Anyone could have guessed that top-seeded Virginia versus University of Maryland Baltimore County would be a 20-point blowout.
But who would have predicted it would be the biggest upset in the history of the NCAA tournament?
UMBC _ an acronym unfamiliar to most people before Friday night _ shocked the college basketball world with a 74-54 victory over Virginia, becoming the first No. 16 seed ever to beat a No. 1.
Princeton, East Tennessee State, and Western Carolina all came close. But until this stunner in Charlotte, N.C., No. 16s were 0-131. The Retrievers had never beaten an Atlantic Coast Conference team.
On Twitter and TNT _ it's hard to know exactly who came up with it first _ the clever "U Must Be Cinderella" wordplay went viral.
This was an all-time bracket buster, as 18.5 percent of people who filled out brackets on ESPN.com had Virginia winning it all.
According to odds expert R.J. Bell, the Retrievers were 25-to-1 underdogs. They barely got into the tournament, needing a basket in the final seconds to get past Vermont, which had beaten them twice earlier.
Among other teams to beat UMBC this season: Albany, Colgate, Towson and Stony Brook, with Albany handing the retrievers an 83-39 scolding on Jan. 21.
Friday, the teams were deadlocked at halftime, 21-21, before UMBC erupted for 53 points in the second half _ against the best defense in college basketball. The Retrievers shot 54.2 percent from the floor, made 12 of 24 three-pointers (compared to four of 22 by Virginia), and outrebounded the Cavaliers 33-24.
"We got our butts whipped, that wasn't even close," Virginia coach Tony Bennett said in a CBS interview. "That's first a credit to what Ryan did, coach Odom. Their offense was very hard to guard. They shot it well. We kept getting broken down and did a poor job.
"I told our guys, we had a historic season ... and then we made history by becoming the first 1-seed to lose."
