March Madness Update: Down Goes a No. 1 Seed -

By Jonathan Norman

The 2023 March Madness tournament is in full swing with both the men’s and women’s NCAA Division I teams. As is expected with college basketball’s very popular playoffs, there have already been multiple upsets leaving fans shocked and brackets busted.

The most shocking and miraculous upset of the tournament so far was in the men’s tournament with the No. 16 seeded Fairleigh Dickinson Knights defeating the No. 1 seeded Purdue 63-58. This is just the second time in men’s tournament history that a No. 1 seed has lost to a No. 16 seed, according to the New York Times. The other instance when this happened was in 2018 when the No. 16 seeded UMBC Retrievers beat the No. 1 seeded Virigna Cavaliers.

“If we played them 100 times, they’d probably beat us 99 times,” Tobin Anderson, Fairleigh Dickinson’s head coach, said. “We had to be unique. We had to be unorthodox.”

This was the third year in a row that Purdue lost to a double digit seed in the NCAA tournament. Last year, Purude lost to No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s. Purdue will surely look to make some adjustments to better improve their program’s chances for next year.

“It stings,” Matt Painter, Purdue’s coach since 2005, said. “They played better than we did. They coached better than we did.”

History was also made in this year’s competition as Princeton became the first Ivy League school to win a men’s and women’s NCAA tournament game in the same year, according to ESPN. For the men’s league, the No. 15 seeded Princeton defeated the No. 2 seeded Arizona with a score of 59 to 55. This was the second tournament win for Princeton since 1996 when they had a historic upset against the UCLA Bruins, according to USA Today Sports.

“To beat a great team like that on this stage is a pretty special feeling,” Princeton guard Matt Allocco said. “But also I can’t say I’m surprised. This team has been so good all year, so gritty. On paper, it’s going to look like a big upset. But we believe in each other and we think we’re a really good team.”

On the women’s side, the No. 10 seeded Princeton defeated the No. 7 seeded North Carolina State with a score of 64 to 63. The stars of this game were the 2022 Ivy League Tournament Most Outstanding Player, Kaitlyn Chen and Second-Team All-Ivy member Grace Stone. Chen had 22 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists in this game and Stone added another 22 points, including a 3-pointer with 4.7 seconds remaining in the game to give Princeton the win, according to the Vindicator.

“That’s a shot I’ve taken in a game before and my teammates have all the confidence in the world in me,” Stone said.

Stone already hit game winners this season against Columbia and Rhode Island.

“She’s got ice in her veins. She has that look in her eyes and you know she’s gonna make a play. She’s gonna hit a shot,” Princeton coach Carla Berube said.

The 2023 NCAA tournament has surely had some remarkable games so far. Basketball fans will watch closely as the remaining teams continue to fight to reach the NCAA championship game in April.