EVERY YEAR MARCH Madness produces one team whose Cinderella story gets all of America hooked — for a couple of days at least.
This year it’s the Dayton Flyers who caused two upsets in the space of three days to make it to college basketball’s Sweet Sixteen (the last 16) for the first time in 30 years.
Dayton’s rollercoaster ride started on Thursday when they defied their #11 seeding to beat state neighbours Ohio State by a point, 60-59.
That shock win against the #6 seeds was so unexpected that it ruined almost nine million March Madness brackets in one fell swoop on the first day.
They made sure to rub it in. One local paper, the Dayton Daily News, took a pointed swipe at their rivals who refer to themselves as “THE Ohio State University.”
Most people expected the fairytale to end on Saturday night when Dayton faced an even stronger opponent, the number three seed Syracuse.
But they caused another massive shock, holding out on the final play of the game for a 55-53 win.
It sparked one hell of a party.
University president Dr Daniel J Curran got in on the act, crowdsurfing out on the campus streets.
Dayton even got a shout out from the White House with President Barack Obama giving special mention to senior Devin Oliver who offered to play him in a pickup game when they met a few years back.
It got even better on Sunday when #10 Stanford caused an upset of their own by beating #2 seed Kansas.
What that means is that Dayton and Stanford, two of the South division’s most unfancied teams, will meet for a place in the Elite Eight (the quarter-finals) on Thursday.
They don’t call this March Madness for nothing.
