San Diego State has pulled off a massive March Madness upset. Is this the greatest NCAA Tournament run in the history of the Aztecs?
The Sweet 16 has seen some more big dogs go down in March Madness. The latest upset came courtesy of San Diego State, which knocked out No. 1 overall seed Alabama 71-64 in a slugfest that sent the NCAA Tournament into absolute shock.
The physicality of the Aztecs was too much for the Crimson Tide, who shot just 3-of-27 from beyond the arc and hit just 32.4 percent of their field goal attempts. The win was a massive statement for the Mountain West as well, which sent its first-ever program to the Elite Eight as a result of the Aztecs’ victory.
How far has San Diego State gone in the NCAA Tournament all-time?
This March Madness run has been the greatest in program history for San Diego State, which hadn’t advanced beyond the Sweet 16 in its 14 previous trips to the dance. The Aztecs had reached the Sweet 16 six times prior to this year, including four times in a five-year span from 2011-2015, but each of those trips had ended in a loss.
To be fair to San Diego State, their NCAA Tournament history does have a bit of an asterisk since the 2019-20 edition of the Aztecs finished the season with a 30-2 record and well on pace to land a 1-seed in March Madness. That edition of the tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, leaving the question of how well the Aztecs would have done in March that year as an unsolved mystery.
This year’s edition of San Diego State now has an excellent chance to further shatter its own glass ceiling by reaching the Final Four for the first time. The Aztecs will be in action on Sunday as they take on the winner of the Princeton-Creighton matchup for a ticket to Houston.