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The start of Thursday night's contest between Fairleigh Dickinson and Long Island had an unexpected delay after a bizarre incident.
According to Fox Sports' John Fanta, members of Farleigh Dickinson were stuck in an elevator coming to the court from the locker room.
According to Fanta, firemen had to come to help the players out of the elevator. The game, which is taking place at LIU, has since gotten underway.
Fairleigh Dickinson, a small school in New Jersey, became known to the world last season when the Knights became the second No. 16 seed ever to win in the NCAA Tournament, beating Purdue to advance to the second round. Fairleigh Dickinson lost in the second round to FAU.
However, the Knights aren't having the best year this season, sitting at 11-16 on the year. On Thursday, Fairleigh Dickinson is looking for a win over a struggling LIU team. The Sharks are 6-17 on the season.
Thursday's delay is certainly a rare occasion in college basketball if not a first, but the Knights are looking to shake off the elevator incident to pick up a win.
Following a wave of donations to Fairleigh Dickinson after the team's historic win over Purdue in the NCAA men's basketball tournament last season, the school has made some major upgrades to its facilities.
Per ESPN's Myron Metcalf, the Knights' days of utilizing a community shower as their makeshift film room are over. That community shower was converted to an actual film room and a separate locker room was also added after donors helped the school reach its $500,000 goal. The team plans to unveil both prior to Wednesday's game against Saint Peter's.
"It was a tighter space, so it's not like you're in the shower room and everybody's comfortable," FDU head coach Jack Castleberry said. "Everybody was kind of on top of each other and one of the shower heads was still leaking like a little drop of water every 15 seconds."
Fairleigh Dickinson lucked its way into the 2023 NCAA tournament as a replacement for NEC tournament champion Merrimack, which was ruled ineligible under NCAA rules for programs that transitioned to Division I. The Knights' upset of the Boilermakers marked just the second time that a 16-seed defeated 1-seed in NCAA tournament history.
Metcalf noted that the win over Purdue increased Fairleigh Dickinson's popularity, as "undergraduate applications have increased by 32% this year, and the school also had a 327% increase in online apparel sales following the win over Purdue compared to the same period last year." The school also recently announced a TV deal with YES Network.
It's a far cry from where the Knights were before, and they are appreciative of the journey.
"One time, we were watching film and [one of our players] keeps looking back because the water is literally dripping on him as we're watching scouting reports for the next game," Castleberry said. "You can't make it up."
No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson's run in the NCAA tournament has come to an end.
The Knights fell to the No. 9 Florida Atlantic Owls 78-70 on Sunday in the second round of the NCAA tournament. FDU put up a valiant effort, mounting a second-half comeback after entering halftime down 32-25, but it wasn't enough as the Owls closed it out.
FAU got some clutch play down the stretch from sophomore guard Johnell Davis, who finished with 29 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and five steals. Sophomore guard Alijah Martin was also solid, notching 14 points, three rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block.
Meanwhile, FDU was paced by senior guard Demetre Roberts, who finished with 20 points, seven rebounds, four assists and one steal. Junior forward Sean Moore and junior guard Joe Munden Jr. also combined for 27 points in the loss.
While the Knights came up short, college basketball fans on Twitter applauded the team for its run in the NCAA tournament, which included an upset of No. 1 Purdue in the first round:
FDU has nothing to be ashamed of. Beating a team ranked No. 1 in the nation and then falling in a tightly contested second-round contest should leave the Knights with their heads held high.
FAU, meanwhile, will take on No. 4 Tennessee in the Sweet 16 at Madison Square Garden.
Watch March Madness Live to stream every tournament game through the Final Four.
What did one bettor know and when did they know it?
Fairleigh Dickinson pulled off one of the biggest upsets in college basketball history when the 16th-seeded Knights upset No. 1 Purdue in the NCAA men's basketball tournament. At least one person had a strong hunch on Tobin Anderson's squad.
A $33,000 bet on Fairleigh Dickinson netted the person $495,000 at DraftKings Sportsbook.
Granted, a half-million dollars may not be all that much to a person who's willing to drop five figures on a No. 16 seed in the first round. It's safe to assume there have been similar wagers in the past that haven't worked out.
But when of these long shots do hit, you basically get a lifetime of bragging rights.
Watch March Madness Live to stream every tournament game through the Final Four.
UMBC has company.
For just the second time in the history of the NCAA men's tournament, a No. 16 seed advanced to the round of 32 as Fairleigh Dickinson upset No. 1 seed Purdue 63-58 on Friday night in Columbus, Ohio.
The 23.5-point underdog Knights sent the Boilermakers—and National Player of the Year front-runner Zach Edey—packing with a dominant defensive performance. They held the Big Ten regular-season and tournament champions to 35.8 percent shooting from the field and 19.2 percent shooting from three-point range and forced 16 turnovers.
So, just a few days after dominating Texas Southern in its First Four matchup, FDU toppled a team that was ranked No. 1 in the country for seven weeks.
Head coach Tobin Anderson had even called his shot two days before the game.
Twitter was in shock and simply awed by the Knights' incredible performance.
The upset instantly became a March classic and will go down in history as one of the most memorable games of all time. Much like the Maryland-Baltimore County Retrievers, the Knights will be immortalized for slaying one of this season's titans of the sport.
Now, Fairleigh Dickinson will look to go a step further than UMBC and make the Sweet 16. It awaits the winner of Memphis vs. Florida Atlantic.
Watch March Madness Live to stream every tournament game through the Final Four.
The No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson Knights defeated the No. 1 Purdue Boilermakers 63-58 on Friday in the first round of the NCAA men's tournament, marking one of the biggest upsets in March Madness history.
