More established basketball powers like UCLA and UNLV can get by on initials alone, and there was a brief moment Friday night where some fans might not have known what UMBC stood for, yet knew the well-deserved alternative: U Must Be Cinderella.
For 33 years, the real limit to March Madness was that no No. 16 seed had ever beaten a No. 1 seed in the men’s tournament — 135 tries, 135 losses for the longest of NCAA long shots. Now, with one huge, commanding upset of top-seeded Virginia, the University of Maryland-Baltimore County is on the map.
That an underdog’s mascot would be a Retriever is indeed golden. UMBC has a reputation as a collegiate step-sister, tagged as “University of Maryland Backup College” for locals. One fan, fluent in the suburbs west of Baltimore, suggested that UMBC was in fact UCLA: University of Catonsville, Left of Arbutus.
Catonsville is best known for UMBC, a school that has no football team, and until Friday, didn’t have much basketball history. UMBC had made the tournament only once before, losing to Georgetown in 2008 when it was a No. 15 seed.
And as much as Friday’s 74-54 upset win for the Retrievers — amazingly, never even that close down the stretch — was historic, that’s not to say people didn’t see it coming. One bettor at the Venetian in Las Vegas placed a 20-to-1 bet on UMBC to win outright, and not just a $20 flyer. That bet of $800 paid off $16,800, and it wasn’t the only one.
The governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan, picked UMBC to beat Virginia in a bracket he posted online at noon Thursday. That’s a politician who knows his constituents, and in fact, he picked UMBC to win the entire tournament. “They say a 16 will never upset a 1, but we’ve been known to beat the odds around here from time to time,” he wrote.
“You know what this is like?” CBS’ Bill Raftery asked ESPN’s Ryan McGee. “This is like saying, well, you know, one day the aliens are going to land here and that’s going to be incredible. But in the back of your mind you’re like, ‘C’mon, man, we all know the aliens are never going to land here.'”
Save a few lucky souls, it was hard to see such a momentous upset coming. UMBC played Arizona when it was ranked No. 3 in November and even led 11-5 early, but a 24-3 run quickly put that game out of reach. The Wildcats, of course, wouldn’t last as long in the tournament as the Retrievers did.
UMBC lost this season to an Army team that finished 13-17, to a Stony Brook team that went 13-19, and to Albany by an 83-39 margin, scoring just 12 points in the first half. Virginia won the ACC tournament and took a 31-2 record into the NCAAs, with one of their losses by a single point.
But all it takes is one team’s best game possible — UMBC went 12-for-24 on 3-pointers, while Virginia went just 4-for-22 at the other end of the spectrum.
The Retrievers have a place in history, but to really give the school a massive dose of extended national exposure, they need a second upset Sunday against ninth-seeded Kansas State. Win there, and the spotlight of an entire week is on UMBC — national TV shows will visit campus and proud alums like actress Kathleen Turner will make appearances.
But even now, in the 48 hours between one piece of history and a chance at another, students in Catonsville and alums all over will savor an iconic new underdog role. Who knows what the Retrievers will bring back next.
“No one gave UMBC a chance,” junior Patrick Ogoh told the Baltimore Sun. “We’re known as the brainiacs of Maryland.” He shook his head. “We don’t even have a football team. Now we won? This is incredible.”
