We’ve had our fair share of Cinderella stories in recent years, including a 15-seed in the Elite Eight, another in the Sweet Sixteen, and even the second-ever #16 team to win in the first round- and that only covers the small schools from Northern New Jersey. But no matter what your bracket looks like, supporting your alma mater has never been easier.
Some might argue that N.C. State is not a traditional Cinerella team, as they play in the ACC, but their story is pretty incredible no matter who you ask. After losing four straight games to close their season, they went on to shockingly win the ACC tournament, beating Duke, Virginia, and North Carolina in the process. Now they are the sixth 11-seed in the hisotry of the tournamet to make the Final 4. In light of their unexpected run, let’s take a look at the best Cinderella runs of all time.
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5. #16 UMBC (2018)
We’ll start off with a team that didn’t make it as far as the other teams on this list. In fact, they only won a single game. But the Retrievers will never be forgotten, as they were the first-ever #16 seed to beat a #1 seed. Incredibly, the Virginia team they beat was the top-seeded team in the entire tournament, the National #1 seed.
Entering the 2018 tournament, 1-seeds were a perfect 132-0 against 16-seeds, but that was about to end. In just their second-ever tournament appearance, the Retrievers secured their first win, and they did it in emphatic fashion by a score of 74-54, as they completely clamped down the Cavaliers.
It was a memorable day, punctuated by frantic posting from the UMBC social media team, and the sting of such an embarrassing loss even fueled Virginia to their first-ever National Title just a year later. But most importantly, it proved that in March, anything is possible, and that there are absolutely no sharpie-level locks.
4. #11 VCU (2011)
It was just the second year at the helm of the program for rising star coach Shaka Smart, who would go on to coach Texas and Marquette after using this campaign as a springboard for a big career. His Rams weren’t even given a straight bid to the field of 64- they were placed in the first four after finishing up with a 23-11 record and failing to even win the CAA regular season or tournament title.
However, none of that mattered. They cruised through that first four matchup with USC, before dispatching 6-seed Georgetown in the first round of the tournament proper. We’ve seen plenty of 11-6 upsets before, but the next stage is when the magic started happening. VCU’s next opponent was 3-seed Purdue, who they also absolutely demolished by a score of 94-76. By this point, the nation realized that the Rams were for real, and their Sweet Sixteen opponents, a fellow low-seed in #10 Florida State, surely took note- they fought hard with VCU and even made it to overtime.
But, the Rams would survive long enough for one more upset, as they took down top-seeded Kansas, the #2 team in the country, to become the first-ever team to make it from the Men’s First Four to the Final Four. There, they lost to another iconic underdog, Brad Stevens’s Butler Bulldogs, but their exploits will not soon be forgotten by college hoops aficionados.
3. #11 Loyola Chicago (2018)
Yes, it’s another 2018 run, as that year produced one of the greatest tournaments of all time. In many ways, the Loyola Chicago Ramblers embodied everything great about March Madness. They were a small-conference school whose run was fueled by solid coaching, veteran on-court leadership, plenty of shooting, high-effort defense, a high-profile fan, and of course, seemingly countless buzzer beaters.
The Ramblers spent the first three rounds playing against teams that were not only seeded higher than they were, but ranked in the AP Poll, but it’s hard to say they dominated- their wins over 6-seed Miami, 3-seed Tennessee, and 7-seed Nevada were all punctuated by buzzer-beating shots, a remarkable and dramatic way to start the tournament. All of a sudden, by the skin of their teeth, the Ramblers and Sister Jean, the now-104-year-old nun and Ramblers super-fan who still serves as the team chaplain for the Catholic school, were in the Elite Eight.
In their regional final, the Ramblers finally allowed fans to exhale just a bit, and won by 16 points against 9-seed Kansas State, who had actually taken down none other than #16 UMBC. After Loyola cut down the nets in Atlanta, their time was unfortunately up- they were dispatched by national #7 and 3-seed Michigan. Still, unlike that Wolverines team which got blown out in the National Championship Game by Villanova, Loyola had already won the hearts of the nation and earned a place in March lore forever.
2. #15 St. Peters (2022)
In an objective sense, this is probably the most improbable run in the history of the NCAA Tournament. The Peacocks came in with a 19-11 record, and only just scraped through the MAAC Tournament to reach March Madness for the fourth time in school history. They’d never won a game in the big dance before, but their streak of futility would end in magnificent fashion.
Before the tournament started, the Peacocks weren’t top-100 in KenPom’s rankings or many other meaningful metrics, nor were they close to cracking that threshold. But none of that mattered when they took the floor against the #2-seed Kentucky Wildcats, as they fought to a deadlock after 40 minutes of play. Improbably enough, St. Peters pulled away in overtime to move on to the next round. There, they faced a somewhat less-improbable task of defeating 7-seed Murray State, which they did, joining Florida Gulf Coast in 2013 and Oral Roberts just a year earlier as (then) the only 15-seeds to reach the Sweet Sixteen.
DraftKings Sweet 16 betting odds: (2) Iowa State vs. (3) Illinois: (2) Iowa State -2 (-110)
As is so often the case, a game against Purdue was the catalyst for this run to go from fun to outrageous and historic. This was one of the tightest games of the tournament; the teams were never separated by more than the 6 points by which Purdue led just before halftime. However, by the end, St. Peters surged ahead, and was able to stave off the Boilermakers, as a would-be game-tying Jaden Ivey three-pointer missed to end regulation and send the Peacocks into both the Elite Eight and the history books. Next, they’d lose in uncompetitive fashion to North Carolina, but it hardly mattered- they had already had their one shining moment, and will certainly never be forgotten.
1. #8 Villanova (1985)
Yes, #8 is a bit higher of a seed than we’ll usually see from a true “Cinderella,” but the Wildcats also got a good bit farther. In fact, they won it all, capped off by a highly memorable upset win in the National Championship against heavily-favored Georgetown, led by eventual New York Knicks star Patrick Ewing. Four eight-seeds have made it as far as a National Championship Game- only the Wildcats have gotten the job done.
They started out with a nondescript first-round win over #9 Dayton by just two points, but things began getting crazy quickly after that. They took down top-seeded Michigan, the #2 team in the country and a squad that rostered seven eventual NBA draft picks. That was a four-point margin of victory for Villanova, and they cut it even closer the next round against Maryland with an absolute grind of a 46-43 victory to advance to the regional final.
It could be said that the Elite Eight is where amusing, nice runs turn into serious title bids; that was certainly the case for Villanova, who finally won by more than just a couple of possessions with another epic defensive performance as they knocked off #2 seed North Carolina by a score of 56-44. The Final Four featured another clean win over a #2 seed as the ‘Cats cruised past Memphis State in a 52-45 game, before they reached that Hoyas juggernaut, the prohibitive favorites to win it all.
The showing against Georgetown has been referred to as “The Perfect Game” as Villanova broke several records by shooting an outrageous 22 for 28 from the field, including 9 for 10 in the second half. It was barely enough to beat an incredible Georgetown team that had lost two games all year, in consecutive fashion, before winning 11 consecutive contests before the NCAA Tournament. Villanova won 66-64, claiming their first-ever National Championship and capping off the ultimate March Madness Cinderella story.
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