pittsburgh, 71-68. Cornell beats 4th seed Wisconsin, 87-69. Washington beats 3rd seed New Mexico, 82-64. St. Mary's beats 2nd seed Villanova, 75-68.

Small Upsets.
5th seed Michigan State beats 4th seed Maryland, 85-83.

Sweet Sixteen, Large Upsets.
6th seed Tennessee beats 2nd seed Ohio State, 76-73. 5th seed Butler beats 1st seed Syracuse, 63-59.

Elite Eight Upsets.
5th seed Butler beats 2nd seed Kansas State, 63-56. 2nd seed West Virginia beats 1st seed Kentucky, 73-66.

All in all, the bracket was very surprising this year. From the 11th and 12th seeds, Washington and Cornell, making it to the Sweet Sixteen, to the overall favorite, Kansas (40% of brackets had Kansas winning!), being wiped out after winning only two games, nobody expected it to be this chaotic. Next year, word is that there will be 96 teams in the tournament! Who knows how how many upsets there will be then?

By: Matty