The NCAA tournament said goodbye to one Giant Killer last Friday night, and our statistical model was ready to pack its bags and go home on Sunday, but VCU just blew up our spreadsheets.
Before we get to the details, remember to vote for the 2011 All-Giant Killers team. You can nominate any athlete who played for a potential or actual Killer in this year's tournament; cast your ballots in the comments or via the GK Mailbag.
And now, let's give props to the David who has slain Goliaths like no other underdog before, beating five favored teams as an 11-seed, the Virginia Commonwealth Rams.
Given its regular-season statistics, we estimate the odds of VCU getting this far were a staggering 3,058 to 1. And that raises the question: Should we be evaluating the Rams as a qualitatively different team than the one that entered March Madness?
To see the full breakdown of the VCU upset of Kansas and why the Rams have a legitimate shot at playing for an NCAA title, you must be an ESPN Insider.
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Giant Killers Blog
Giant Killers is Insider's annual metrics-based forecast of NCAA tournament upsets. A Giant Killer is a team that beats a tourney opponent seeded at least five spots higher. For a full explanation of our model, click here.
Peter Keating
Peter Keating is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine, where he has covered investigative and financial stories since 1999. His work on concussions in football has earned awards from the Deadline Club, the New York Press Club and the Center for the Study of Sport in Society. He joined the Giant Killers team in 2008.
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Jordan Brenner
Jordan Brenner is a contributing writer for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN Insider. He has covered pro and college basketball for the last decade and launched the Giant Killers project in 2006.
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