will a 16 ever upset a 1 seed?

[J.O.]

in the tourney?

 

[Kutzy]

To say it will never happen would be ignorant imo. However, I do not see it happening.

 

[imac220]

Nope.

 

[Guest]

nope it will never happen but a 15 upset a 2 one time

 

[KandKCards]

nope it will never happen but a 15 upset a 2 one time

It's happened multiple times, not just once.

 

[ee10]

Morehead State over the 'ville Friday night!

 

[J.O.]

nope it will never happen but a 15 upset a 2 one time

the spiders of Richmond were the first to do it against 'Cuse

 

[justinmandawg]

nope it will never happen but a 15 upset a 2 one time

4 times

 

[jdhaugh11]

Pitt is tied with E. Tenn St in the 2nd half, but will probably pull it out. This is probably one of the closest 1/16 seed games ever.

 

[KandKCards]

Pitt is tied with E. Tenn St in the 2nd half, but will probably pull it out. This is probably one of the closest 1/16 seed games ever.

Yep. Nova did trail Monmouth with 10 minutes to go in 06 but won by around 20.

 

[mredsox89]

It will happen eventually, but eventually could be a long time. The more time that passes, the more evenly the "wealth" of talent will be spread. There have been a bunch of close games with the 1 vs. 16 so i feel it will happen

 

[ostrander111]

No never.... i dont even think theyll ever come within 10 pts

 

[msink28]

I think it will happen within our lifetimes. It's already happened in the women's tournament, and there's arguably more of a differential between the 1/16 matchup in the women's game than in the men's game.

Here are some close games...

1989: (1) Georgetown 50, (16) Princeton 49, (1) Oklahoma 72, (16) ETSU 71, (1) Illinois 77, (16) McNeese State 71

1996: (1) Purdue 73, (16) Western Carolina 71

And, more recently, UCONN (vs. Albany), Villanova (vs. Monmouth), North Carolina (vs. Fairfield), and Pitt (vs. ETSU) were all down in the second half. Kansas/Holy Cross was competitive a few years back. I watched Pitt/ETSU and ETSU had a decent chance at that game.

I agree that it's really unlikely, and a 16 will only be competitive once every few years. But you have to factor in a few things here: one, the worst #1 seed could have probably been seeded #2, and #2 seeds have lost. The best #16 seed could have been a #15. Another is that some teams don't blow other teams out as by their style of play. Think about Wisconsin here. If a team's style is for every game to be low-scoring, that helps a 16 seed.