The Blueprint for Fairleigh Dickinson’s Upset Came From an Even Smaller School
Bo Ryan, the former Wisconsin coach who led Division III Wisconsin-Platteville for 15 years, watched F.D.U.’s win on Friday with immense pride in Anderson and his background, he said. “This was five good, scrappy, tough players coming together for 40 minutes,” he said.
The differences in the levels of competition can be irrelevant as a coach, Ryan said. “You’re a teacher. If you can teach, you can coach.”
On a snowy Saturday morning in Columbus, Fairleigh Dickinson staff meandered through the lobby of the downtown hotel still in a daze. Anderson said he slept for roughly two hours. He recalled walking back to the hotel after Friday’s game around 2 a.m. with his wife, the two of them still shocked by the victory. “We were just like, ‘Holy — we can’t believe what’s going on,’” he said.
“We just pulled off the biggest upset in the history of college basketball,” he said he told his wife.
The work continued. His assistants, he noted, had been up until around 4:30 a.m. watching game film of Florida Atlantic, their Sunday opponent that beat Memphis in a tight, thrilling finish. They woke up several hours later to continue watching film in a hotel ballroom they had refashioned as a “war room,” where the players gathered in the morning to join them in studying their next opponent. They now had a CBS camera crew following them around, Anderson said with awe.
His players on Saturday were back to being normal college kids, Anderson said. They were making TikTok videos.
The financial and reputational rewards for their performance on Friday could be significant. There were hints already of its marketing power: The team promoted a T-shirt that the company BreakingT was selling with a catchy slogan: “Smallest team, biggest upset.”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/18/sports/ncaabasketball/fairleigh-dickinson-upset.html