After their huge victories over No.2 Kentucky and No.7 Murray State in this year’s NCAA tournament, countless St Peter’s memes flooded social media.
The biggest upset of this year’s NCAA tournament came when No.15 Saint Peter’s Peacocks defeated No.2 Kentucky. Two days later, they followed that up with a win over Murray State.
It’s arguably the biggest Cinderella story in NCAA history, a lot of people weren’t even aware of the school prior to Thursday’s momentous win. After the thrilling victories, St Peter’s memes flooded social media.
How they got the wins
The enormity of the No.15-ranked team beating the No. 2 seed and No. 3 overall betting favourite is huge. St Peter’s got the victory in overtime, overcoming the odds to topple their opponents 85-79.
The game was full of lead changes and saw the relative minnows go toe-to-toe with their much fancied opponents. The Peacocks as a team shot 50.9% from the floor, 52.9% from three and 85.7% from the free throw line.
Daryl Banks III and Doug Edert deserve special mention, and will go down in NCAA folklore after scoring 27 and 20 points respectively.
“Probably a lot of people don’t even know who we are,” Banks told Yahoo Sports after the game.
They followed that up with a 70-60 win over No.7 Murray State to move onto the round of 32 for the first time in the school’s history.
St Peter’s memes flood social media
The upsets were inevitably the talk of social media after the games. Shortly after the games’ conclusions, St Peter’s memes flooded Twitter, and it appears they are everyone’s new favorite team.
What to know about St Peter’s
For those who don’t know, St Peter’s is a Jesuit university in Jersey City, New Jersey, and was founded in 1872. It is a private university and its current enrolment sits at about 3,500 students.
They are known as the Peacocks and play in the Run Baby Run Arena, which has a capacity of 3,200. The team is coached by Shaheen Holloway and competes in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), where they finished second before winning the conference tournament.
The Peacocks defeated No. 7 Fairfield in the quarter-finals and No. 11 Quinnipiac in the semi-finals before beating No. 4 Monmouth for the title in the championship game.
They are just the third No. 15 seed in NCAA tournament history to reach the Sweet 16 and now face the Purdue Boilermakers.
