Fairleigh Dickinson Hopes to Be the Next March Madness Fairy Tale

Mr. Deep is from Toronto, but “I wasn’t from Toronto last night,” he said.

Mr. Avaltroni, the interim president, said both the men’s and women’s basketball teams have done well this year. “There’s been an enthusiasm on campus that I have not seen,” he said, adding, “I’ve been at the university for 20 years.”

The women’s team finished its season as regular-season champions, but lost in the first round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament on Friday night to Columbia University. Mia Andrews, a guard on the women’s team, said her team “had mixed emotions because obviously, we had just finished our season.”

But after the players found out that the men’s team had won, they broke into chants in the locker room. “It was a fun moment,” she said.

Anete Adul was making her way back to Teaneck from Florida with the university’s golf team during the game. “We were in Orlando in the airport, and everyone was watching it, and it was so cool,” she said.

Locals hope it could be another good basketball year for New Jersey. Last year, the state became the focal point of March Madness when another obscure institution, St. Peter’s University in Jersey City, made it all the way to the eighth round as a No. 15 seed.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/19/nyregion/fairleigh-dickinson-basketball-march-madness.html