High Point, a 12-seed from the Big South Conference that had never won an NCAA Tournament game, beat fifth-seeded Wisconsin 83-82 on Thursday in the first major upset of 2026 March Madness. [1] Chase Johnston hit the go-ahead basket in the final seconds to complete a second-half comeback that left Wisconsin's season — and millions of brackets — in ruins. [2]

The upset was the first of four wins by double-digit seeds on Day One, a rate of bracket destruction that had prediction models scrambling by mid-afternoon. [3] VCU also delivered a notable upset, and the day produced the kind of chaos that makes the tournament the single most-watched sporting event of the American spring — even as the other madness escalates.

High Point's student radio broadcasters went viral, their disbelieving screams capturing the purest thing about the tournament: a school nobody picked, a shot nobody expected, and a moment that will define a program for a generation. [4]