At tonight’s NCAA West Regional in Salt Lake City, Utah, Cinderella nearly got her foot in that slipper.
Southern, a 16-seed that managed to nab a spot in the tournament by winning their Southwestern Athletic Conference championship, tied 1-seed Gonzaga with less than four minutes to go. But Gary Bell Jr. and Kevin Pangos combined to deliver the three-pointers the favorites needed to win.
It would have been the first time since 1986, when the NCAA expanded the tournament to 64 teams, that a 16-seed defeated a 1-seed.
H/T Alberto Pardo
Later in the night the biggest upset of the tournament so far happened: 14th seed Harvard knocked off 3rd seed New Mexico. If I had remembered that New Mexico hadn't made the round of 16 since 1974, I wouldn't have picked them to win two games.
Also, the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1986, not 1996.
Thank you. Corrected.
For further background: in the just over 100 games that have matched a 1 seed against a 16 seed, two games came down to the last possession (most famously Princeton vs Georgetown, where Princeton led for 39 minutes), and one went to overtime.