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It is considered one of the greatest upsets in American sports history. On the fateful night of March 17, 2023, the 16-seeded FDU Knights stunned the college basketball world with their 63-58 upset over the 1-seeded Purdue Boilermakers in the round of 64 of the NCAA Tournament. Coming in as a 23-point underdog, the Knights improbably turned the pro-Purdue crowd at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio into raucous FDU supporters when it was all said and done.
“People who couldn’t tell you where FDU is, or what FDU stands for, or know anything about us … all those people are sitting there screaming your team’s name,” then FDU assistant coach Jack Castleberry said, recounting the moment FDU was victorious. “I mean literally you get chills talking about it. It’s one of those moments where it’s hard not to be romantic about basketball.”
Tobin Anderson, Castleberry’s boss, had finally gotten his shot to lead a Division I program in the prior offseason after a splendid eight-year run at St. Thomas Aquinas College in Division II. Anderson’s first Division I head coaching foray was rife with complexities – he inherited a 4-22 FDU squad that lost several of its players to the transfer portal. Rather than opting for a methodical rebuild however, Anderson and his staff swiftly turned the Knights into a giant slayer, delivering the Northeast Conference’s first ever NCAA Tournament win outside of a First Four game in Dayton.
The program’s magical defeat of Purdue, a powerhouse squad fresh off a Big Ten regular season and tournament championship, still greatly resonates for those involved nearly one year later. We spoke with Anderson, Castleberry, a few Knight players and two media members covering the game to get their accounts of the Knights’ David slaying the Boilermakers’ Goliath in a contest that a vast majority never gave FDU a shot of winning.
Steve Lappas, the color analyst for the game’s national broadcast on CBS, certainly wasn’t giving the NEC school a chance to become the second ever 16-seed to beat a number one seed. “First of all, FDU didn’t even win the (Northeast) conference so I mean besides the fact they weren’t the best team in the NEC in terms of the end of the season, you don’t think an NEC team that’s going to Dayton and then has to go play Purdue, a number one seed in the first round, has a chance… the bottom line is no.”
The Knights had just defeated Texas Southern, a program playing in its third consecutive NCAA Tournament, eliminating them after a comfortable 84-61 victory in the First Four. In a game they led wire to wire, FDU scored 1.20 points per possession and shot 50 percent from the field while holding Texas Southern to 39 percent shooting and one made 3-pointer. The Knights’ triumph gave the coaches and players confidence going into their showdown with Purdue, a team that rostered the soon-to-be Naismith College Player of the Year in 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey.
Despite the daunting prospect of squaring off against Edey and the Big Ten champions, then FDU assistant coach Kam Murrell was confident the Knights could give Purdue a competitive fight after scouting the program prior to their win over Texas Southern. He told Anderson as much during the team’s breakfast earlier in the day, and Anderson was eager to relay Murrell’s message to his team in the locker room after beating Texas Southern. Unbeknownst to him, Anderson was moments away from telling his team, on a live camera broadcast to millions of people no less, “let’s go shock the world” with respect to beating Purdue.
Tobin Anderson (FDU head coach): I was coming off the court and like any coach does I want to say something to the guys and that just kind of popped in my head. So I tried to get Kam to say it, but Kam was in the bathroom so I couldn’t find him. Otherwise I would’ve said, “Hey Kam, tell the guys what you told me this morning.” And I couldn’t find Kam so I just said it. I don’t think I factored in all of the cameras. I thought when I said it, it wasn’t that big of a deal. I wasn’t trying to make some crazy proclamation.
Jack Castleberry (FDU assistant coach): We got on the bus and all the assistants were sitting up front and in unison all of us said (to Anderson), “What the hell did you just do?” It was a good five minutes where we were like, “What is wrong with you, did you think they really were going to edit this out, like you just set us up for disaster.”
So much of what makes Tobin great is his ability to roll with the punches and move onto the next thing and not back down from a challenge. Tobin doesn’t take himself seriously at all and obviously he’s the head coach but you can speak freely to Tobin as an assistant. So we were ripping him and at a certain point he’s like, “Got to own it! Got to own it! Now I meant to do it!”
