# UMBC becomes 1st 16 seed to beat a #1 seed
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713
**Category:** The Game Room
**Created:** [March 17, 2018, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713 "2018-03-17T03:54:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713/1 "2018-03-17T03:54:15Z")
The 188th ranked team in the nation becomes the first ever win by a 16 seed team. There will be no perfect brackets this year, mighty Casey has struck out. (Never mix a sports metaphor). Not squeaked by either, a decisive 74-54 game.
Dennis
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713/2 "2018-03-17T04:00:04Z")
About time.
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### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713/3 "2018-03-17T04:04:05Z")
I’m just glad it wasn’t Kansas! 😃
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### Author:  [@Hi\_Neighbor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hi_Neighbor)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713/4 "2018-03-17T04:05:23Z")
What a time to be alive!
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713/5 "2018-03-17T04:06:10Z")
Who’s a good boy? Who’s a gooood boy? _You_ are!
Now, go get the ball!
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### Author:  [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713/6 "2018-03-17T04:09:57Z")
Normally I’d rail against this and demand #1 and #2 seeds get an automatic bye in this round but this game wasn’t even close. It’s not like the #1 team in the country lost in a fluke buzzer beater.
What the hell happened to Virginia??? What a bunch of losers, chokers and quitters and a disgrace to basketball. Their coach needs to be fired and the entire team cut. If I was an NBA Coach I’d never draft any of these jokers.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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### Author:  [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713/7 "2018-03-17T04:18:26Z")
“May you live in interesting times.”
Will this curse never cease?
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### Author:  [@magnusblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusblitz)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713/8 "2018-03-17T04:20:18Z")
> [@russian\_heel](#):
>
> What the hell happened to Virginia??? What a bunch of losers, chokers and quitters and a disgrace to basketball. Their coach needs to be fired and the entire team cut. If I was an NBA Coach I’d never draft any of these jokers.
Unlike Arizona, which quite clearly quit after Buffalo opened up a bit of a lead, I didn’t get the sense Virginia quit. But they did keep jacking up 3s even though they had been missing all night. Really wonder what their coach was thinking.
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713/9 "2018-03-17T04:28:04Z")
134 people bet this long shot with one bookie, bet $100 to win $2500. The bookie lost over $320,000.
Dennis
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### Author:  [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713/10 "2018-03-17T05:10:39Z")
I knew it would happen someday and I thought it’d be one of those “where were you when it happened” kind of moments. Like a buzzer beater, classic one shining moment moment. Turned out to be a blow out in a pretty dull game. Would never have guessed a 20 point blowout.
Virginia will never live this down. ACC HA HA!
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### Author:  [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713/11 "2018-03-17T05:41:08Z")
> [@Omniscient](#):
>
> I knew it would happen someday and I thought it’d be one of those “where were you when it happened” kind of moments. Like a buzzer beater, classic one shining moment moment. Turned out to be a blow out in a pretty dull game. Would never have guessed a 20 point blowout.
>
> Virginia will never live this down. ACC HA HA!
Those players are going to be the laughingstock of campus on Monday. Too bad their spring break was last week!
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713/12 "2018-03-17T06:47:04Z")
> [@mixdenny](#):
>
> There will be no perfect brackets this year,…
There will never be a perfect bracket. The odds are astronomical.
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### Author:  [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713/13 "2018-03-17T07:29:59Z")
> [@mixdenny](#):
>
> 134 people bet this long shot with one bookie, bet $100 to win $2500. The bookie lost over $320,000.
>
> Dennis
REALLY——now I can’t believe players like on Virginia who could make millions more n the NBA would ever throw a game——I’m intrigued IF there’s a link:
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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### Author:  [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713/14 "2018-03-17T09:44:13Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#):
>
> There will never be a perfect bracket. The odds are astronomical.
But there have been.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713/15 "2018-03-17T11:24:53Z")
No, low seeds absolutely shouldn’t get free byes just because. The rankings aren’t real: The game is. If you can’t even beat a 15 or 16 seed, even in a squeaker, then your ranking was wrong.
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### Author:  [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713/16 "2018-03-17T11:44:25Z")
> [@mixdenny](#):
>
> There will be no perfect brackets this year, mighty Casey has struck out
Didn’t hurt my bracket one bit.
Because for the first time in about 30 years, I didn’t fill even one out this year. Broke a streak back to before there were 64 teams.☹
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713/17 "2018-03-17T13:21:32Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> No, low seeds absolutely shouldn’t get free byes just because. The rankings aren’t real: The game is. If you can’t even beat a 15 or 16 seed, even in a squeaker, then your ranking was wrong.
Howard Johnson is right!
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713/18 "2018-03-17T13:28:21Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#):
>
> There will never be a perfect bracket. The odds are astronomical.
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#):
>
> But there have been.
I’m rather skeptical of this claim.
From [here](https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/bracket-beat/2016-03-14/march-madness-7-things-more-likely-happen-picking):
> [@](#):
>
> The odds of picking a perfect bracket in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament are really, really small. So small, in fact, that many mathematicians differ on the actual estimation of the odds.
>
> Some believe it’s as low as 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (or 1 in 9.2 quintillion, for those who skipped the last 18 digits), while others, including Jeff Bergen, a professor at DePaul, think it’s as “high” as 1 in 128 billion. Either way, picking all 63 games (excluding the First Four games) correctly is next to impossible.
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### Author:  [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713/19 "2018-03-17T14:51:28Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#):
>
> I’m rather skeptical of this claim.
>
> From [here](https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/bracket-beat/2016-03-14/march-madness-7-things-more-likely-happen-picking):
Those calculated odds assume a 50-50 chance in each game. Those are far off in the early rounds
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2018, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umbc-becomes-1st-16-seed-to-beat-a-1-seed/810713/20 "2018-03-17T15:05:44Z")
> [@OldGuy](#):
>
> Those calculated odds assume a 50-50 chance in each game. Those are far off in the early rounds
The 1 in 9.2 quintillion, yes, but even the lowest estimate is 1 in 128 billion.
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