Before last week, many of us had no idea that the University of Maryland, Baltimore County existed. The Retrievers made their first NCAA tournament appearance back in 2008, but were made quick work by a superior Georgetown team in the first round and didn’t make a lasting impression on the minds of the masses.
This year, the UMBC squad catapulted to the mainstream by becoming the first 16 seed to beat a number 1 seed, waxing Virginia 74-54.Despite losing a close one to Kansas State in the second round of the tournament, the 11,200 UMBC undergrads should be bursting with pride over how their little-known team performed on college basketball’s biggest stage.
Before yesterday’s loss to Kansas State, the UMBC basketball team received a special shipment from the folks at Under Armour. The entire team was gifted a pair of UA ‘Pi Day’ Curry 5 sneakers. The shoes, which sold out in minutes upon release on March 14, celebrates Steph Curry’s 30th birthday and Pi Day (3.14), the mathematical anomaly whose decimal representation never ends and never settles into a permanent repeating pattern.
The shoes sold for $130 but for UMBC players, were free of charge.
— UMBC (@UMBC) March 18, 2018
— UMBC Athletics (@UMBCAthletics) March 18, 2018
— Jairus Lyles (@_jlyles) March 18, 2018
Under Armour will reportedly restock the Pi Day shoes on April 14.
It will be interesting to see how UMBC’s moment of shine affects recruiting and application numbers in the coming years. UMBC Retrievers National Champs 2026. Book it.
[h/t Sole Collector]
