Ranking the eight No. 15 vs No. 2 upsets in March Madness history

6. Richmond: 73, Syracuse: 69 (1991)

The one that started them all, the No. 15 seeds were winless in March Madness going into the 1991 NCAA Tournament—a feeling No. 16 seeds can still relate to after the First Round of the 2016 tournament still has no upsets at the top of the regions. However, the Richmond Spiders made history in the 1991 tournament when they took on the mighty Syracuse Orangemen led by Jim Boeheim and were able to start a trend.

Not to slight a great coach and great program, but the Syracuse zone defense has been shown to be susceptible to being the Orangemen’s Achilles heel when it comes to March Madness. Back in 1991, though, it was still seemingly just a cheat code for Syracuse on the defensive end of the floor as teams didn’t know how to attack it. That is, they didn’t know how to attack it quite well until the Richmond Spiders went up against it and laid out the blueprint.

Using patient offense, outside shooting, and aggressive, frenetic crashing of the boards to create second chances, the overmatched Richmond team was able to cause the Syracuse zone major problems, despite the best efforts of Billy Owens for the Orangemen. Perhaps the more recent history of the Syracuse zone hurts this upset a bit, but you still have to give a little bit of love to the one that was the first of its kind.

Next: No. 5 Coppin State over South Carolina