NCAA Basketball: Top 25 NCAA Tournament upsets since 2000
By Joey Loose
21. #8 Wisconsin 66, #1 Arizona 59 (2000 Round of 32)
Another potent Arizona Wildcats team upset in the opening weekend of the tournament? Many years before Sean Miller would arrive in Tucson, Lute Olson built quite a potent program.
Even after blowing their way through the Pac-10 season and spending the entire year in the top 10, they couldn’t quite handle what was coming at them by way of the Wisconsin Badgers.
Wisconsin was given an 8-seed after a decently successful season. They were .500 in Big Ten play, but boasted a number of wins over ranked foes (mostly at home). In mid-January, the Badgers were 9-8 (1-4 in Big Ten play), but this team didn’t give up. They played at a slow pace, lulling teams to sleep with their defense.
That defense and that strategy worked against a potent Wildcats team. Future NBA star Gilbert Arenas would score 21 points on Wisconsin, but he made just 7 of his 18 shots from the field.
The Badgers shot 49 percent and got great games from Mark Vershaw (15 points) and Andy Kowske (10 points, 12 rebounds). Arizona had its lowest-scoring game of the season and couldn’t catch up to the Badgers after falling behind at the half, securing the upset win.
After clinching a surprise trip to the Sweet Sixteen, the Badgers would dispatch of the LSU Tigers and the Purdue Boilermakers, making their first Final Four in 59 years.
A few years later, Bo Ryan would arrive in Madison and lead this program to heights it hadn’t seen since winning the national title in 1941. But back in 2000, pulling an upset like this was a huge step forward for the Badgers program, especially since they had two more tricks up their sleeves en route to that Final Four.