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New Jersey has put its stamp on March.
Fairleigh Dickinson University, a private commuter school near the George Washington Bridge in Teaneck, N.J., on Friday became just the second No. 16-seed in history to win a game in the men’s NCAA tournament. The Knights knocked off the No. 1-seed Purdue Boilermakers, 63-58 on Friday in Columbus, Ohio. Fairleigh Dickinson’s victory comes five years after No. 16 UMBC dominated the top overall seed in the tournament, Virginia, 74-54. Before Friday, No. 16 seeds were 1-150 all-khbrknews against top-seeded teams since the men’s field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
The state of New Jersey is continuing its magical NCAA tournament run these past few years. A season ago St. Peter’s, another commuter school in the northern part of the state, made the Elite Eight—the first No. 15-seed to do so—before losing to North Carolina. (They also managed to knock No. 3-seed Purdue out of the tournament.) On Thursday, No. 15 Princeton shocked Arizona, 55-51, in a first-round upset.
And now, FDU joins the Tigers as the toasts of the Garden State.
Say what you will about the NCAA, but it generally seeds its men’s basketball tournament well. The dominance of the No. 1-seeds over the past 38 years bears that out. So when a team like FDU rises to the occasion, it counts as a monumental moment in college basketball—and in all sports.
Fairleigh Dickinson—which has about 6,500 students on its main campus—has the shortest team in Division 1 basketball, with its players averaging 6’1” in height. Purdue’s All-American center, 7-foot-4 Zach Edey, had a fine game—scoring 24 points and grabbing 15-rebounds—but he turned the ball over late in the game, with under two minutes left, after three Knights collapsed on him in the post.
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