Steve Lappas (CBS color analyst): Well I got to be honest with you, at the time I thought it was a bad move. The one thing that you hope for when a 16 (seed) and a 1 (seed) play, if you’re a 16, is the 1 will fall asleep, you know what I mean?
Demetre Roberts (FDU point guard): After we beat Texas Southern we knew we had a big test on our hands coming up with Purdue, and obviously with Coach (Anderson) giving us that confidence himself saying that we could beat them. Obviously that got posted to the world and everybody just kept saying that it was going to be a cakewalk for (Purdue). We were just going out to fight: win, lose or draw.
Ansley Almonor (FDU forward): We were fired up, you know. We wanted to go shock the world. We had our coach’s back and we were ready to go.
“Styles make fights” was always a favorite saying of Anderson when game planning for opponents. Murrell and Castleberry agreed, and thought that Purdue’s earlier season struggles against the full-court press offered FDU an opportunity to take the Boilermakers out of their comfort zone. For the coaches, the overall game plan to attack Purdue was as clear as day.
Anderson: It kind of worked out well for us because how we played kind of fit into how you have to beat Purdue. You had to have good pressure. They kind of had trouble against pressure so that’s up our alley, that’s something we’re going to do no matter what.
Castleberry: I think for any game but especially a high major game you have to pick how you’re going to lose. We have to make them beat us a certain kind of way if they’re going to beat us. And it can’t be through their strength and Zach Edey was their strength, so we had to do anything we could to make his life as miserable as possible and make other people beat us.
Anderson: It actually helped us that we faced Josh Cohen all year long at Saint Francis. We worked on doubling the post and how to handle a post guy. Now Cohen’s not Zach Edey, but Cohen’s pretty damn good so we worked a lot on how to handle post players so we kind of were prepared for that.
Almonor: The game plan was to try to get (Edey) into his legs, make him more tired, work to get around him. My team was going to be behind me if they tried to throw it over the top, so it was to try to wear him down the whole game. Keep him as far as from the rim as possible because I knew my teammates were going to have my back.
Lappas: Let’s face it, if you’re a 16 (seed), two things have to happen if you’re going to win: 1) you have to play great, out of your mind. You have to have performances from some guys like they did that were career performances. Number 2: the other team has to help you. If Purdue plays good, and FDU plays unbelievable, FDU is going to get beat, so they needed to play great, get unbelievable performances out of their guys and they needed Purdue to play their “F” grade, and that’s what happened.
Mark Cannizzaro (NY Post writer): I figured Dayton was going to be a one-and-done for them. So when they go to Columbus and they’re playing Zach Edey and the number one seed, I didn’t think there was any chance (they’d win). 16 seeds were 1-150 all time.
The game opened with FDU jumping out to a 5-2 lead thanks to two buckets – a turnaround jumper in the lane and a three-pointer – by sophomore forward Sean Moore. Edey was guarding Moore whereas Mason Gillis, the perimeter-oriented Purdue forward, was in charge of containing Almonor, who was coming off a dominant 23-point, 8-rebound performance versus Texas Southern.
Anderson: Actually, the funny part was (Purdue head coach Matt) Painter in the press conference before the game told us that Edey wouldn’t guard Ansley. So we talked to (Sean and Joe Munden) in shootarounds and said “Hey, Edey is going to guard one of you guys, get ready, you’re going to have a big night to make big plays and hit big shots.”
Sean Moore (FDU forward): You know I wasn’t having the best year shooting percentage wise… so I figured he would guard me. Tobin told me, “Just play your game, do what you do.”
Anderson: Our first four or five possessions (Sean) was being very aggressive. We told him to be aggressive and it got him going. Gave him a little confidence. He’s back home, his family is all there (in Columbus). Fuzz (Moore’s nickname) plays a lot better when he’s comfortable and he got comfortable very early.
Roberts: Fuzz threw the first jab, so obviously I think it was pretty cool for Fuzz because he was home too… he took it as a challenge because at first we thought (Edey) was going to guard Ansley, and he ended up guarding Fuzz, so that was a perfect opportunity for him.
Moore: He should have blocked (the turnaround in the lane) to be honest (chuckles). I thought he was going to block it. He couldn’t block my shot, so I said, “Just keep attacking him, keep attacking him”. and figure something out.
