It’s happened before.
A No. 13 seed has upset a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament 21% of the time since 1985. In raw numbers that’s 29 times out of 140 games. Is North Texas going to join that list?
The Mean Green (17-9) punched their first ticket to March Madness in more than a decade by winning the Conference USA Tournament on Saturday night. The selection committee handed UNT the 13-seed in the South Region where it’ll face 4-seed Purdue of the Big Ten.
The teams will meet at 6:25 p.m. Friday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The game is being televised on TNT. The winner advances to face the winner of Villanova/ Winthrop in the Round of 32 on Sunday.
Purdue (18-9) opened as an early eight-point favorite, according to VegasInsider.com, but those odds had dropped to 7.5-points by midday Monday. There’s a reason for that as the Mean Green fit the “Cinderella” label.
This is a program that has never won an NCAA Tournament game, but is riding momentum by winning four games in four days to claim the C-USA title. Plus, they have an experienced backcourt led by senior point guard Javion Hamlet, senior James Reese and junior guard Madrez McBride.
Hamlet has been named to the C-USA first-team for two consecutive seasons and is averaging 15 points per game. Reese is second on the team in scoring with 10.8 points per game. McBride, meanwhile, is a 3-point threat, making at least three in each of the past three games and shooting 40% from deep on the season. On the inside, the Mean Green have veteran presences in senior forwards Zachary Simmons and Thomas Bell.
All of that should bode well going into March Madness where experience pays off.
As UNT coach Grant McCasland said after Saturday’s game, “We’re going to go to the NCAA Tournament with the expectation to win.”
Easier said than done, of course.
Purdue is ranked No. 20 in the country and has won five of its last six. The Boilermakers reached the Elite Eight in the 2019 NCAA Tournament as a 3-seed.
Again, though, seeing a 13-seed emerge victorious in the Round of 64 is not unheard of. In fact, it’s become a trend of late.
In the last March Madness — the 2019 tourney — 13-seed UC Irvine defeated 4-seed Kansas State. The 2018 tournament saw two 13-seeds pull off first-round upsets as Marshall defeated Wichita State and Buffalo defeated Arizona.
North Texas could find itself on that list by winning its first NCAA Tournament game in the program’s fourth career appearance.
Beyond that, though, the odds are stacked against it in terms of reaching the Sweet 16. A 13-seed has defeated a 5-seed for a Sweet 16 berth only three times since 1985.
