College Basketball
- St Bonaventure University (1970) – Bonaventure became the smallest school by enrollment (over 1,000 less students than Jacksonville) to reach the final four of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. Unfortunately, injury to Bob Lanier put him in hospital to watch them lose to Jacksonville.
- Jacksonville University (1970) – Jacksonville became the smallest school by enrollment to reach the final round of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. However, the Dolphins lost to UCLA in the finals.
- Louisiana State University (1986) – LSU's 1986 team is tied for the lowest-seeded team (#11) to ever make the Final Four (with George Mason's 2006 team and Virginia Commonwealth's 2011 team).
- Loyola Marymount University (1990) – After averaging an NCAA record 122 points per game, the Lions lost senior leader, and former scoring and rebounding champion, Hank Gathers, to a heart condition as he died on the court. However, the Lions fought their way to the Elite Eight where they lost to eventual champion UNLV Rebels. Their run included defeating defending national champion Michigan 149-115.
- Gonzaga University (1999) – Gonzaga's 1999 team pulled the program from total obscurity by reaching the Elite Eight. Their run was ended by a narrow 67-62 loss to the UConn Huskies, the ultimate tournament champions.
- George Mason University (2006) – In 2006, the Patriots became the first true "mid-major" team in over a quarter-century to advance to the Final Four of the NCAA Men's Tournament before losing to the eventual national champion Florida Gators. They were named the Sports Illustrated Biggest Cinderella Team of the Decade in college basketball
- Butler University (2010 and 2011)– In 2010, despite having a great season in the Horizon League, going 18-0, including winning the conference tournament, and receiving a #5 seed, Butler, a traditional mid-major power for a decade, was not expected to advance past the Sweet Sixteen. However, after victories over #12 seed UTEP and #13 seed Murray State, Butler upset the heavily favored #1 seed Syracuse in the Sweet Sixteen, and the also heavily favored #2 seed Kansas State in the Elite Eight to advance to the Final Four. They followed by defeating Michigan State in their national semifinal game, before falling to #1Duke. After losing several of its star players to graduation and/or the NBA draft, Butler struggled but still managed to win the conference tournament with a 23-9 record and qualify for the NCAA Tournament. Receiving the #8 seed in the Southeast Region, Butler defeated Old Dominion in the first round. They then upset top-seeded Pittsburgh to advance to the regionals, where they defeated #4 seed Wisconsin and #2 seed Florida to become the first #8 seed since both Wisconsin and North Carolina did so in 2000 to advance to the Final Four. After defeating fellow Cinderella Virginia Commonwealth (see below) in the national semifinal Butler again fell short in the national championship game, losing this time to West Region #3 seed Connecticut.
- Virginia Commonwealth University (2011) – Many fans and analysts, including Dick Vitale, Jay Bilas, and Billy Packer, were surprised that VCU was given a berth in the NCAA Tournament as a #11 seed over other teams that seemed to be more deserving of an at-large berth. However, VCU silenced all the critics by upsetting five teams from five different power conferences en route to the Final Four: USC in the First round, #6 seed Georgetown in the second round, #3 seed Purdue in the third round, #10 seed Florida State in the Sweet Sixteen, and #1 seed Kansas in the Elite Eight. They became the first team to make the Final Four after playing a play-in game, as well as being the third #11 seed to make the Final Four after LSU in 1986 and George Mason in 2006. However, just like LSU and George Mason, they were defeated in the Final Four, losing to fellow mid-major Butler.
Read more about this topic: Cinderella (sports), Examples of Cinderellas That Did Not Win The Championship
Famous quotes containing the words college and/or basketball:
“... when you make it a moral necessity for the young to dabble in all the subjects that the books on the top shelf are written about, you kill two very large birds with one stone: you satisfy precious curiosities, and you make them believe that they know as much about life as people who really know something. If college boys are solemnly advised to listen to lectures on prostitution, they will listen; and who is to blame if some time, in a less moral moment, they profit by their information?”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)
“Perhaps basketball and poetry have just a few things in common, but the most important is the possibility of transcendence. The opposite is labor. In writing, every writer knows when he or she is laboring to achieve an effect. You want to get from here to there, but find yourself willing it, forcing it. The equivalent in basketball is aiming your shot, a kind of strained and usually ineffective purposefulness. What you want is to be in some kind of flow, each next moment a discovery.”
—Stephen Dunn (b. 1939)