March Madness is typically where college basketball has its plethora of upsets, with lower seeds outplaying the high seeds and causing absolute chaos within the average joe’s bracket. December might not be able to ever live up to March, but it has tried its hardest to cause chaos to some big time programs. There have been many early season upsets, but we will just look at just a few of the more shocking ones that have occurred so far. Most of these teams doing the upsetting are schools that you probably have never even heard of.
‘Tis the Season for Basketball Upsets
One of the first upsets in December was Yale defeating Connecticut 45-44 on a buzzer beating three pointer by Jack Montague. That was the only points he would score in that game. It was a defensive battle, with Yale shooting 33% from the field and Connecticut shooting 44% from the field. Even worse, both teams shot under 20% from the three point line. The last time Connecticut lost to Yale was in 1986, and they became the second defending National Champions to lose to an Ivy League school the next year (UCLA 1996).
The very next day, South Carolina Upstate beat Georgia Tech 59-54. Opposite of Yale-UCONN, Upstate would have had a tough time winning if it wasn’t for their three point shooting. Although they only shot 30% from the field, they buried ten three pointers. That was the most given up by Georgia Tech this year. Georgia Tech did not help itself by shooting 37% from the field and 14% from the three point line.
Now for the Michigan crisis. Against NJIT, a 70-72 loss, Michigan didn’t shoot the ball all that poorly. Shooting 42% from the field and 46% from three should get the job done on most nights, but Michigan decided to not play defense. NJIT (New Jersey Institute of Technology, incase you were wondering) shot an amazing 59% from the floor and 65% from three. The loss was so heartbreaking that ESPN’s Dick Vitale ranked it as the 2nd biggest upset in college basketball history.
Three days later, Michigan would lose to Eastern Michigan 42-45, in a game that was completely different from the NJIT loss. Against Eastern, Michigan shot only 33% from the field and 19% from three, and really struggled against the Eagles’ zone. It was Michigan’s second straight upset, and both of them were in Ann Arbor.
Now here’s the team you probably never heard of before this season: Incarnate Word. The small school from Texas is barely a Division I school, but that didn’t matter on December 10th. Nebraska was up by double digits throughout the second half, but they collapsed in the final few minutes including an inerrant turnover by Terran Petteway. Both teams shot over 40% for the game, but it was Incarnate Word’s 58% shooting in the 2nd half that would lead them to their upset win.
The latest shocker was last night, when Texas Southern beat Michigan State 71-64 in overtime. The Spartans have been shooting the three really well this year (42%), but they shot just 19% on Saturday. Despite that, their defense was downright bad. They gave up 71 points to a team that was beat by 19 to Indiana, by 12 to Tennessee, by 26 to Baylor, by 25 to Florida, and by 40 to Gonzaga. It was a historic loss by Michigan State, one that Coach Tom Izzo blamed himself for.
There is one trend that can be depicted out of these couple of December upsets: The team doing the upsetting is either playing tremendous defense, or is shooting the lights out. Anyone can truly beat anyone, especially if one or both of those factors are in play. We know the holiday season can be tough, and it can be tougher for kids of top-notch programs to stay focused when playing a lesser team. That has proven true this year more than ever.
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