Woof! The Cavaliers think of themselves as the elite of the elites, on a par with Harvard and Yale. UMBC is probably no more than a community college full of yokels barely scraping by enough to earn a degree.
And it wasn’t like it was won on a buzzer-beater either. This was a 20-point stomping.
UMBC is one of those interesting rising schools that are steadily climbing the academic ladder. In MD as in many states, the flagship campus of the state system has become more selective and in-state admission can't be taken for granted. The first response is usually to grow the flagship campus to the point that alums and boosters begin to fear that it's becoming an unrecognizable and unlovely behemoth. States then realize the need to upgrade the second and third tier schools in the system. Places that were local commuter colleges with no particular standards gradually begin to improve. The best example here is probably George Mason, which was not on anyone's radar screen when I arrived in DC forty years ago. It's now a recognized national university, not an elite school like UVA but thoroughly respectable. Its campus still looks like a suburban office park, but we'll probably have to start getting used to that. Campuses that were established prior to the post-WWII automobile culture were built to a walking scale and are generally quite attractive. On many more modern campuses, it's clear that the planners and architects think the most important thing is parking lots convenient to every building.
UMBC is a powerhouse in chess tournaments.
Actually UMBC prides itself on having the highest percentage of graduates go on to PhD’s and MD’s of any college in the country. Its long-time president has a math degree.