College basketball has certainly had its share of shock city results over the years.
When I heard about NJIT's stunning win at Michigan, it got me thinking about the sport's biggest upsets. Sure, NC State over Houston, when Jimmy V celebrated in Albuquerque, quickly came to mind.
I decided to think about it for a while as I had breakfast at Another Broken Egg in Lakewood Ranch, Florida. The NCAA tournament has seen surprises like the perfect game pitched by Rollie Massimino and Villanova against Georgetown. There was St. Joseph's shocking DePaul with Mark Aguirre. And there were a pair of No. 15 seeds knocking off No. 2 seeds -- Santa Clara beating Lute Olson's Arizona squad in 1993, and Hampton over Iowa State in 2001.
So my list of five shock city games took a turn. I opted to make it five from the regular season. Here we go:
5. Gardner-Webb over Kentucky, Nov. 7, 2007. The Wildcats were a top 20 team and a prohibitive favorite to advance to New York in the 2K Sports Classic. Billy Gillispie's team lost 84-68. Coach Rick Scruggs got his team to the Big Apple in a true stunner that Big Blue Nation will remember. The Wildcats hadn't lost a regular-season game to a mid-major since falling to Western Kentucky on Nov. 15, 2001.
4. Cal Poly over UCLA, Nov. 25, 2012. The Bruins led by 18 in the second half before Cal Poly went on a 34-14 run. That Cal Poly team was picked seventh in the preseason Big West poll.
3. Alaska-Anchorage over Michigan, Dec. 28, 1988. The Seawolves beat the Wolverines, who came in as the No. 2 team in the nation. The game was part of a tournament in Utah. The Michigan lineup included Glen Rice and Rumeal Robinson, and the Wolverines went on to win the national championship at the end of the season.
2. New Jersey Institute of Technology over Michigan, Dec. 6, 2014. The Highlanders, who almost upset Marquette earlier in the season, scored an eye-opening 72-70 stunner over the Wolverines. NJIT came into the game with a 2-5 record, with wins over Maine and Duquesne. The Highlanders had lost to St. John's, Marquette, Albany and UMass-Lowell (twice). The Wolverines entered with a 6-1 mark, with the lone loss coming in a hard-fought battle against nationally ranked Villanova at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. In the upset of Michigan, NJIT was 11-of-17 on trifectas, a stunning 65 percent.
1. Chaminade over Virginia, Dec. 23, 1982. Ralph Sampson and the No. 1 Cavaliers fell to Chaminade, then an NAIA program, 77-72. The game put the Silverswords on the sports map forever. The game was such a stunner that the media barely covered it, until the final score sent shocks through the airwaves. Michael Wilbon was there because he was in Hawaii covering a Maryland football game.