FDU basketball inspired an entire sport during NCAA Tournament
They’re obvserving. College basketball players from Evansville (5-27), LIU (3-26), Delaware State (6-24) and other programs that have turned it upside down this season. Coaches slogging away anonymously for the equivalent of peanuts an hour, wondering if it’s all worth it. Administrators staring at a tight budget and straining every dollar.
They contemplate the incredible, improbable, indelible story of Fairleigh Dickinson and nod at what they see.
Hope.
Times are changing in this sport. The gap is closing. How else to explain the proliferation of Cinderellas advancing, cutting mid-majors high-majors, bouncing #1 and #2 seeds?
With cohesion, moxie and a bit of luck, we will be on the national stage from 4-22, no matter what conference. It’s possible now that the revolving door is shaking up the big boy squads. FDU proved it.
That was not always so. The godfather of the FDU hoops, Tom Green, took the Knights to four NCAA tournaments. The first time, in 1985, they had Michigan on the ropes – ten points good with eight minutes to go, but four starters missed, and with five seconds to go, they were falling just an inch.
It was the closest FDU to come close to breaking brackets during Green’s tenure, 407 wins in 26 years.
Now Green, who lives in New Milford and serves as the FDU home games broadcaster for the NEC Front Row live stream, is able to truly appreciate what successor Tobin Anderson has accomplished. Not just for his legacy program, but for everyone in the lower echelons of the sport who dreams of big stage dreams.
“It must be very inspiring,” Green said. “I think it’s a massive wake-up call.”
He was recently asked if he has mixed feelings about these knights reaching a height he could not.
“Of course not!” he said. I’ve had my day in the sun at FDU, we had some really good teams. My heart has a big smile for what Fairleigh is doing.”
One of the many lessons of FDU history is the importance of unity. Postgrad Guards Demetre Roberts and Grant Singleton have played together and under Anderson for five years.
They know how to take a hit and respond in unison. You saw it against Purdue. You saw it against Florida Atlantic.
“I’ve been in the game a long time,” Green said, “and I’ve never seen two guards play so well together.”
In the college sports landscape, there were dire predictions that the transfer portal and the influence of name-image-resemblance money would further widen the divide between the haves and have-nots. Maybe it will be; These changes are still in their infancy. But maybe they won’t. Perhaps the fact that Kansas, Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky finished while FDU and FAU were playing for a spot in the Sweet 16 says something unexpected about the impact of all this upheaval.
In these times, togetherness may be the trump card in March Madness’s already insane one-and-done format.
One thing is certain: FDU has brought hope to the expanses of an entire sport.
“Tobin’s on the cover of the book, the magazine, for that,” Green said.
The entire team is the poster child for what is possible.
“This turnaround is something that I don’t think anyone dreamed of,” Green said.
You dream everywhere now. What a legacy for FDU basketball.
Jerry Carino has been covering the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and covering college basketball since 2003. He is a top 25 contributor to the Associated Press. Contact him at [email protected].