On Friday, March 17, the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights stunned the Purdue Boilermakers 63-58. This was the 2nd time in history that a #16 seed defeated a #1 seed in the first round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Division I tournament. Entering Friday, #16 seeds were 1-150 in the first round. The only team to win was the Retrievers of Maryland-Baltimore County (better known as UMBC). FDU had the shortest roster in the country, with an average height of 6-foot-1, and Purdue had monster 7'4 center Zach Edey. Edey put up 21 points and 15 rebounds, but the Knights swarmed him throughout the game.
Coach Tobin Anderson said to his team following their First Four win on March 15, "Let's shock the world." Following the upset, he told reporters, "I wanted our guys to believe. We [couldn't] just be happy to be here." He also noted he didn't realize his speech would be featured on national TV. But his team backed his words up.
I thought Purdue would win the whole thing, so this came as a huge shock to me. I barely knew who Fairleigh Dickinson was prior to the First Four. The most embarassing thing about this for Purdue is that FDU didn't even win their conference tournament. They lost in the NEC final to Merrimack, but Merrimack couldn't participate in March Madness due to them just transferring from Division II to Division I. But in all seriousness, congratulations to the Knights. They didn't quit, even when the odds were stacked heavily against them.
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