The UMBC Retrievers’ 74-54 win over the Virginia Cavaliers Friday marked the first-ever #16 seed victory over a #1 seed in the men’s NCAA basketball tournament, and it led to quite the triumph for those who picked them. Many of those who did just that were Maryland politicians, or those who favored dog mascots, but then there was also Florida Atlantic football coach Lane Kiffin, who posted a bracket where he picked UMBC to win the national title.
But, given Kiffin’s fondness for trolling people on social media, that had some questioning if he’d actually made that pick before the game. One of those was SI.com writer Eric Single. Single wrote a long article titled “I Don’t Believe That Lane Kiffin Called UMBC Over Virginia,’ discussing Kiffin’s bracket in detail and how improbable its range of upset picks appeared. Kiffin then had quite the response on Twitter:
Oh, and Kiffin later provided a screenshot of him texting his bracket to a group before tip-off:
https://twitter.com/Lane_Kiffin/status/975071938614788098
And that group included Florida Atlantic trustee Abdol Moabery, who confirmed Kiffin’s account:
So, either Kiffin actually did make this pick two hours before that game tipped off (and honestly, it fits in just fine with the general weirdness and upset-heavy leanings of his bracket), or he’s running an incredibly elaborate con to make people think he did and has one of his school’s trustees in on it. What a world. In any case, Kiffin has certainly turned this into some further Twitter discussion about him and Florida Atlantic, and that’s probably the biggest thing he was going for here. At any rate, it’s another weird story about Kiffin and social media, but also another one where he doesn’t come off looking too bad.
[SI.com]
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.