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20 most shocking NCAA Tournament upsets that put the ‘madness’ in March

By Mike Phillips

CHARLOTTE, NC - MARCH 16: K.J. Maura #11 and Jairus Lyles #10 of the UMBC Retrievers talk during the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament against the Virginia Cavaliers at the Spectrum Center on March 16, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Retrievers won 74-54. Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** K.J. Macura;Jairus Lyles
CHARLOTTE, NC - MARCH 16: K.J. Maura #11 and Jairus Lyles #10 of the UMBC Retrievers talk during the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament against the Virginia Cavaliers at the Spectrum Center on March 16, 2018 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Retrievers won 74-54. Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** K.J. Macura;Jairus Lyles /
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16. No. 14 Cleveland State over No. 3 Indiana – 1986

  • Cleveland State wins 83-79

In terms of significance, seeing how Cleveland State topped Indiana feels very similar to the Bucknell-Kansas upset we just talked about a few slides ago. This matchup came back in 1986 when Indiana was a dominant team led by legendary head coach Bob Knight.

The Hoosiers had already won a pair of national championships under Knight and featured a tremendous core headlined by Steve Alford, Darryl Thomas and Ricky Callaway. Indiana had gone 21-7 in the regular season and was widely expected to top Cleveland State, a program making its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance.

What happened in Syracuse in the first round was truly unexpected as the Vikings squeaking out a four-point victory over the Hoosiers in overtime. Indiana simply had no answer for the speed of Cleveland State, which utilized its quickness to get to the basket at will.

The Vikings shot 58.9 percent from the floor in that game, and all of those easy buckets contributed to a truly shocking upset. That wouldn’t be all we heard from Cleveland State in that tournament either, with the Vikings knocking off St. Joe’s to advance to the Sweet 16 where they fell by just one to Navy to narrowly miss an Elite Eight trip.

It wasn’t all bad for Indiana either with the core of this squad coming back to help Knight win a national championship the following year.

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