March Madness Has Its First Upset

McNeese coach Will Wade and his boombox-toting manager gave March Madness its first bracket buster. The 12th-seeded Cowboys used a stifling first half to open a 24-point lead, and then held off late-charging No. 5 seed Clemson for the program's first NCAA Tournament victory, a 69-67 win in the opening round of the East Region on Thursday, the AP reports. "We have broken every record in the book," said Wade, who led the school to its first back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Tournament and now its first victory. "This was the last one to get. We want to keep this going. We want to keep this going." McNeese earned a matchup on Saturday with fourth-seeded Purdue, a 75-63 winner over High Point earlier in Providence.

Brandon Murray scored 14 of his 21 points in the first half, when the Southland Conference school from Lake Charles, Louisiana, held Clemson to 13 points. After falling behind by as many as 24 in the second, the Tigers rallied, erasing most of a 12-point deficit in the final minute before running out of time. "We went out there and took the first punch and they didn't know how to react to that, honestly," Murray said. "Coach tells us to be ourselves, play with swag. That's what we're going to do." Chris Shumate added 13 points and 11 rebounds for McNeese, which has been best-known this March for its viral, rapping manager and a renegade coach who has reportedly already lined up his next job—at NC State. (More March Madness stories.)