(CNN) Solely the primary spherical has concluded, and already March Insanity has delivered some main upsets.
Up to now, No.1 seed Purdue College, No.2 seed Arizona Wildcats and No.4 seed Virginia Cavaliers have been unceremoniously dumped out of the event, succumbing to 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson, No.15 seed Princeton Tigers and Thirteenth-seeded Furman Paladins respectively.
Fairleigh Dickinson’s 63-58 victory over Purdue was simply the second time in NCAA males’s event historical past {that a} No.16 seed defeated a No.1 seed, and its gamers flooded the courtroom afterwards in celebration.
“We simply place confidence in what we do and our guys are so robust and aggressive,” FDU’s head coach Tobin Anderson informed the TNT broadcast.
“I like our guys. They’re robust. They’re nice. They performed their tails off. That is an unbelievable win. It is unbelievable. We shocked the world.”
Solely 2.36% of accomplished Males’s Bracket Problem Recreation entries predicted an FDU win over Purdue, the second-lowest share out of each workforce within the subject, in keeping with the NCAA.
The surprising win additionally signifies that the final hopes of anybody finishing the virtually unimaginable process of predicting an ideal bracket has been eradicated altogether, the NCAA famous.
Any hopes of finishing an ideal bracket had already been dented on Thursday following Princeton’s 59-55 unbelievable win over Arizona and the Paladins’ beautiful 68-67 victory in opposition to Virginia.
Princeton defeated Arizona to advance to the second spherical.
Princeton’s victory alone left solely 0.065% of males’s brackets remaining intact, out of the thousands and thousands of brackets accomplished, in keeping with NCAA March Madness Twitter.
“One yr in spite of everything brackets busted on Recreation No. 28, nobody remained excellent after the twenty fifth sport of the event,” mentioned the NCAA.
For a lot of the primary half, the end result had wavered on a knife’s edge earlier than a fast begin to the second half put Arizona in management.
However, trailing by 10 factors with eight minutes remaining, the Tigers clawed their approach again into the sport and accomplished a well-known victory.
The Paladins additionally snatched their unlikely win after finishing a comeback, overcoming a 12-point deficit at one stage, to topple Virginia.
“You recognize, this sport is — fascinating could be the phrase I might use,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett mentioned afterwards, reflecting on his workforce’s defeat.
“You are feeling like, we obtained it, we obtained it, after which hastily in a second’s discover, it modifications on the finish.”