Men’s basketball team at Fairleigh Dickinson University, a private working school with a campus in Teaneck, NJ, ranked 4-22 last season. Three of the team’s best players and the team’s coach are playing in Division II. And the Knights, playing in the Northeast Conference, didn’t even win their conference tournament, a title they usually need to enter the NCAA tournament.
And yet, Fairleigh Dickinson became only the second 16th seed to ever topple No 1 in the men’s tournament, by knocking out Purdue, 63-58, in the first round on Friday. (In 2018, top seed Virginia lost to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. In the women’s event, 16th seed Harvard beat first seed Stanford in 1998.)
“I love our boys – they’re tough, gritty, play hard,” Fairleigh Dickinson’s first-year coach, Tobin Anderson, said after the win. “Unbelievable. We just shocked the world, and it couldn’t have happened with a better group of people, a better set of fans, my family, everything.”
So who are these guys, and how big of a deal is this?
This year’s team is relatively new.
After nine years at the University of St. Thomas Aquinas, a Division II group in Sparkill, NY, Anderson is employed at Fairleigh Dickinson, a school of fewer than 8,000 students in Teaneck, NJ
Anderson replaced Greg Herenda, who was fired after a four-win season in which FDU finished ninth in the Northeast Conference. Anderson brought three of his players to Fairleigh Dickinson: bodyguards Demetre Roberts and Grant Singleton and forward Sean Moore, who scored 19 points against Purdue playing Friday night in his hometown, Columbus , Ohio.
“Gosh, I feel great because I didn’t really think we’d be here at this point in the season,” said Moore, who hit a huge three-pointer right away to help. his team led 61-56 in just over a minute. one more minute.
6-foot-4 Moore, 5-foot-8 Roberts (from Mount Vernon, NY) and Singleton 5-9 (from Sumter, SC) are no strangers to the frenzy of March. Under Anderson’s leadership, St. Thomas Aquinas won three consecutive East Coast Conference tournaments and appeared in the round of 16 three times in a row in the Division II NCAA men’s tournament.
Roberts believes all three have made statements this season about the quality of players from Division II.
“I really don’t see a difference between DII and DI,” he said earlier this month.
Fairleigh Dickinson only played because another team failed to qualify.
The Knights might not even be in this year’s NCAA tournament if it weren’t for Merrimack College’s ineligibility. Merrimack beat FDU at home 67-66 to win the Northeastern Conference championship, but failed to enter the tournament as it was the fourth year of the transition from Division II to Division I.
The transition period is a common but sometimes stressful issue in college athletics, with colleges agreeing to pause competition after the season as they build facilities and other infrastructure. to comply with new department requirements.
“I hope moving forward for the sake of the kids, something has been done because in four years, what you’re doing is, you’re taking a kid’s entire career out of the way. show,” said Merrimack coach Joe Gallo in the lead-up to the congress card game.
Merrimack ended the season with a 14-game winning streak.
This disappointment may have been heralded by another Purdue disappointment last year.
Fairleigh Dickinson could be St. Peter’s next it? Its players certainly hope so, and Purdue probably thinks so. The team’s teams were disappointed against St. Little Peter’s out of Jersey City, NJ, in the round of 16 a year ago.
Now, a year later, Jersey’s two other underdogs – 15th-seeded Princeton and 16th-seeded FDU – have three-time NCAA composite championships. And Fairleigh Dickinson is just 13 miles from St. Peter’s.
However, Fairleigh Dickinson has a long way to go to match the entire tournament run by St. Peter’s organization. That team last season made it to the 8th round before being stopped by North Carolina.
The Knights is one of many intermediate programs that want to regularly try their hand at larger schools. FDU this season lost to Loyola-Chicago, Pittsburgh and St. Peter’s but beat St. Joseph’s of the Atlantic 10 Conference and Columbia of the Ivy League.
The last time 16th place compared to 1st place was 5 years ago.
That game, when the University of Maryland, Baltimore County beat Virginia in 2018, the league’s top seed is vastly different from Fairleigh Dickinson’s win on Friday night.
Mainly because it’s an outright score, 74-54. Much of the second half was a celebration for the Retrievers, who rode up and down the field knowing they were barely challenged.
Back then, UMBC’s social media team was known for their witty jokes, especially on Twitter. And it ended Friday night’s annoyance with a memorable moment from “The Simpsons.”
Footnote: UMBC lost that tournament’s second-round match to Kansas State.
This immediately ranks among the all-time upsets in March Madness.
These can be subjective, of course, but it can be argued that Fairleigh Dickinson’s win over Purdue could be considered the biggest defeat in tournament history. Unlike 2018’s UMBC, FDU did not win its conference tournament and was eliminated from the First Four, a play-in game that requires a win to enter round 64.
UMBC ended up winning against Virginia by a much larger margin, but it was 20 points behind. Fairleigh Dickinson is 23 points behind Purdue.
The Knights are also the shortest team in Division 1 – with an average height of 6 feet-1, according to KenPom.com – ranking 363 out of 363 teams. Purdue presents 7-foot-4 Zach Edey, national player of the year candidate.
What’s next for Fairleigh Dickinson?
The Knights will meet the Florida Atlantic 9th seed on Sunday.
“I know they play hard and they believe,” said Dusty May, Florida Atlantic coach. “It will be a great game.”
