CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For days and years and decades to come in the town of Catonsville, through the fervent sports region of Maryland and sacred hoops area of Baltimore, they’ll talk about how their team embodied college basketball’s role of David who at long last finally conquered Goliath.
They’ll talk about how their University of Maryland-Baltimore County Retrievers pieced together the most triumphant and palpable 40 minutes of basketball to accomplish what many deemed unattainable.
They’ll talk about the heroic performance and unshakable sharpshooting of Jairus Lyles, who poured in a magical 28 points on just 11 shots to fuel the tiny pocket of UMBC fans whose energy overtook Charlotte’s Spectrum Center on Friday night. They’ll talk about the gutsy performance of 5-foot-7 guard K.J. Maura, who was tasked — and ultimately neutralized — the intimidating frontcourt of the lauded Virginia Cavaliers.
They’ll talk and they’ll talk about this inconceivable 74-54 win over the nation’s top-ranked team and about how they became the first 16-seed to slay a No. 1 seed in March Madness history. After 135 failed attempts spanning 33 years, these Retrievers delivered resoundingly across the country on the 136th.
“Historic game. Unbelievable,” UMBC coach Ryan Odom said. “Unbelievable is all you can say.”
It really is all you can say. This wasn’t just any No. 1 seed. This was the Associated Press’s No. 1, the by-and-large favorites to win the national title. These Cavaliers entered a highly-anticipated run on full blast, winning the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament title over the University of North Carolina, the reigning national champions. They ripped through the Atlantic Coastal Conference, racking up 31 overall wins and losing just twice, with both setbacks by a combined eight points.
On Friday, UMBC romped Tony Bennett’s heralded packline defense for 53 second-half points on 67.9 percent shooting (19-for-28). From outside the 3-point-line, the Retrievers connected on 12 of 24 3-pointers. The Cavs? Only 4 of 22 from long distance. What was the difference?
UMBC set the tone from the literal jump, locking down the perimeter defensively and forcing Virginia to settle for jumpers deep in the shot clock. When center Isaiah Wilkins put Virginia up 2-0 after the Cavs missed its first looks — both jumpers — UMBC big man Daniel Akin put his team on the board with a tough back-to-basket layup himself.
That sequence was critical in opening up the floor for the Retrievers and their dribble-drive offense, as Jourdan Grant and Arkel Lamar canned back-to-back triples to get UMBC off and running with a 9-7 lead.
The Cavs then went on a 9-1 run to take their largest lead of the night — 16-10 with 6:32 left in the first half — on layups from Nigel Johnson and a three-point play from Mamadi Diakite. But then came the Retrievers, who stormed back with a 9-0 run via treys from Joe Sherburne, Maura and Lyles, a monumental sequence that helped gridlock the score at 21-21 at halftime.
The real heroics came in the second-half, where UMBC scored the first six points out of the break to take a 27-21 lead that only grew. Six points became 11. Eleven became Virginia's largest deficit of the season at 14. Fourteen became 17, and it became apparent that Virginia was in for a historic night, too.
After a 3-pointer that amplified the madness, Sherburne pretended to slap a title belt around his waist — like Aaron Rodgers in his State Farm commercial dubbed Discount Double Check — as he backpedaled in transition. When Lyles dropped another 3-pointer, another bucket in a 23-point second-half effort, he stuck out his tongue like prime Michael Jordan. After Maura zipped finished an uncontested layup, he pretended to shoot arrows into the crowd.
It's fascinating to look at just how improbable UMBC's win is. KenPom.com gave them a 9 percent chance of winning the America East Conference — a Cinderella run that truly started in the defeat of Vermont, which were 15-1 in conference play.
Before madness was redefined forever on Friday, the UMBC team gathered in one of the many crammed, L-shaped locker rooms inside Spectrum Center the night before, watching the Loyola Chicago-Miami game on an overhead television that came down to the last shot. Loyola Chicago won at the buzzer, a deep 3-pointer that sounded the reason for the season.
The quiet room filled with UMBC coaches, players, and media erupted. Grant, meanwhile, shouted a prophecy: "Ah, man! That about to be us tomorrow! That about to be us! Shock the world, just like them! It's March!"
Indeed, it was prophecy fulfilled.
