| 2018 NCAA tournament South Regional First Round |
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| Spectrum Center, site of the game |
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UMBC Retrievers Virginia Cavaliers (24–10) (31–2) 74 54 Head coach: Ryan Odom Head coach: Tony Bennett AP : NR Coaches : NR AP : 1 Coaches : 1table>
1 2 Total UMBC 21 53 74 Virginia 21 33 54table> Date March 16, 2018 Arena Spectrum Center Location Charlotte, North Carolina Favorite Virginia by 20.5 Referee(s) Tim Nestor, Tony Greene, and Todd Austin Attendance 17,943 United States TV coverage Network TNT Announcers Jim Nantz, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill and Tracy Wolfson Nielsen Ratings 2.0 (national) U.S. viewership: 3.533 million
On March 16, 2018, during the opening round of the 2018 NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, the University of Virginia (Virginia; also UVA) Cavaliers and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) Retrievers played a college basketball game at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
- The Retrievers faced the Cavaliers, who were seeded 16th in the South regional bracket and first overall in the NCAA Tournament.
- Virginia and UMBC competed for the opportunity to face the ninth-seeded Kansas State Wildcats, who had already defeated Creighton earlier in the day.
- The Retrievers defeated the Cavaliers 74–54, becoming the first No.16 seed in NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament history to defeat a No.1 seed.
It was only the second time in the history of college basketball, after No.16 Harvard defeated No.1 Stanford in the women’s tournament 20 years ago. Additionally, UMBC won its first NCAA Tournament game in school history. Virginia entered the game as a 20.5-point favorite, making UMBC’s victory the second-largest upset in NCAA Tournament history in terms of point spread, trailing only Norfolk State’s defeat of Missouri in 2012, when Missouri was a 21.5-point favorite.
Has a No.1 seed ever been defeated by a No.16?
An upset is when the underdog team wins. In the context of the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, a single-elimination tournament, this generally refers to a lower-seeded (i.e., lower-ranked) team defeating a higher-seeded (i.e., higher-ranked) team; an upset is a victory by a team ranked substantially lower than its opponent.
This is the list of victories by teams seeded 10 or lower in the first and second rounds of the tournament, as well as those by teams seeded 8 or 9 against 1 seeds in the second round, since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. The majority of these teams’ victories in later rounds occurred against opponents with higher seeding.
The list also includes victories by teams seeded no higher than eight in the Sweet 16, no higher than seven in the Elite Eight, and no higher than six in the Final Four. All teams are listed by the athletic brand names they used at the time of their victories, which do not always correspond to those currently in use.
A “tournament upset” is defined by the NCAA as a victory by a team seeded five or more lines below its defeated opponent. The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) Retrievers defeated the Virginia Cavaliers 74–54 in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Tournament on March 16, becoming the first 16-seed to defeat a 1-seed.
The year 2020 will not appear on this list due to the total cancellation of the tournament due to the COVID–19 pandemic.
Have all four of the No.1 seeds reached the Final Four?
However, anticipate at least some unexpected events – Despite the success of No.1 seeds in the Final Four and championship game, there has been only one Final Four in which all four top seeds from the field qualified: 2008, when Kansas, Memphis, North Carolina, and UCLA all participated.
How often has a No.16 seed defeated a No.1 seed in March Madness?
How often do No.16 seeds in the NCAA Tournament defeat No.1 seeds? It is the greatest of all upsets, and it has only occurred once. University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s 2018 first-round victory over No.1 Virginia as a No.16 seed was one of the most shocking upsets in NCAA Tournament history.
