When the third-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels took the court in Seattle for their 1999 NCAA West Regional opener against No. 14 seed Weber State, they’d won 18 straight first-round games.
Then they ran into Harold “The Show” Arceneaux, a New Orleans native who’d found a home at the Ogden, Utah, university after junior college stops at College of Eastern Utah and Midland, Texas.
Despite Arceneaux averaging more than 22 points, UNC never focused its defense on him, helplessly watching The Show score 36 points — including the winning free throws with 13.3 seconds to play — in a 76-74 upset that remains one of the most shocking in NCAA history.
Now fast-forward to the opening round of the 2007 tourney, the ball in the hands of Virginia Commonwealth guard Eric Maynor with 1.8 seconds to go against Duke. His 15-footer for the victory became known as the Duke Dagger and sent the Blue Devils home a loser for only the second time in 29 games under coach Mike Krzyzewski when facing schools seeded 11th or lower.
“If you’re in this tournament long enough,” Coach K said afterward, “you’re going to go down.”