Top Three March Madness Upsets Hosted In Sacramento
Sacramento may not have a local team with years of success in the NCAA march madness tournament, but the city does have a history of hosting the preliminary rounds of tournaments. With the recent news of the Golden1 Center earning a hosting gig for the 2017 tournament, let's revisit some of the best tournament upsets in Sleep Train Arena.
The arena has hosted 24 tournament games in the four years of participating (1994, 1998, 2002 and 2007), so here are the top three upsets on Sacramento soil:
3. 1998 - No. 9 Illinois State beats No. 8 Tennessee
This one is about as fair as it can get, but an upset is an upset. Illinois came into this tournament with a 25-6 record compared to Tennessee's 20-9 record, and thanks to Rico Hill's 22 points and Steve Hansell's 16 points, nine rebounds and six assists (he shot 100% on the day), the Redbirds ended up with the victory.
Their success wouldn't last long, as they were trampled by the No. 1 Arizona 82-49 in the next round.
2. 2007 - No. 6 Vanderbilt defeats No. 3 Washington State
This game was a thriller. It's the second round, both teams had momentum heading into it after easily beating their opponents in the first round. Washington State had the better season record-wise (26-8 compared to Vanderbilt's 22-12), but we all know it's called March Madness for a reason.
Heading into the game's second overtime, Vandy finally pulled away to seal the victory. In the video above, you can clearly see the Sacramento Kings court in all of its glory. Vanderbilt would move on to the Sweet 16, only to fall to Georgetown by a point.
1. 2002 - No. 13 UNC-Wilmington upsets No. 4 USC
As one of college's biggest first-round upsets in recent history, UNC took down the mighty USC Trojans.
USC was considered one of the top schools in the country at the time with a 22-10 record, but UNC could still play (finished with 23-10 record). UNC still couldn't continue the Cinderella story past the next round, as they were stopped by Indiana 76-67.
Still, it was a magical moment for UNC-Wilmington fans -- a moment they won't forget.
