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Saint Peter's Beats Kentucky: Best Jokes and Memes About Your Busted Bracket

Peacocks and Spiders win! Yes, your bracket is trash now. But it was worth it.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
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Gael Cooper
2 min read
Saint Peter's versus Kentucky

Isiah Dasher (13) of the Saint Peter's Peacocks drives to the basket against Lance Ware (55) of the Kentucky Wildcats during the first half of Thursday's game.

 Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Brackets were meant to be busted, right? On Thursday in the NCAA men's basketball tournament, the Saint Peter's Peacocks basketball team defeated the mighty Kentucky Wildcats in overtime by a score of 85-79. That's a No. 15 seed beating a No. 2. That's St. Patrick's Day turning into St. Peter's Day. That sound you hear is everyone's March Madness bracket busting open like a Shamrock Shake dropped on the floor.

This is the 10th time a No. 15 has ousted a No. 2, according to The New York Times, and yes, it happened as recently as last year, when Oral Roberts beat Ohio State. Yes, the thrill of a new Cinderella team going to the ball is still there.

Of course, social media had some thoughts.

The Saint Peter's Peacocks themselves, from Jersey City, New Jersey, scored with a tweet pointing out that they don't even rate a verified account on Twitter.

New Jersey governor Phil Murphy boasted that he was always behind his home state team.

And NBC's Peacock streaming service wanted to share in the peacock fandom.

And yeah, it's a really cute mascot.

Some people wanted to crunch numbers.

"To put the disparity between Kentucky and St. Peter's in perspective, Kentucky has four 'assistant' coaches who make more than St. Peter's head coach Shaheen Holloway," wrote ESPN's Pete Thamel. "He's thought to make around $250,000 (private school). UK's assistants range from $850,000 to $300,000."

And some people just wanted to mourn their brackets. ESPN reported that out of over 17 million brackets in their tournament challenge, only 743 remain perfect.

Spiders move on

Saint Peter's over Kentucky wasn't the only huge upset of Thursday. The University of Richmond Spiders, from Richmond, Virginia, a 12-seed, beat vaunted Iowa, a 5-seed. Apparently it was the day of crazy mascots, with both Peacocks and Spiders advancing.

Wrote one person, "the person who fills out their bracket based only on mascots watching the Richmond Spiders and Saint Peter's Peacocks pulling off the two biggest upsets of the NCAA Tournament."

And if you have a friend who picked Iowa to face Kentucky in the April 4championship, maybe see if they need medical attention.

Stay tuned, there's plenty more basketball to come.