Day 2 - 2nd Round Major Upsets - 2015 NCAA Tournament
The 2nd day of the 2nd round provided less surprise and only one update if you go by the seedings. Only one higher seed fell to a lower see, but there were other close calls that had coaches sweating bullets.
No. 11 Dayton 66 - No. 6 Providence 53
The Dayton Flyers send the Friars home early with the help of a home state crowd. Dyshawn Pierre carried the Flyers with 20 points and 9 rebounds. Providence had a rough start including the Big East player of the ear Kris Dunn getting himself into early foul trouble. Dunn fouled out with 11 points, but Provdence's other star player LaDontae Henton tallied 18 points and 11 rebounds. As a reward, Dayton will now face the third-seeded Oklahoma Sooners.
No. 13 UC Irvine 55 - No. 4 Louisville 57
No. 4 Louisville and Coach Rick Pitino squeaked out a win against the Anteaters. UC Irvine was in the tournament for the first time since moving up to Division I in 1977. They played as good as they possibly could of without winning. Will Davis the II led his team in scoring with 14 points and 9 rebounds. The tallest player in the tournament also did his best to help the Anteaters pull of a major upset, but the 7'6" Mamadou Ndiaye scored 12 points and grabbed 5 rebounds which wasn't enough. Louisville used a big time performance from an unexpected freshman guard Quentin Snider. Snider only averaged 3.6 points a game in the regular season but exploded for 16 in this contest including the pair of winning free throws. Senior, Wayne Blackshear turned in a strong performance with 19 points and 7 rebounds to help the Cardinals move onto the next round against Northern Iowa.
No. 13 Valparaiso 62 - No. 4 Maryland 65
The unlikely hero in this one was Maryland's Varun Ram. Ram only played 13 seconds in the win against the Crusaders which was Maryland's first game in the tourney since 2010 and he swiped the ball away in the final second s to seal the victory. The Terrapins used a balanced scoring attack with 3 players (Dez Wells, Melo Trimble, Jared Nickens) scoring 14 points apiece. Valpo needed a strong performance from Alec Peters to have a chance and he did with 18 points and 4 rebounds, but still fell short. Valpo's season is over after winning a school record 28 games and Maryland's season will continue as they reach the round of 16 for the first time since 2003 against West Virginia.
By Steven Spector - 3-21-15