Cannizzaro: They got off to the good start, which you have to do. In these games, I’ve covered so many high seed versus low seed games where you know it’s like 13-2 by the first TV timeout, and it’s done. So (FDU’s) fast start was paramount, it was absolutely critical like, ‘Hey we’re going to be here for 40 minutes, let’s go.”
On the back of a defense that held Purdue to nine points in their first 13 possessions, the game went well for FDU in the early going. Up 12-9 with 12 minutes remaining in the first half, Roberts elevated and hit a contested three near the top of the key. The senior guard fell to the ground and appeared to have injured his ankle while jogging back on defense.
Roberts: I tweaked it on that shot and then I ended up tweaking it again in the second half where if you noticed I ended up changing sneakers. I kept tweaking that same ankle so I think it was the sneakers, so I just changed (my shoes).
Castleberry: I don’t remember being too concerned about it because he’s a tough kid. He’s never missed anything and we’re in the NCAA Tournament. Your adrenaline is on a different level.
Anderson: Nah, Meech (Roberts’ nickname) ain’t sitting that one out. He had been changing shoes all the time. You can see there’s about three minutes to go, he’s changing shoes on the sidelines. He kept changing shoes. I don’t know why. We were busting his chops all the time. I was more like, “Just find a pair of shoes and wear the damn shoes and stop changing them all the time!”
Almonor: I knew he was going to be good anyways, so I wasn’t even tripping about that.
Despite the Boilermakers embarking on a 11-0 run toward the end of the first half, FDU kept the game within striking distance. After Roberts beat the lumbering Edey to the basket for a layup, Anderson called timeout with 25.4 seconds left in the first half to set up his pressing defense. The strategy paid off on the ensuing possession – Purdue guard Braden Smith was trapped in the corner and threw an errant pass up the sideline to FDU guard Grant Singleton, who then drove and assisted teammate Heru Bligen for a lay-in. The scoring spurt to close out the first stanza improbably gave the underdog Knights a 32-31 advantage going into the half.
Lappas: During the game late in the first half it was funny because our producer asked me and (play by play announcer) Andrew (Catalon) on the headset, “Should I show the Virginia/UMBC game (highlights)?” And we said, “No, not yet. Not yet.” I was surprised (FDU led at the half), there’s no doubt. Every minute of that game I was surprised because I also thought that Purdue made a ton of mistakes and allowed FDU to play to their strengths.
Roberts: We just had to continue what we were doing in the first half and probably push the pace a little more and be smarter.
Almonor: We knew not to blink. Even though we had a one-point lead, we told each other not to blink. We’ve been here before. It’s going to be a tough second half. For us to win this game it was going to be hard. We were prepared for hard, so just go out and leave it all on the floor.
Anderson: We hadn’t shot the ball great (42% FG) so we were like, “Fellas, we’re playing exactly how we want to play. We’ll make some shots, but we have to keep on coming.” We knew the first five minutes of the second half (Purdue) would come out and try to knock us out. That was the biggest thing to come out in the second half. A team like that, they’re going to kind of get together at halftime and they’re in a little bit of trouble. We’ll get their best shot in the second half.
Out of the half, Purdue’s Gillis drained his first three-pointer on the Boilermaker’s opening second half possession to take the lead. Moore quickly answered with a three of his own, and to FDU’s credit, the Knights did not relinquish the lead for the next 5-plus minutes. It was near the end of that stretch when FDU power forward Cam Tweedy, known for his rebounding prowess and rugged interior play, spun around to drain a 20-footer with the shot clock quickly dwindling down to zero. The improbable make gave FDU a 41-36 advantage and prompted Anderson to openly laugh on the sidelines.
Castleberry: Cam Tweedy hit a turnaround jumper that I hadn’t seen him make in his life and I turned to (fellow FDU assistant coach) Tom Bonacum and I was like, “Wait a second, we might actually do this.”
Anderson: It was the only shot Cam made outside of the lane all year long. It was definitely a good omen when he hit that one.
Tweedy’s bucket gave FDU its biggest lead of the second half, yet Purdue responded with its second 11-0 run of the game, giving themselves the upper hand with a 47-41 lead. After an Edey free throw pushed Purdue’s edge to six points, Lappas declared on the broadcast, “I think this is a really key time for Purdue. You got this lead now, you’re up six, you’re the 1-seed, you need to really not let this team come back right now.”
