BOISE, Idaho — This Day In Sports…November 12, 2019, five years ago today:
One of college basketball’s biggest upsets, as the Evansville Purple Aces go into Rupp Arena and take down Kentucky, the No. 1 team in the country, 67-64. The Wildcats had been 39-0 at home against unranked, nonconference opponents when ranked No. 1 in the AP poll. It was the Purple Aces’ first-ever road win over a ranked team. Evansville’s experience bettered Kentucky’s typically talented but inexperienced youth. The Aces’ Sam Cunliffe, who scored 17 points, calmly drained two free throws with 6.8 seconds left to silence the crowd of 19,101. Evansville coach Walter McCarty, who won a national title with Kentucky in 1996, soaked in every second of the celebration.
Exactly two weeks later, it happened again. Stephen F. Austin went to Cameron Indoor Stadium and shocked Duke, the new No. 1, 85-83 in overtime. The Blue Devils had won 150 consecutive home games against nonconference foes, a streak dating back almost 20 years, and the Lumberjacks came into the game at No. 262 in the KenPom computer rankings. But Stephen F. Austin forced the Blue Devils into 22 turnovers, and then watched Duke further implode by going just 11-for-24 from the free throw line in the second half. Finally SFA’s Gavin Kensmil threw a seat-of-the-pants pass to Nathan Bain, who dissected two Blue Devils defenders and went nearly coast-to-coast for a buzzer-beating layup in OT.
Two upsets that were just as legendary came in the NCAA Tournament. One was two seasons ago, when Fairleigh Dickinson became only the second No. 16 seed to beat No. 1 when it took down Purdue 63-58 in the first round. "The more I watch Purdue, the more I think we can beat them," said FDU coach Tobin Anderson before the game. Fairleigh Dickinson had the shortest team in Division I that season, with a roster that averaged 6-1. Unfazed, they took it to the rim, even with the Boilermakers’ 7-4 NCAA Player of the Year, Zach Edey, hanging out there. Edey put up 21 points and 15 rebounds, but he was bothered when swarmed by the speedy Knights.
The most shocking college basketball upset happened in the 2018 NCAA Tournament when No. 16 UMBC (Maryland-Baltimore County) took down No. 1 Virginia. It just got worse and worse for the Cavaliers, who were ultimately routed 74-54. This one was about shooting—the Retrievers hit 54 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point range, while the Cavaliers managed just 41 percent from the floor and 18 percent from beyond the arc. Virginia, however, will be remembered for rebounding to win the national championship a year later.
Old-timers will tell you another Virginia game belongs in this conversation. The Cavaliers, led by future Hall of Famer Ralph Sampson, took on Chaminade University in Honolulu two days before Christmas in 1982, fitting a game in on their way back from a couple victories in Japan. Nobody had ever heard of the Silverswords, an NAIA team, and only 3,383 fans were there to watch, It wasn’t even on TV. But, you guessed it, Chaminade won 77-72. Virginia would end up in Boise the following March as the centerpiece of the first NCAA Tournament session ever played in the BSU Pavilion.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