Fairleigh Dickinson entered as a 23.5-point underdog:
It is just the second No. 16 seed in the men's tournament to defeat a No. 1 seed, joining Maryland-Baltimore County, which defeated Virginia 74-54 as a 20.5-point underdog in 2018.
The Knights, the smallest team in the country, made things difficult for the Boilermakers, the largest team, with their three-point shooting. FDU made seven of its 23 shots from deep. Purdue shot five-of-26.
Fairleigh Dickinson also had 11 steals and just nine turnovers. Purdue had 16 giveaways.
Junior forward Sean Moore, senior guard Demetre Roberts and sophomore forward Cameron Tweedy powered the Knights to victory, scoring 19, 12 and 10 points.
FDU will face No. 8 Memphis or No. 9 Florida Atlantic in the next round.
Watch March Madness Live to stream every tournament game through the Final Four.
College Basketball Hall of Famer Jim Phelan died on Tuesday at the age of 92.
Mount St. Mary's University, where Phelan spent 49 seasons as head coach, announced he died at home in his sleep:
Phelan played three seasons at La Salle before becoming the No. 77 overall pick by the Philadelphia Warriors in the 1951 NBA draft.
After playing four games in the NBA and spending time with the Pottstown Packers in the Eastern League, Phelan moved into the coaching ranks.
Phelan began his coaching career at Mount St. Mary's as an assistant under Bill Clark for the 1953-54 season. The Pennsylvania native was promoted to head coach the following year. He remained with the Mountaineers through the 2002-03 season.
Over the course of his 49 years at Mount St. Mary's, Phelan won 830 games and the 1962 Division II national championship with a 58-57 victory over Sacramento State.
The Mountaineers made two appearances in the NCAA Division I tournament under Phelan in 1995 and 1999. He was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.
The Fairleigh Dickinson Knights are the first victors in the 2019 NCAA men's basketball tournament, and they earned the win in dramatic fashion.
After falling behind by as many as 13 points in the second half, Fairleigh Dickinson defeated the Prairie View A&M Panthers 82-76 on Tuesday in a showdown of No. 16 seeds in the West Region in a First Four game in Dayton, Ohio. The Knights' reward is a date with the top-seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs on Thursday.
The combination of Darnell Edge (33 points on 7-of-9 shooting from deep) and Jahlil Jenkins (22 points, six assists and four rebounds) spearheaded the comeback that featured a 12-0 run late in the second half.
Gary Blackston (27 points and six rebounds) and Devonte Patterson (17 points and eight boards) led the way for the Panthers, but they were unable to overcome the head-turning effort from the Knights' guards.
Fairleigh Dickinson Must Ride Backcourt Duo to Have Prayer vs. Gonzaga
Prairie View couldn't have written a better start to Tuesday's game.
It wasted little time creating havoc with its tempo, forcing 17 turnovers and parlaying many of those mistakes into quick breaks in the other direction. It pressed up on Fairleigh Dickinson's ball-handlers, ran shooters off the three-point line and trapped players coming around screens with a swarming style.
It was no surprise the Panthers played in such a fashion considering they are the No. 34 team in the country in Ken Pomeroy's pace-adjusted tempo rankings compared to a Knights squad that is 214th. Only North Carolina, Buffalo, Duke and Belmont play at a quicker pace in the tournament, and it appeared as if the Knights would be out of their comfort zone in comeback mode.
Edge and Jenkins missed the memo.
Many of the Knights' early issues stemmed from other players having the ball in their hands too much against that uptempo style of play. Edge and Jenkins had only two turnovers each, and they started to lead the comeback when they demanded the ball and went into takeover mode.
Jenkins used his quickness to dart through the pressure and force help defense to collapse, which opened up Edge for his three-pointers throughout the second half. When defenders didn't shade Jenkins' direction, he finished at the rim and further cut into the lead.
The sophomore demonstrated a senior-like grasp on the game, controlling the tempo down the stretch and understanding when to reset the offense and when to attack. That Edge—the senior leader on the team—was there to calmly drill the open looks his teammate was creating made the comeback a thing of basketball beauty.
There was a lesson to be learned in the matchup with Prairie View: don't go anywhere else when the game's outcome is in doubt in this pressure-packed tournament.
Edge and Jenkins were the only Knights players to score more than 10 points and the only ones who looked comfortable with the ball in their hands for extended stretches. It was no accident they started coming back when they looked for their shots, and it will be even more important against mighty Gonzaga for the two leaders to maximize their looks.
If they want a blueprint to attacking the Bulldogs as a tandem, they should look no further than North Carolina's 103-90 victory over the West Region's No. 1 seed. Gonzaga struggled to keep up with Coby White slashing through the lane—much like Jenkins did Tuesday—and allowed the freshman to finish with 15 points and six assists.
When the defense started focusing on White, Cameron Johnson took over and hit six three-pointers en route to his 25 points. Edge can play that role.
Fairleigh Dickinson isn't North Carolina, and the Knights will likely fall well short of challenging the Bulldogs in Thursday's matchup. But the Knights at least know a dynamic duo can take over and defeat the Bulldogs if they play at their best.
What's Next?
Fairleigh Dickinson will play Gonzaga on Thursday with the chance to become the second No. 16 seed to upset a No. 1 in Big Dance history after UMBC did so against Virginia last year.
The Bulldogs boast the No. 1 offense in the country in Pomeroy's rankings, so it will take a Herculean effort for history to repeat itself.
The No. 16-seeded Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers looked fearless throughout the first half of their NCAA tournament contest against No. 1 seed Villanova on Thursday, and the underdogs saved their best bucket of the first half for last.
In the final 30 seconds of the frame, guard Miles Wilson utilized a between-the-legs crossover to free up some space before driving into the lane and hitting a contested layup.
That bucket put Mount St. Mary's up 29-28, but Villanova took a 30-29 advantage into halftime during the first-round matchup.
