The biggest upset of the NCAA Tournament so far was a sound one, as No. 12 seed McNeese State basketball dominated for nearly 40 minutes to beat No. 5 seed Clemson 69-67 in a game that was not as close as the final score indicates.

Will Wade's squad absolutely dominated Clemson in the first half, holding the Tigers to just 13 points before halftime. McNeese held a double-digit lead for a majority of the second half before some hot shooting from Clemson cut the lead down to just two at the final buzzer. However, McNeese State was never in any danger of losing the lead.

Of course, this win comes on the heels of reports that Wade will be leaving McNeese State to take the head coaching job at NC State. While it would have been reasonable to assume that may have been a distraction for the Cowboys, Will Wade made sure to keep his focus solely on advancing in the tournament.

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“I've been focused on the game,” Wade said after the McNeese State win. “I've been on one about the game. Whatever else is happening, that's of no distraction to us. I know everybody else thinks there's distractions. We operate the same way all the time. So, we haven't operated any differently, nothing's been any different. There hasn't been a lot of emotion, it's been narrow focus. The bigger the game, the narrower your focus. It's been absolutely narrow focus on winning our first NCAA Tournament game at McNeese State.”

Wade and his McNeese State team did just that in one of the most impressive performances by any team this college basketball season.

This McNeese State squad is certainly talented enough to keep it rolling, and it has built pedigree over the last two seasons as one of the best mid-major squads in the nation.

Wade and company have their work cut out for them in the second round, as they will take on No. 4 seed Purdue. It will be much harder to throw Purdue off of its rhythm due to the presence of star point guard Braden Smith, but this McNeese State basketball team will certainly do its best to create chaos once again and make a Cinderella run to the Sweet 16.