The calendar may have marked the annual celebration of Saint Patrick, but on Thursday in Indianapolis and Jersey City -- two towns separated by more than 700 miles -- the festivities actually belonged to a different saint. The madness simply took precedence.
Of the four sizable upsets that occurred during the opening day of this year's NCAA Tournament, 15th-seed Saint Peter's played the role of ultimate bracket-buster. With a team-high 27 points from Daryl Banks III, the Peacocks stunned 2nd-seed Kentucky in overtime, 85-79, advancing to the second round in the East Region. According to ESPN Stats & Info, Saint Peter's entered as an 18.5-point underdog, tying the fourth-largest tournament upset since 1985.
"I'm feeling great. It feels amazing to do something like that for a school back in New Jersey, the hometown," Banks explained to the JR SportBrief show on Thursday. "Coming into the game, Coach [Shaheen Holloway] told us this was going to be a home game for [Kentucky], because it wasn't that far for them. He said we've got to stay level-headed. When things go bad, we've got to be there for each other. He did a great job preparing us for this...
"We're just a hard-working team. It can be anybody's night. That's our motto, we're a very deep team. We come out there and play hard, we play defense, and get after it. And that's really what Saint Peter's basketball is all about... This is what any player dreams of, being in the NCAA Tournament. Pulling off an upset like this, it's amazing. But Coach also said before we took this trip, we deserve to be here. We're not here to just be out there, play, and lose..."
The average basketball fan likely can't find Saint Peter's campus on the map. Located along the Hudson River in Northern New Jersey, the Peacocks play in the mid-major Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), and the school enrollment is roughly 2,300 students. They won their first conference crown since 2011 last weekend, defeating Monmouth in Atlantic City.
With the thrilling and unexpected upset over Kentucky, Saint Peter's now has its second NCAA Tournament win in school history. On Saturday night, they'll face 7th-seed Murray State in the Round of 32, and according to projections from FiveThirtyEight, the Peacocks have a 29-percent chance to advance to the coveted Sweet 16.
The entire Saint Peter's conversation between Banks and JR can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow the JR SportBrief show on Twitter @JRSportBrief and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.