To put this in proper context: UMBC had to beat a team they had lost to 23 straight times on their home floor just to get to the NCAA Tournament.
Chesapeake Bay Retriever is the state dog of Maryland.Have we discussed Baltimore County having a retriever as a mascot yet?
Context matters though.I still don't think it's as big an upset as Ralph Sampson and Rick Carlisle losing to an NAIA team.
Washington Generals?Zach Lowe on Twitter described it as one of the last frontiers of American sport. I thought that was a good way of describing it; what other well known sporting achievements have been regularly threatened but never achieved?
We've said it a bunch...but things are moving fast.UMBC lost to Albany by 44 points this season. Just sayin’
That was a meaningless holiday tournament game after the team had traveled halfway around the world to play in Japan and then Hawaii. This happening in the tournament makes it bigger.I still don't think it's as big an upset as Ralph Sampson and Rick Carlisle losing to an NAIA team.
They actually have a handful of winsWashington Generals?
Of course.Jay Bilas can't bring himself to praise UMBC.
To be fair, he has a very personal understanding of how overrated ACC teams are.Jay Bilas can't bring himself to praise UMBC.
600 NFL passing yards, team with losing record in normal season making MLB playoffs (almost Texas in 1994, excludes 1981), sub 8 seed winning the Big Dance, rookie QB starting/winning Super Bowl, perfect home regular season record in the NBA?Zach Lowe on Twitter described it as one of the last frontiers of American sport. I thought that was a good way of describing it; what other well known sporting achievements have been regularly threatened but never achieved?
Hmm.They actually have a handful of wins
And lost to twice this year before that by a combined 43 points and needed a controversial overturn to win the one they didTo put this in proper context: UMBC had to beat a team they had lost to 23 straight times on their home floor just to get to the NCAA Tournament.
He's so condescending.Jay Bilas can't bring himself to praise UMBC.
19-0Zach Lowe on Twitter described it as one of the last frontiers of American sport. I thought that was a good way of describing it; what other well known sporting achievements have been regularly threatened but never achieved?
Not lacrosse, chess. They are a national collegiate power house in chess.Pretty good for a lacrosse school.
Getting punished (losing wins and scholarships) by the NCAA for having a guy do a paper for Fab Melo didn't help.Maybe when the league they got themselves in has a lot more attractive options for "student athletes" than Syracuse, New York.
Not a chance - he’s done a great job overall without many stud recruits. He does need to change the offense a bit - it’s prone to March issues, clearlydoes the UVA coach get put on the hot seat at all for this?
Arsene Wenger actually gets fired.Zach Lowe on Twitter described it as one of the last frontiers of American sport. I thought that was a good way of describing it; what other well known sporting achievements have been regularly threatened but never achieved?
How do they have "very little shot at the NBA" when all 3 were 1st round picks with $5m+ of guaranteed money.Getting punished (losing wins and scholarships) by the NCAA for having a guy do a paper for Fab Melo didn't help.
Meanwhile UNC has a 20 year academic scandal so huge that thousands of athletes are involved and it almost costs UNC its accreditation and the NCAA throws up its hands, doing nothing.
Don't get me wrong - SU should have been punished. But...uh.....come on now.
And SU has a great recruiting class coming in next year. And it doesn't help when guys with very little shot at the NBA leave early, like Lydon or Ennis or Richardson. Even if two of those guys stay and SU is a 28-30 win team.
"Conference pride" is the stupidest thing in college sports - I don't root for any of those other schools in bowls or tournaments, and I expect the same back from them, but five in the round of 32 is hardly overrated. Virginia losing reflects badly on Virginia, not the league.To be fair, he has a very personal understanding of how overrated ACC teams are.
Yeah, this is not even close to that. Contextually it's a bigger deal, and it'll certainly be a big fact going forward.I still don't think it's as big an upset as Ralph Sampson and Rick Carlisle losing to an NAIA team.
I’d argue Marvin Lewis is a better example than Wenger.Arsene Wenger actually gets fired.
