Santa Clara coach Dick Davey was quite frank about his team’s odds of knocking off Arizona. “Our chances are not good,” he said. “It could get ugly.” It did Arizona went on a 25-0 run halfway through the game. But the Broncos bounced back, and a skinny freshman point guard from Canada hit six straight foul shots down the stretch to help Santa Clara stave off the Wildcats. Santa Clara became just the second 15th seed to win a tournament game since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, and America met Steve Nash, who would later go on to win back-to-back NBA MVP’s with the Phoenix Suns.
Top 10 NCAA Tournament First Round Upsets
The bands. The buzzer-beaters. The unproductive offices. Must be the start of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. To mark this year's edition, we scoured the record books to select the 10 best first round upsets in tournament history
(15) Santa Clara 64, (2) Arizona 61, 1993
Full List
March Madness
- (13) Princeton 43, (4) UCLA 41, 1996
- (15) Richmond 73, (2) Syracuse 69, 1991
- (15) Hampton 58, (2) Iowa State 57, 2001
- (14) Cleveland State 83, (3) Indiana 79, 1986
- (13) Valparaiso 70, (4) Mississippi 69, 1998
- (15) Santa Clara 64, (2) Arizona 61, 1993
- (14) Northwestern State 64, (3) Iowa 63, 2006
- (13) Vermont 60, (4) Syracuse 57, 2005
- (14) Bucknell 64, (3) Kansas 63, 2005
- (14) Austin Peay 68, (3) Illinois 67, 1987