Roberts instead responded to the adversity by draining two difficult jumpers on two consecutive possessions to narrow Purdue’s gap to one point. The next time FDU had the ball, Singleton got out in transition and drained a three on the wing, capping off a resilient 7-0 run to give the Knights back the lead, 49-47, midway through the second half.
Lappas: That was it right there. To me that’s when I said, “Huh, this thing is not good for Purdue.”
Roberts: Purdue went on this run and we could’ve easily folded and they could’ve put their foot on the gas, but I think for me the team just felt I was the engine. I just found the opportunity to score and obviously I got the foul and then I got another opportunity to get a good shot. I got Zach Edey on a pick and roll so I think that was one of the game plans too, to just involve Zach Edey in as much action that we can because obviously we’re a small team. He can’t really move with us small guards, so just attack him by any means.
Castleberry: That’s just a great player making plays, that’s what good teams do. Fifth year, I’ve played more NCAA Tournament games than all the guys on this floor combined moment right there. The reason why (Demetre) was a (collegiate) all-star and is a high-level pro right now. If you’re going to win that game, you have to have great players and guys that aren’t afraid of the moment.
Moore: He knew what to do. He always knows what to do. He was our leading scorer, our best player, so it was the perfect time for him to take over, make plays and help us get back into this game.
Anderson: Grant’s shot on the wing in transition was like, “Alright, we’re here to say, this is going to be a game.’ That’s one of those things where we’re not going away – it was a big three right in front of our bench in transition.
After an entertaining back and forth between the two teams where they traded blows, the following 10 possessions went scoreless with a game locked at 54-53 in favor of the Knights. In particular, Purdue went ice cold from the perimeter during this stretch, leading to sequences where players such as Gillis began passing up open looks despite FDU double and triple teaming Edey in the post.
Moore: (Gillis) came out and shot a 3 in the second half and made it, so he kept shooting and shooting and we stopped guarding him. He stopped looking at the rim and they just kept forcing it to Zach Edey, so we knew once that started happening, we had them on their heels.
Cannizzaro: You could see it in the players eyes when they were crashing in on Edey and these guys were wide open for shots.
Lappas: Pressuring those freshman guards from Purdue hurt and then at the end of the game they could triple team Edey because no one wanted to take a shot. He was the only one who wanted to shoot, so you might as well triple-team him. He’d kick it out and guys were open, but they weren’t even looking at the basket.
Anderson: If you were in the arena, the feel to the game was they are definitely tight. We were loose and playing. There’s an advantage when you’re the underdog in a game like that because you don’t have anything to lose. Meech and Grant, and even Fuzz, we had been in big games before. Division II is different, but it still has NCAA (Tournament) games, round of 32 games and conference championships.
Cannizzaro: Listen, we’re so fortunate to sit courtside for these events, for these games. It makes it a very intimate experience because you can see fear in players eyes when you’re down that close on the court. You can’t see it up in the stands. You might be able to see it in their actions, or their shots look off. I felt it, I saw it, I sensed it and at the end of the day, the result was the result.
After two Moore free throws extended FDU’s fraught lead to three, Purdue had an out-of-bounds play under the basket with 1:45 remaining. Edey, who at that point hadn’t registered a field goal for nearly eight minutes, received an inbounds pass deep in the paint. Unbeknownst to Edey, Moore flew in off his man, deflected the ball out of his hands and promptly ran the floor. Singleton picked up the loose ball, cleared it ahead to Moore, and the athletic sophomore got past Boilermaker guard Fletcher Loyer for the critical layup.
Moore: It’s only one person they’re trying to get the ball into at that time, so I knew they were going to Zach because he’s the biggest player on the team around the basket. So I felt if I could make a play on the ball we could get something going in transition, which we’re great at.
Anderson: We actually did a great job at the end of the game on the last four or five out of bounds plays they had, they didn’t score. Our guys did a great job getting through screens and trusting our out of bounds defense. We don’t switch, so guys have to get through out of bounds screens.
Roberts: I think that created momentum for us because then they actually came down and I ended up taking a charge, but they got away with one and they hit a three.
