Tag: Farleigh Dickinson

GIANT SLAYERS: Twitter reacts to No. 16 Farleigh Dickinson upset of No. 1 Purdue

Farleigh Dickinson shocked the world on Friday night by upsetting the No. 1 seed Purdue Boilermakers 63-58.

Move over UMBC, you have company.

On Friday night, No. 16 Farleigh Dickinson upset No. 1 Purdue 63-58, becoming just the second No. 16 team in NCAA Tournament history to upset a No. 1 seeded team. Previously, No. 16 UMBC upset No. 1 Virginia 75-54 in the 2018 NCAA Tournament.

The Knights who went 21-15 in the regular season and through NEC Tournament play, didn’t even win their conference, Merrimak did. However, due to Merrimak being ineligible for the NCAA Tournament as they continue to transition to Division I, Farleigh Dickinson still was able to go dancing this season. Now, they’re etched in the history books forever.

Farleigh Dickinson was led by 18 points from forward Sean Moore and 12 points from guard Demetre Roberts to pull off the upset. Purdue was led offensively by none other than 7-foot-5 All-American center Zach Edey who recorded 21 points and 15 rebounds in the loss.

The loss also marks the third straight season that Purdue as a fourth seed or higher was knocked out by a 13-seed or higher. They were previously defeated as a No. 3 seed by No. 15 Saint Peter’s last season and were upset by No. 13 North Texas in 2021 as a four seed.

Farleigh Dickinson will now play Sunday against the winner of No. 8 Memphis and No. 9 Florida Atlantic.

Fairleigh Dickinson coach Tobin Anderson was brilliant for correctly predicting a Purdue upset

HE CALLED HIS SHOT.

No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson pulled off perhaps the biggest upset in March Madness history, defeating No. 1 Purdue in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.

This victory will go down in history books for college basketball, as the No. 16 seeds were 1-150 against No. 1 seeds in the men’s tournament heading into this game. While it was huge for everyone, this looked was an especially historic win for first-year FDU head coach Tobin Anderson.

Before the game, fans saw a video of Anderson telling his team the more he had a chance to watch Purdue, the more he became convinced his team could beat them.

While the opposing players on Purdue found his comments disrespectful, now the FDU coach looks brilliant for boldly declaring such confidence:

Anderson is a former Division II coach who won six East Coast Conference titles at St. Thomas Aquinas College in New York between 2016 and 2022.

While he searched for a head coaching gig, he was told that he needed to get hired as an assistant coach for a Division I team before he was offered a head coaching vacancy.

But he is clearly used to shocking the world: He got the gig at FDU. While they had just four wind last season, he led them to the tournament during his first year on the job.

After the game, Anderson elaborated on why he said it:

“I just trust our guys, I have faith in our guys … We just have faith in what we do. Our guys are so tough and so competitive. I’ll do a better job in this locker room speech than the last one … It was the right message, it made the wrong audience. But listen: I love our guys. They’re tough, they’re gritty, they play their tails off.”

FDU will play the winner of Memphis – Florida Atlantic. We’ll see if we can get another prediction from Anderson about how his team would stack up vs. either squad.

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Five mid-majors punch their ticket to this year’s men’s NCAA Tournament

The mid-majors have punched their tickets, led by Drake.

Selection Sunday is just a week away, but five mid-major programs on Saturday and Sunday have already punched their tickets to The Big Dance.

Farleigh Dickinson, Southeast Missouri State, Drake, UNC Asheville, and Kennesaw State have all secured their place to participate in this year’s March Madness.

Farleigh Dickinson (19-14) was the first team to punch their ticket, making the tournament their opponent in the Northeast Conference tournament championship game by default. Merrimack is ineligible to make the NCAA Tournament as the program is finishing its last year of ineligibility due to the NCAA”s policy on programs that reclassify. The actual Northeast Conference Tournament title game will be played on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.

Southeast Missouri State (19-16) clinched its spot in this year’s tournament by winning the Ohio Valley Conference, defeating Tennessee Tech (16-17) by the final score of 89-82 in overtime. The Redhawks won the OVC Tournament after entering as the conference’s No. 5 seed.

UNC Asheville (27-7), the top seed in the Big South Tournament, held off a strong effort from the Big South’s No.7 seed, the Campbell Fighting Camels (16-18), to punch their ticket with a 77-73 victory.

Drake (27-7) has had the most convincing win of the conference tournament title game thus far, leaving no doubt in defeating the Bradley Braves (25-9), the Missouri Valley Conference’s top-seeded team 77-51.

Finally, the last team to clinch their tournament appearance this weekend when the ASUN’s top-seeded Kennesaw State Owls (26-8) defeated No. 2 Liberty (26-8) by a final score of 67-66 in the ASUN conference championship game.

While most conference tournaments will take place over the course of the next week, several more tickets will be punched in the upcoming days. The Southern Conference, CAA, Horizon League, Summit League, and West Coast Conference will all hold their title games on Monday.  Additionally, the Big Sky Conference,  Patriot League, and Southland Conference will host their title games on Tuesday.

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Notre Dame Basketball Player Review: Chris Doherty

Chris Doherty lasted six games with Notre Dame this season before deciding to leave the program and transfer in December.

For the next 11 days, we’ll be taking a look at what each player who suited up for Notre Dame men’s basketball did on the court. Even if the season didn’t go or end as planned, let’s give this gentlemen a proper sendoff for the 2019-20 season.

Sophomore power forward Chris Doherty lasted all of six games with Notre Dame this season before deciding to leave the program and transfer from the university in December. This, coupled with Robby Carmody’s ACL tear at the same time, left the Irish with very little depth, and they didn’t have much of it to begin with. Doherty never seemed comfortable with the program, as evidenced by him temporarily leaving the team before his freshman season even began. After returning, he struggled to find minutes all that season, and that trend continued this year before he decided he’d had enough, so the writing was on the wall for some time.

What little productivity the Marlborough, Massachusetts, native and former AAU teammate of Nate Laszewski had this season came during Notre Dame’s six-game winning streak that followed its season-opening loss to North Carolina. Doherty made his only field-goal attempt and also had a rebound, a steal and a block Nov. 12 vs. Howard. In his final game with the Irish (Nov. 26 vs. Farleigh Dickinson), he scored four points on 2-of-3 shooting and grabbed one offensive rebound.

It’s a shame Doherty didn’t work out in South Bend, but we wish him well in his future endeavors.