March Madness Cinderella Player Performances That We’ll Never Forget
Going into March Madness, you have to expect that your bracket is going to be broken. Every year there's a new Cinderella player and Cinderella team in the tournament that will probably lose you a lot of money and steal your heart at the same time. They're the teams that aren't expected to get out of the first round but end up making it to the Final Four.
They're the players that no scout is looking at before March, but they turn out to be NBA superstars. The ones that had to work twice as hard in the gym because they never really had the talent. It's these players and their stories that have us crawling back to March Madness every year with optimism.
Ali Farokhmanesh
Ali Farokkhmanesh doesn't just have an insanely tough name to pronounce. He was also one of the toughest players to match up against during the 2010 March Madness tournament for the Northern Iowa Panthers. He sealed his spot on this list with a dagger in the second round to upset Kansas. The ninth-seeded Panthers led by one and could've let the clock run down a bit, but Farokhanesh threw up a gutsy three.
He drained it and ended up sending the top-seeded Kansas Jayhawks packing, while the North Iowa Panthers got a birth into the Sweet 16. Ali was a legend around his campus because of it.
Richie Frahm
Gonzaga's arrival on the national stage came in 1999 when Richie Frahm led a supporting cast to a surprise run as the No.10 seed. They didn't have an easy bracket, either. Frahm had to lead his boys past powerhouses Minnesota, Stanford, and Florida before a 67-62 loss to eventual national champion UConn in the Elite Eight.
Coach Dan Monson left afterward and Mark Few replaced him and the Zags have been regulars in the tournament ever since. Frahm would go onto play for the Sonics, Trail Blazers and Bobcats before heading over to play basketball in Europe and Turkey.
D.J Cooper
It didn't take the lanky point guard from Ohio University very long to start making an impact for his team at the NCAA tournament. In 2010, Cooper led his Bobcats to a 97-83 blow-out win against No.3 Georgetown in the first round. It wasn't just an upset, it was an explosion.
Two years later, Cooper outplayed Michigan's Trey Burke in the first round and led the Bobcats to the Sweet 16 as a No.13 seed. Their tournament ended after taking top-seeded North Carolina to overtime where they ended up losing 73-65.
Harold Arceneaux
There's a reason that Harold Arceneaux was nicknamed "The Show" during his 1999 season with Weber State. He averaged 22.3 points per game for the No.14 seed Wildcats heading into the NCAA tournament. Arceneaux dumped 36 points on No.3 North Carolina in a 76-74 shocker in the first round which had literally everyone who followed college basketball picking their jaws up from the ground.
Then, he scored 32 more points in a second-round loss to Florida, but the fact that he averaged 34 points per game in the first weekend was pretty impressive.
Sherwood Brown
Sherwood Brown's senior year playing for the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles was one to remember. Not only did he lead FGC to their first-ever appearance in the NCAA tournament, but they actually had a solid showing.
Brown carried the team on his back and scored 24 points in the first game to upset No.2 seeded Georgetown. Then, his team made history by beating San Diego State and becoming the only No.15 seed to ever make the Sweet 16. Brown scored 17 points and added 8 rebounds against the Florida Gators where their Cinderella story would end after a 62-50 loss.
C.J. McCollum
C.J McCollum has turned into one of the most prolific three-point shooters in the NBA for the Portland Trail Blazers, but he was also an NCAA tournament star. He averaged 21.9 points per game in the regular season but gave his No.15 seeded Lehigh a chance against Duke in their first tournament game.
McCollum put up 30 points in that game as Lehigh stunned the basketball world by upsetting Duke 75-70. Even though McCollum's team didn't make it past the next round, he was able to use his dominant performance to launch himself into the NBA spotlight.
Jamie Skeen
Jamie Skeen played two seasons at Wake Forest before transferring over to VCU and it was one of the best decisions he could've made for his college career. His Rams needed a play-in game just to get into the dance, and the run continued to the Elite Eight. Skeen would show his clutch gene by scoring 26 points in that game which saw VCU topple the Kansas Jayhawks.
That victory would send them into the Final Four against Butler. VCU couldn't keep the upsets coming and ended up losing to the powerhouse, but it solidified Jamie Skeen into March Madness history.
Byrce Drew
Bryce Drew is one of the rising basketball minds in college basketball coaching circles. He's now the head coach of the Vanderbilt Commodores, but he has some playing clout as well.
Drew's miracle three-pointer at the buzzer during the 1998 NCAA tournament while playing for Valparaiso was legendary. It still remains one of the greatest inbound plays of all time. His clutch last-second shot gave Valpo the upset win against Ole Miss. He didn't stop there either, he scored 22 more points against Florida State to send his Crusaders to the Sweet 16.
Steve Nash
Before he was a two-time NBA MVP, Steve Nash was a stand-out star for the Santa Clara Broncos. Without a doubt, Nash ruined your bracket in 1993 as a freshman when his No.15 seed Broncos upset No.2 Arizona in the first round. Nash scored six straight free throws in the last thirty seconds of the game to solidify the win.
Nash would evolve into a two-time West Coast Conference Player of the Year and led Santa Clara to another major upset over Maryland in his senior year.
Trevor Huffman
Trevor Huffman helped lead the Kent State Golden Flashes to three tournament appearances. His leadership paved the way for the team to upset Indiana in the first round of the 2001 tournament. That set-up a run to the Elite Eight during the 2002 tournament after their confidence surge.
