BALTIMORE _ Eight days in March. That was all it took for UMBC to carry college basketball fans on one of the most improbable and charming rides in the recent history of the sport. From now on, every time the NCAA Tournament commences, the Retrievers will be spoken of as the ultimate dragon slayers, the first men's No. 16 seed to topple a No. 1. A year later, here's that story in the words of the players, coaches and administrators who pulled it off.
It's important to remember that the narrative did not begin on a Friday night against mighty Virginia. It began six days earlier at Vermont, the Goliath in UMBC's little basketball world. Going into the America East tournament final March 10, 2018, UMBC had lost to the top-seeded Catamounts 23 straight times, including two defeats by a combined 43 points earlier in the season. The Retrievers had won 23 games under second-year head coach Ryan Odom but had been to the NCAA Tournament just once in program history, in 2008.
