The rise of MTSU
MTSU is ranked for the first time in school history.
http://www.dnj.com/story/sports/college/mtsu/2017/03/06/mtsu-basketball…
Normally this wouldn't get a mention, but because of the historical shitting of the bed and the beginning of a year of Spartan tears (Technically the football playoff was the real beginning, but this was a close second) I felt it should be noted.
I decided to see if RCMB noticed, and of course they did and their thread didn't disappoint. Some highlights of the thread:
We put them on the map. Smh
Too soon
It will always be too soon. We had a fucking national championship team that shit itself
That was no f'ing 15 seed to be damn sure. We did not shit ourselves in that game - those guys just executed flawlessly and made EVERYTHING. Whenever we'd go on a run and it looked like we'd take the lead and pull away they'd hit a three. Every. Time. What a nightmare day.
Even more irritating is that they lost to Syracuse in the next round after I was convinced they were going to make a run after their masterful performance.
Every time MSU got within 2-3 points they'd nail a shot or get an and-1 foul. It was insane.
I love puppies and kittens and babies and justice!
MTSU lose their next game?
EDIT: 10 seeded Syracuse beat them by 25 in the next game.
were pretty tough though. I don't know if "transitive properties" apply when one team is just coming off a monumental upset. Of course they are not going to be able to muster the same intensity.
I watched that game from beginning to end. Michigan State 1) was pretty damn good last year, and 2) played and shot pretty well that game. With the exception of Izzo having way too short of a strong with Devonte Davis, that was not a game that they simply did not show for. MTSU was pretty good and did not play at all like a 15 seed.
were in the Kenpom 30's-40's but it's still funny that they beat MSU then got blown out in game 2.
funnier that it was not even really an upset that came down the last play. MTSU was all dunking and clowning at the end of the game. I can imagine that was a difficult afternoon for Michigan State fans.
Have you seen Denzel Valentine and Deyonta Davis play in the NBA? Hindsight, I know, but that Sparty team wasn't all that talented.
knew Denzel Valentine's days were numbered when I heard "cartilage problems in the knee." Thas is not something that can be "fixed" to the extent that it is no longer an issue. I believe he had mirco-fracture surgery. That buys time but doesn't fix anything, really.
That was the first time in history when a 10th-seeded team made the Final Four, and that was a Syracuse team that started the season while head coach Jim Boeheim was suspended for their first nine games, thanks to NCAA sanctions. They won the pre-season Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament Championship, but lost their first four conference games and then lost five of their final six games before the NCAA Tournament.
Can you tell us a little about their players interests, pet peeves, etc., and where the ate dinner the night before the semi-final game?
I'd have to kill myself.
But seriously, folks. My unstated point was that Michigan State might've had a clear path to the Final Four last year if they'd not been upset in their opening game.
I don't think last year was anythinng out of the ordinary in that respect. It seems Sparty always has an easy path to the final four.
First 10-seed to make the Final Four, but there have been three 11's that have made it.
MTSU is their Appy State. Only difference - 2 vs 15 upsets had happened in the tourney before, a top 5 team losing to a Div 2 team in college football was unheard of at the time. Had it been 1 vs. 16 it would have been truly glorious.
I love to shit on Sparty and their first round loss last year was satiating, but we have or own demons that won't be exorcised until we win a few B1G titles, make the playoffs and hopefully win a national championship or 2 in football.
Well, it doesn't really make it better, and nothing will ever erase that game. But since then, North Dakota State has gone like 6-0 against FBS teams. So really, the best IAA teams really are competitive against the FBS.
Looking back, App State was the resounding hello from the top of the FCS to the FBS. Since then, we've seen numerous top 10ish FCS teams perform well against the FBS. Most notably (as you said), NDSU. But other teams like Richmond, William & Mary, Jacksonville St, Eastern Washington, etc. have had their way in the FBS. The gap isn't nearly as wide as it was perceived before we lost to App State
Like a 42-point favorite. They were one of the preseason darlings to win the national title.
I kind of laugh when people try to justify it. It's one of the biggest upsets in sports history.
I recall correctly, there was actually no betting line on the game.
I don't know where the info was housed, but I saw the info about how the lines would be set. It was anywhere from 42-45, IIRC.
I think it was a little lower than that, actually, somewhere in the 30s, but it wasn't publicly "bettable". And in fact, UM-Appy State wasn't even the biggest upset that year, it was Stanford-USC, where USC was favored by 41 points. Hmmmm, who was that Stanford coach again???
But, it was a team from a lower division jumping up and beating a team that was projected to win or be in contention for the whole thing. Not a conference matchup.
You can't find a website that ranks the biggest upsets in sports history without seeing the Michigan v Appy State game. It is one of those things we just have to smile and move on. Trying to justify that Appy State is a good team or Michigan players smoked pot (which I've read) is an exercise without merit.
Oh, you're soft-pedaling that rumor big time. It was - the rumor goes - Jamar Adams, our senior starting strong safety, and he (again, the rumor goes) smoked pot BEFORE THE GAME ITSELF. It wasn't even a "he was out partying the night before" story. It was, "I got blown out 20 minutes before the game."
They were the 2 time defending champs and went on to win their 3rd that year against Delaware. Joe Flacco was Delaware's QB in that game.
