by Michael Fox

Created on: March 01, 2009

While it is true that the NCAA tournament victories of North Carolina State in 1983 and Villanova in 1985 are two of the greatest upsets in the history of the tournament there are four other great upsets to consider that many people tend to forget about. These are the four #15 seeds that have won games in the tournament.

Ever since 1985 when the tournament moved into a 64-team format it has been very difficult for the lower seeded teams to be able to win. This is because the teams in the #14, 15 and 16 spots are generally only in it because they won their conference tournaments (or the regular season in the case of the Ivy League). It is going to be incredibly difficult for teams in conferences like the West Coast, Ivy League, Patriot, MEAC or Big Sky to get anywhere when they play against teams from the Big East, ACC and other highly dominant basketball conferences. There have been four cases where #15 seeds have done what is almost impossible and knock off #2 seeds.

In 1991 the Richmond Spiders, who were in the Colonial Conference at the time, took on Jim Boeheim's Syracuse Orangemen. The Spiders won that game 73-69. The Orangemen had a record of 25-5 heading into that year, thus making this win even more remarkable for the Spiders.

In 1993 the Santa Clara Broncos took on the Arizona Wildcats. The Wildcats were 20-point favorites to knock off the Broncos but the Broncos, who featured Canadian import Steve Nash, knocked off the Wildcats 64-61. That's amazing for a team that could only go 16-11 before the tournament and were only in it for their West Coast Conference tournament victory.

The third of these upsets came in 1997. The Coppin State Eagles of the MEAC conference not only beat South Carolina 78-65 in the first round but they almost beat Texas in the second round. The Eagles lost to the #10 seed Longhorns by only one point.

The last of these upsets was from another MEAC team. The Hampton Pirates of 2001 had to take on the 25-5 Iowa State Cyclones. The Pirates won 58-57.

No #16 seed has ever won a game in the tournament. This may be especially difficult considering the past performances of many #16 seeds. UCLA's 70-29 victory over Mississippi Valley State in 2008 comes to mind. However, with the successes that these four #15 teams had in the NCAA tournament in the past there may be hope for a #16 seed. And the moment a #16 seed wins that just may become the greatest upset in the history of the tournament. Until then we've got four #15 surprises to take that spot.

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