Lehigh Mountain Hawks Nominated for ESPY

The Lehigh Mountain Hawks stunning over the Duke Blue Devils, four months after, is still reverberating.

In fact, it may yet result in a trophy.

Kentucky can keep its Wooden Trophy. Lehigh could get an ESPY.

The Mountain Hawks have been nominated for “Best Upset” in the ESPN’s annual sports awards show, something the cable network has tried to promote as an Oscars for the sports set.

In this case, the public got to vote for the winners from a set of nominees in 33 categories, such as Best Male Athlete, Best Female Athlete, Best Moment, Best Game and Best Upset.

Voting ended on Monday. The awards will be presented live on television on Wednesday starting at 9 p.m.

turned the world of college basketball on its ear with its 75-70 victory over Duke in a second round game on March 16, which was really the first 2012 tournament game for both teams.

Lehigh’s star guard C.J. McCollum that night, according to Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski, scoring 30 points.

The upset was stunning for a number of reasons.

Lehigh had never beaten Duke, losing by an average of 40 points in four previous meetings. Lehigh had never previously won an NCAA tournament game in four previous appearances, while Duke, a storied program, has four national titles since 1991.

The Mountain Hawks became only the sixth team seeded 15th in its region to defeat a #2 seed in tournament history. Second seeded teams have won 106 of those meetings.

Earlier that same day, Norfolk State became the fifth 15th seed to pull off the feat, beating Missouri in a 2-point squeaker. Norfolk State has also been nominated for the “Best Upset” ESPY.

The other nominees are the Iowa State football team, which handed then second ranked Oklahoma State its only loss of the season in November; and the Los Angeles Kings, which won the National Hockey League’s Stanley cup championship for the first time last month, becoming the first American professional sports franchise to win a championship after entering the playoffs as an eighth seeded team.