Fairleigh Dickinson, Barely in the N.C.A.A. Tournament, Topples Purdue in a Shocker

He said on Friday that he felt bad about the perceived slight. But his players suggested that their coach was validated. “We showed why we belong here,” Demetre Roberts, a 5-foot-8 guard who raced around Purdue’s taller guards on his way to 12 key points.

“We all have a chip on our shoulder,” Anderson said.

Just a year ago, Anderson was the head coach of St. Thomas Aquinas, a Division II school in Sparkill, N.Y., where he coached Moore. Anderson was a “grinder,” Painter said admiringly after Friday’s upset.

Purdue’s fans greatly outnumbered F.D.U.’s supporters, filling the arena with noise as its mascot, Purdue Pete, paraded around the court to rouse the many pockets of the school’s followers. But as the game advanced, with F.D.U. keeping it close, chants of “F.D.U.” began to ring out both from the Knights’ modest contingent of fans and from partisans of Memphis and Florida Atlantic, teams that were set to play on the same court later Friday night.

Purdue appeared to reclaim the game in the first 10 minutes of the second half, when it leaned heavily on Edey, who frequently swatted up-for-grabs balls out toward his teammates like a volleyball player.

Anderson described the recipe for neutralizing Edey: stifling his teammates. Edey, Anderson pointed out, performs similarly well in Purdue’s wins and losses. The difference, he said, was restraining the talented group of players around Edey as they shot from deep or cut to the hoop when Edey was double- or triple-teamed. When Edey’s supporting cast struggles, his team struggles, Anderson said.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/17/sports/ncaabasketball/fairleigh-dickinson-purdue-upset.html