Tonight on 97.9 ESPN, It's the second of the classic NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Games that Westwood One will re-air tonight at 8:00. The matchup featured the 16th seed UMBC Retrievers took on the Top Seeded Virginia Cavaliers in Charlotte. In the long history of the event, there had been a few close calls in a 16 v 1 matchup, but never an actual win. 16 times has it come down to single digits and twice has it come do to one...in 1989, Georgetown held off Princeton 50-49 in Providence....and in the same year, Oklahoma rallied from 17 down to beat East Tennessee State.
That all changed when the America East Champs pulled away in the early stages of the second half after a 21-21 opening 20 minutes. The Retrievers opened the half with a 19-3 second half run - 26-10 over the first 10 minutes and never looked back. As the Cavaliers, known as a great defensive team could never get within 12....UMBC made 12 threes in the win, led by Jairus Lyles 28..one of four in double figures.
The Cavs returned with a vengeance in 2019....yes, they were given a bit of a scare from Gardner Webb on day one, but then they beat Oklahoma & Oregon, followed by classic wins over Purdue (OT) and Auburn by one to play in the National Championship Game where they beat Texas Tech, again in overtime to win the school's first National Championship...And Head Coach Tony Bennett was the same person after winning the title as he was when UMBC stunned them the previous spring...
Join us tonight...and two more classic games from 2008 tomorrow beginning at high noon....Davidson (led by Steph Curry) & Gonzaga...Then the title game between Memphis & Kansas when the Jayhawks rallied late to win...join us !!