UnderdogMindset

#15 seed reaching the Elite Eight

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Posted: Mar 12, 2023 Updated: Aug 28, 2023
CBB Lowest seed March Madness

Only eleven times has a #15 seed, or lower, even won a game in March Madness. Saint Peter's was the farthest any of these teams progressed when they reached the Elite Eight in 2022. The Saint Peter's Peacocks did so by upsetting #2 seed Kentucky in the first round, 7th seed Murray State in the second, and Purdue in the Sweet Sixteen before losing to UNC.

The Peacocks were 13-point underdogs against Purdue, 8.5-point against Murray State, and 18-point against Kentucky in their run. The game against Kentucky also was the largest budgetary discrepancy for the winner, with Saint Peter's having a budget of $1.6 million vs. Kentucky's $18.3 million (note: the budgets were from 2019-2020, the last non-COVID year previously).

References

  • Leaky Roofs, Disappearing Balls and Frozen Offices: Inside a Real Cinderella Story

    Last week the Peacocks joined the list of schools who have etched themselves into March Madness folklore. Many rose from small—and even obscure—backgrounds, their programs suddenly thrust to the national forefront in a way that only this event allows in sports.

  • Saint Peter’s Kentucky Win Marks Historic NCAA Financial Upset

    In the 2019-20 school year, the most recent season unaffected by COVID-19, Kentucky outspent Saint Peter’s $18.3 million to $1.6 million in men’s basketball, per the U.S Department of Education. In terms of both expenditures ratio and raw difference between budgets, that is the biggest disparity since 2007, as far back as data is publicly available.

  • Saint Peter’s Shows the Magic of March in Conquering Powerhouse Kentucky

    In so many ways, it was the perfect March moment: A school whose entire men’s basketball budget is less than one-fifth of John Calipari’s annual salary knocked off one of the game’s most storied programs and coaches, becoming just the 10th No. 15 seed to ever beat a No. 2 since the tournament’s expansion in 1985. In the process, they knocked out one of the favorites to win the national championship and sent home the potential National Player of the Year on the first full day of the Big Dance.

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