March Madness is back in full swing as many top seeds have been dropped before the end of the weekend. With all the upsets, as of March 23, no perfect brackets remain. Let’s look at the three biggest upsets so far in the tournament.
No. 14 Oakland beat No. 3 Kentucky
The biggest upset of the tournament so far has to be the Oakland Golden Grizzlies taking down the three-seed Kentucky Wildcats. An incredible performance from guard Jack Gohlke carried Oakland to an 80-76 victory.
Gohlke made ten three-pointers for a career-high 32 points in the biggest game of his life thus far. A shot location chart of Gohlke’s shot attempts this year went viral after the big upset and for good reason. Of the 355 shots attempted in the 2023-24 season, 347 of those shots came from beyond the arc – one of the craziest stats in recent college basketball history.
Gohlke became just the tenth player in the tournament’s history to make 10 three-pointers in a single game, just one less than the record holder Jeff Fryer, who did it in 1990.
This makes for another heartbreaking defeat for Kentucky as last year they also did not make it past the weekend in the tournament.
Oakland went on to lose to NC State in the second round, 79-73. Though Gohlke had another great performance scoring 22 points, it was not enough.
No. 11 NC State upset No. 6 Texas Tech
Speaking of NC State, they also pulled off a first-round upset against Texas Tech beating them in convincing fashion 80-67. It was NC State’s first win in nine years at the tournament.
It was a team effort that got them over the top as four players on the squad – DJ Horne, Mohamed Diarra, DJ Burns Jr. and Ben Middlebrooks – all scored over 16 points with Middlebrooks leading the way with 21 and Diarra scoring a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds.
DJ Burns and Diarra carried the momentum into the next game against Oakland as they both scored double-doubles. As mentioned earlier, NC State beat Oakland 79-72 to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2015.
They will play No. 2 ranked Marquette and look to continue their Cinderella story on March 29.
No. 11 Duquesne Dukes sneak past No. 6 BYU
Duquesne won their first game in 55 years in the first round, upsetting BYU in a gritty 71-67 game. The Dukes showed that they wanted it more, displaying superior athleticism and outsmarting BYU with their ball movement.
Duquesne took away BYU’s strength, three-point shots holding them to just 33.3 per cent. The Dukes’ leading scorer Dae Dae Grant managed 19 points and had a clutch free throw to seal the game.
Unfortunately for Duquesne, they were bounced from the tournament just a couple of days later as they were matched up against the No. 3 seed, the Illinois Fighting Illini.
They did not stand a chance as they lost by 26, 89-63. Despite the second-round bounce, Duquesne’s tournament was a success and one that will be remembered for years to come.
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