As a Virginia fan, and a masochistic one at that (note: redundant) I'm compelled to point out that neither of those games are really the biggest upset college basketball has ever seen.
think Duke over UNLV in 91 may have an argument. Not even close in terms of "seeding" as an upset but nobody gave Duke a chance in that game and they had been obliterated the year before. At the time (and possibly still today), that UNLV team was regarded as the best college basketball team of all time. They were beating people the way the UCONN women's team beats teams today.
It's not the biggest upset in the history of college basketball.
It was pretty surprising and a massive upset, the biggest one in the history of the sport?? No way.
"Dont even bring up Chaminade over Virginia"
What?? So, a division 3 team (NAIA) that beats Virginia, who ends up in the Elite 8 when all is said and done is not comparable to a really good conference champion??
The magnitude of Chaminade's victory will never be replicated. You think Marygrove is ever going to beat Duke? That's the same comparison (NAIA vs top D1 school)
MTSU beating MSU in the TOURNAMENT was a big upset, but in the context of regular season it's not even comparable. If MTSU and MSU played a regular season game and MTSU hosted it, they would probably be like a 5-8 point underdog at most.
I'm still going with Villanova over Georgetown in '85 as the biggest upset in college basketball. It was the Championship game, Nova was an eight seed (the lowest to ever win a championship) and no one gave Villanova a chance against Patrick Ewing and the Hoyas. Even Rollie Massamino admitted his strategy going in was simply to try to keep it close.
Yes.
In the regular season, no.
Villanova still finished 25-10, 9-7 in conference. They weren't a bunch of slouches.
Nothing will ever touch the Chaminade victory overall, in my opinion, when it comes to talent differential. Like I said, it would be equivalent to Duke traveling to Marygrove and losing.
As others have pointed out, Appalachian State was a Division I (FCS) team. And, of course, they were the best Division I FCS team. Michigan, of course, was ranked preseason #5, but we've seen many times in the past that preseason rankings are somewhat meaningless. Many times teams ranked in the top 10 at the beginning of the year finish outside of the top 25, sometimes even with losing records.
Point is, it wasn't that huge of an upset as Appalachian State was indisputably the best team in Division I FCS, and Michigan was highly overranked.
In 2007, the Stanford upset of USC was much bigger. Stanford had only won one game in 2006, and only won four games in 2007. They beat #2 USC, at USC. USC finished the year with only one other loss, a Rose Bowl victory, and final rankings of #2 (Coaches) and #3 (AP).
I mean, in 2007, I don't think many would argue that Stanford was better than Applachian State, or Michigan was better than UCS. So, obviously, Stanford over USC was clearly a bigger upset than Appalachian State over Michigan.
Quarterbacking. Yes, bigger upsets than UM-Appy State have occurred in the history of college football, but I'm talking about perception.
The perception of what happened - a supposed national title contender losing at home to a lower division school brought in to essentially be preseason cannon fodder is what is remebered....not the actual point spread or realities of the actual talent on both teams. It was an absolute embarrassment.
MSU's bball loss last year was glorious, but 2-15 upsets had happened before in the tourney and one game basketball upsets (given the nature of 5 v 5, hot or cold shooting, dependency on high usage rate players that can have high variance) are much more likely than one game football upsets.
We can rationalize all we want, but the UM-Appy state upset was essentially the equivalent of a 1 vs. 16 upset in the tourney in that it was novel event - nobody cares that it has become more common place since. If Sparty had lost as a 1 seed it would have been forever remembered as the greatest upset in college bball history....2 vs. 15 leaves it up to debate and grouped with a bunch of other shocking tourney games.
MTSU has a pretty decent upside. Growing school in a growing region.
Wouldn't be shocked to see them in the American Athletic Conference 10-15 years out. Not today, of course. But in the medium-term future.
Agreed, they're trying to replicate a track similar to Louisville, just 20 years later. Moved up from the Sun Belt to Conference USA, I could see them move into the AAC in the near future. Murfreesboro is exploding, will have the current population of Louisville in the next 20 years. But the population includes a lot of transplants (myself included) so there is not a ton of homegrown fans of the team. Even those that are in the area pride themsleves as UT fans first.
God I'm so glad that has never happened here. It would be terribly embarrassing now wouldnt it?
Infer much?
My point was that MSU has so much stuff to make fun of them about it seems pretty stupid to choose the one thing we experienced first hand ourselves.
No one has brought this up yet.
But, they beat my Jackets, at Bobby Dodd, in 2012, by three touchdowns. Tech's worst loss in probably 30 years. They had come close to getting a couple P5 teams before that, too. I'd argue that vaulted them up a level or two in fans' and college football followers' eyes as much as anything.
They have gone with continuity with the football program, and it's paid off. Rick Stockstill, in this day and age, has a tenure that borders on eternality. His first season there was 2006, and has taken the program to heights never before seen, not only bowl appearances, but a few bowl wins. They are definitely on the up, but they will always have that in-state gaudy orange hovering over them.
*ASIDE* bordering on irrelvancy concerning this topic, but they have a pretty interesting and long-standing rivalry with W Kentucky called "100 Miles of Hate", as the two schools are, you guessed it, approximately 100 miles apart either side of Nashville, Tennessee. The rivalry goes back to the respective programs' D2 and 1-AA/FCS days.
They reduced their span of identifiable numbers from 2-15 to 3-9, so there's that.
Giddy Potts is my hero