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March Madness is living up to its reputation with a number of shocking upsets kicking off the opening day. At the top of the list is Princeton, who sent second-seeded Arizona packing by pulling off a 59-55 upset in the South region on Friday.
Arizona (28-7) entered the game as 14.5-point favorites and had minus-1200 odds to move on. The Wildcats were also tied for the seventh-best odds to win the entire tournament.
Despite this, Princeton (22-8) produced a hard-nosed victory and a comeback win to punch their ticket to the round of 32. Arizona held the lead for 37:57 of the 40 minutes. They pushed the margin to as many as 12 points in the second half. Princeton took the lead with 2:03 left to play and did not look back. Arizona failed to score in the final 4:45.
This should not be a complete surprise as Princeton has played some impressive basketball this year. The Tigers won the Ivy League Tournament to secure their place in the NCAA Tournament.
It was a well-rounded team effort by the Tigers as seven different players scored six or more points. Tosan Evbuomwan led with 15 points along with seven rebounds and four assists.
Did Princeton bust everyone's bracket?
Less than halfway through the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, less than 1% of brackets remain perfect. Princeton's victory was the most surprising and surely caused frustration across the country.
This is the third year in a row that a No. 15 seed has upset a No. 2 seed. Last year, Saint Peters took down Kentucky en route to their Elite Eight run. The year prior, 15th-seeded Oral Roberts upset Ohio State in the first round.
While it has become a common occurrence of late, history is still far from being in favor of the No. 15 seeds. In the history of March Madness, No. 15 seeds are just 9-135 against No. 2 seeds, giving them a 6.25% winning percentage.
This also marks just the ninth time that an Ivy League team has made it past the first round of the tournament since shifting to the modern bracket. It is Princeton's third time making the round of 32 as they now hold a 3-13 record in March Madness. Princeton is also the only Ivy League team to earn a single-digit seed in the NCAA Tournament, which they did by being a No. 8 seed in 1991.
The Tigers will now shift their focus to No. 7 seed Missouri (25-9) as their second-round opponent.
