NCAA Basketball: Top 25 NCAA Tournament cinderellas since 2000
By Adam Childs
12) 2012 Lehigh Mountain Hawks, No. 15-seed
Record: 27-8, Round of 32
Beat: (2) Duke Blue Devils
To get this high on the list of cinderella teams by only winning one game, you have to do something special. Beating the power that is the Duke Blue Devils would be that thing. The Lehigh Mountain Hawks pulled off one of the most shocking upsets when they toppled mighty Duke in the 2012 NCAA Tournament.
Lehigh finished second in the Patriot League during the regular season, but ran through the tournament, which included beating a Bucknell Bison team who had beat them earlier in the year.
Earning the auto-bid from the Patriot League would only get Lehigh a No. 15-seed, but with the nation’s fifth-leading scorer in CJ McCollum, the Mountain Hawks felt like they had a chance against Duke.
Having McCollum was enough, as the Mountain Hawks were able to frustrate the Blue Devils and he was able to score at will. McCollum would end up with 30 points for the game and was the best player on the court. Duke was shocked, but Lehigh preached that they believed they could win the whole time.
The Mountain Hawks took that belief and took down one of the best college basketball programs in the country. Lehigh ended a crazy day of basketball in the NCAA Tournament, as the Ohio Bobcats had already beaten the Michigan Wolverines and the Norfolk State Spartans beat the Missouri Tigers. But even with the crazy day, this was the biggest upset.
It was also McCollum’s introduction to the nation. Even with being a top-five scorer in the country, not many people knew he was. But after the Duke game, everyone knew he was and they weren’t going to forget.
Lehigh would come out firing against the Xavier Musketeers in the second round and had a 15-point first half lead. However, the Mountain Hawks couldn’t hold on, as Xavier came storming back and dominated to the second half for a 12-point win.
McCollum was held to 14 points and it was enough to keep Lehigh from pulling another upset. They may have only won one NCAA Tournament game, but Lehigh won the hearts of many fans just by beating Duke in the first round.