I meant very little shot at having a successful NBA career.How do they have "very little shot at the NBA" when all 3 were 1st round picks with $5m+ of guaranteed money.
That is a fundamental misunderstanding of what the NAIA is. It is a different athletic organization... not a fundamentally worse one.Yeah, this is not even close to that. Contextually it's a bigger deal, and it'll certainly be a big fact going forward.
But there's a reason that Chaminade is often talked about as the worst loss in sports history—not just NCAA basketball history. That loss is up there with Rulon Gardner.
This was the Patriots losing to the Browns; shocking, but at least they're in the same league, vaguely.
Chaminade wasn't a D-1 team. Or a D-2 team. Or a D-3 team. They were 4 leagues below.
It was like the Patriots losing to not the Browns, not the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL, not the Tampa Bay Storm of the AFL, not the London Monarchs of NFL Europe—but someone like the af2's Richmond Speed, who you'd expect to be regularly crushed by all of the above, and couldn't even make the Arena League as a team. It's actually way worse than that, since the NCAA has more than 100 teams.
UMBC is a really, really bad loss, but Chaminade was a crazy, historically, epically bad loss that I've never seen anything even close to.
That's a little optimistic; it's probably a little worse than D-2.That is a fundamental misunderstanding of what the NAIA is. It is a different athletic organization... not a fundamentally worse one.
Most consider NAIA Div. 1 similar in athletics to NCAA Div 2.
I keep hearing snarks on the ACC being overrated. As compared to which conference? The Big 10 whose last championship was 18 years ago? The Big 12 who are tied with Mountain West with 1 championship in the past 30 years? The Pac 12? (hahaha)To be fair, he has a very personal understanding of how overrated ACC teams are.
To be fair to the NCAA (in this instance only - I don't advocate this in general!) there was nothing they legally could do once UNC shamelessly played the card that the sham courses were used and abused by non-athletes as well as athletes and so was therefore out of their jurisdiction.Getting punished (losing wins and scholarships) by the NCAA for having a guy do a paper for Fab Melo didn't help.
Meanwhile UNC has a 20 year academic scandal so huge that thousands of athletes are involved and it almost costs UNC its accreditation and the NCAA throws up its hands, doing nothing.
Don't get me wrong - SU should have been punished. But...uh.....come on now.
And SU has a great recruiting class coming in next year. And it doesn't help when guys with very little shot at the NBA leave early, like Lydon or Ennis or Richardson. Even if two of those guys stay and SU is a 28-30 win team.
The comment was meant mostly in jest. I apologize for your bruised conference ego.I keep hearing snarks on the ACC being overrated. As compared to which conference? The Big 10 whose last championship was 18 years ago? The Big 12 who are tied with Mountain West with 1 championship in the past 30 years? The Pac 12? (hahaha)
The bolded portion is absurdly false.To be fair to the NCAA (in this instance only - I don't advocate this in general!) there was nothing they legally could do once UNC shamelessly played the card that the sham courses were used and abused by non-athletes as well as athletes and so was therefore out of their jurisdiction.
Just post that you believe the ACC to be the best conference in college basketball in your next 4 or 5 posts and we're good...Having said that, it warms the cockles of my heart to see another titan of the overrated ACC play like shit.
A bad D-1 team isn't that far off from a great D-2 team. A couple things about Chaminade. They were good for a while, ending up 33-2 that year (28-3 the prior year). The beat HI that year. They beat a #12 ranked Louisville a couple of years later.That's a little optimistic; it's probably a little worse than D-2.
But even if you buy that, it's still a worse loss; this was to a bad D-1 team, not a D-2/D-2 minus kind of team.
The 16-1 thing is going to make this memorable, but a) we knew a 16-1 loss was coming eventually; and b) this wasn't the same level of team; that Ralph Sampson team was viewed as an almost unbeatable national championship-calibre team, and that loss was an insane shock.
This feels kind of like Carolina losing to Weber State; a shocker, but within the norms of basketball.
The Sampson/Chaminade loss felt like if 1999 Duke lost to West Bumfuck Community College rather than to UConn.