2002 was the year that Huffman and teammate Antonio Gates (yes, THAT Antonio Gates) each averaged 16 points per game. Huffman led No.10 seed Kent State to wins against Oklahoma State, Alabama, and Pittsburgh before the run ended in the Elite Eight against Indiana who Kent State had upset the year before that.
Jai Lewis
Even if you're not a basketball fan, you probably remember the insane run by George Mason in 2006. That Cinderella Story was in part thanks to Jai Lewis. He was a 6-foot-7 forward who put the Patriots' team on his back during their Final Four run as a No.11 seed.
The first three games of the tournament saw George Mason sneak out wins against Michigan State, North Carolina, and Wichita State. In the regional final win against top-seeded UConn, Lewis scored 20 and was the shining star for his team. They ended up losing to Florida, but it wasn't without the basketball world noticing.
Wally Szczerbiak
Wally Szczerbiak led Miami to the tournament in 1997, but his performance really took off in 1999 in their first-round win against Washington. The star guard, who averaged 24.2 points per game in the regular season, hit up the UConn Huskies for 43 points. He went 18-33 shooting in a 59-58 win.
Szczerbiak carried Miami again to an upset over Utah who at that time was being led by Andre Miller which punched their ticket into the Sweet 16. He scored another 24 points in that nail biter. Wally's Red Hawks would eventually get bounced by Kentucky but not before he averaged 30 ppg in those three tournament games.
Carmelo Anthony
Freshmen aren't supposed to be able to do what Carmelo Anthony did in the 2003 March Madness tournament. He wasn't just the best player in the tournament, he was the best player on the national championship winning team.
He was averaging 20.2 point and nearly 10 boards per game. The way that their bracket fell meant that his Syracuse Orange had to run through the Big 12 which is exactly what they did. They knocked off Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, and Kansas that year. He was shooting at 48% from three as a 6'8 wing. Good luck stopping that.
Tony Price
When looking at best March Madness performances, it's easy to lose Tony Price and his Pennsylvania Quakers in the white noise. It was arguably the greatest Final Four of all time as Price led the 1979 Quakers out of the Ivy League and into the tournament.
He averaged 26 points on the first weekend in wins against Iona and North Carolina. He averaged 20.5 points per game in the second weekend against Syracuse and St.John's. Penn would eventually get beat out by Magic Johnson's Michigan State in the Final Four, but they did beat DePaul in the third-place game. Price averaged 23.7 points per game in the tournament.
Steph Curry
Before Steph Curry came along, his Davidson team hadn't won a single game at the March Madness tournament since 1970. Not only did Steph's team win a game the years he played but they also, they made it to the Elite Eight as a ten-seed.
Curry was outstanding in the four games that they played that year. He was averaging 32 points a game, including a game against Gonzaga that he dropped 40 points in. He made a whopping 23 three's in the tournament which helped them upset the Zags, Georgetown, and Wisconsin before falling to Kansas in the regional final. He still ended up with 25 points in the loss.
Bo Kimble
This is an incredible story. Hank Gathers of Loyola-Marymount died during a game in the West Coast Conference tournament where the Lions won an automatic bid as the No.11 seed into the 1988 NCAA tournament. Bo Kimble shot every first free throw on the game with his left hand in honor of his fallen teammate.
Kimble ended up carrying the No.11 seed to the Elite Eight as he averaged 46 points per game on the first weekend in wins against New Mexico and Michigan. Loyola-Marymount beat Alabama in the Sweet 16 but lost to the top-seeded UNLV in the regional final. Kimble averaged 38.3 points per game during the tournament.
Kemba Walker
Kemba Walker and his UConn Huskies basically danced to the national championship in 2011. For the tournament, he averaged 23.5 points, 6 rebounds, and 5.7 assists a game while sitting out only a little over a minute each game. He literally took the team on his back.
He had one of the most clutch performances in the tournament's history. He notched 36 points against San Diego State and 33 against Cincinnati. Most of the guys on this list had a good, if not a great sidekick, but Walker didn't.
Christian Laettner
Christian Laettner received the full court pass with seconds left on the clock. He quickly spun and drained the game-winning shot as the shot clock buzzer went. His incredible performances during March Madness in 1992 had his Duke Blue Devils winning their second straight national championship.
He finished 10-10 from the field, and 10-10 from the free throw line in the finals against basketball powerhouse Kentucky in the Elite Eight and was a big reason for the championship. He averaged 20 points a game in that year's tournament with only 12 attempts per game.
Earvin "Magic" Johnson
The NCAA didn't track assists until a few years after Magic was playing for Michigan State, but he unofficially posted a triple-double in the March Madness title game to knock off Larry Bird and Indiana State.
There's something to be said for the quality of competition when evaluating these runs. Although Magic's tournament numbers weren't all that crazy, his Michigan State Warriors won the championship, and he had to beat Larry Bird in the process. He averaged 21.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, and somewhere around 10 assists during the 1979 tournament. Michigan State was never really challenged the entire tournament either.
Ken McFadden
Ken McFadden is a legend at Cleveland State and it's easy to see why. Before going into the 1986 NCAA tournament, McFadden said, "we're one of the best-kept secrets in college basketball," and he was right.
McFadden led his No.14 seed underdogs to an 83-79 upset against Steve Alford-led Indiana in the first round. Then, he dropped 23 in the second round against St.Joe's to get them into the Sweet 16. They couldn't take down Navy's David Robinson, but they had a really good run for a team that no one saw even winning a quarter in the tournament.