After Loyer made a critical three as a response to cut FDU’s lead to two with 1:23 remaining, FDU inbounded the ball to Singleton. After walking it up the court, Singleton and Moore set up for a ball screen at the top of the key vs Purdue junior Ethan Morton and Edey. Singleton took two aggressive steps downhill off Moore’s screen, prompting Edey to drop in his coverage to protect against Singleton getting into the lane. Doing so left Moore open after he rolled to the three-point line. Singleton’s perfectly timed pass found Moore, and the sophomore calmly drained his third triple of the night to give FDU a commanding five-point lead with 1:06 remaining. The Knights probability to win the game jumped up 30% to 76% after Moore’s clutch make.
Moore: It’s a set play, we call it pat the head. That’s the play call. If the big doesn’t help the guard, then he had to come back and get on the pop. It was like a play or two before this we had the same set play and I missed it and Tobin told me, “It’s OK, we’re going to come right back to it. Shoot it again and you’re going to make it.”
Anderson: So that point in the game Grant was playing really well, so we put the ball in Grant’s hands as opposed to putting the ball in Meech’s hands. Grant had a mismatch so Edey had to help (off a ball screen) or he’s going to lay it up, and we thought Grant could get to the basket (since) he was being guarded by (Morton). We actually thought he was a bad defender, so when he was on Grant we were like, “Alright, we’re going to put Grant in the ball screen and they have to help off of Fuzz.” I think (Edey) did what he does instinctively. He saw (Morton) getting beat, he’s got to help a little bit. He didn’t help a lot but Grant made the pass at the right time, the right moment, hit him right in the hands and all Fuzz had to do (was shoot).
Lappas: That’s the way they play pick and rolls, so I mean that was the plan for them and I don’t even know how many 3s Sean Moore made for them for the whole season that I can recall. Look, that’s what happens in the NCAA Tournament. Crazy things happen. Guys all of a sudden do things that you’ve never seen them do.
Roberts: That shot to this day gives me goosebumps, that was a big shot.
Castleberry: I think that’s the benefit of having five guys on the floor that can score.
Purdue cut the lead to three after two Loyer free throws, and got the defensive stop on FDU to get the ball back down 61-58 with 30 seconds left. Painter called timeout 12 seconds later, drew up a play and watched as Smith’s drive to the left side of the basket was rejected by Moore with 12 seconds left. Purdue was now inbounding under the basket, and after FDU denied the ball entry to Edey, the pass made its way to Loyer in the near corner. With Munden draped all over him, Loyer rushed the shot, airballing it into the hands of Roberts, who was promptly fouled. The Knights were shooting free throws in the 1-and-1 bonus and Roberts ran down to the charity stripe.
Roberts: They ended up running the inbounds play and I think it was for Zach Edey again. They couldn’t get it into him, so to me personally I think when they took that desperation shot I think they didn’t need it. When I got the rebound he fouled me. To be honest I’m trying to get out of here, trying to get the game over with. When they called the foul I’m running down to the other end at the free throw line to shoot the free throws.
Almonor: I was like, “it’s over, we got them.” I knew it (laughs). They airball the shot, I saw Meech get the board and I knew he was making both and this is over. That’s when it really started to hit like, “Oh wow, this is the biggest upset.”
Moore: It was such a surreal moment, we couldn’t believe it. We were just in shock. I’d still be in shock to this day when I go back and watch the game. Just a moment I’ll never forget.
Roberts hit both free throws, got a token block on Smith in the waning seconds and FDU pulled off arguably the biggest upset in March Madness history. Against all odds, FDU became only the second 16-seed in NCAA Tournament history to defeat a 1-seed and were slated to play the winner of Memphis and Florida Atlantic University.
In the end, the FDU defense held Purdue to 0.91 points per possession and its second worst offensive output of the season with respect to offensive efficiency while generating 16 turnovers. The Boilermakers shot 19 percent from deep, and although Edey registered a double-double with 21 points, 15 rebounds and 3 blocks, the big man didn’t score or even attempt a field goal over the final nine minutes of the contest.
Castleberry: How do you front someone that is that massive? You really have to work. People underestimate how hard it is to front somebody. You really have to be willing to work all the time, and (Ansley) was consistently there. Ansley was incredible in that game. We found out he could be a physical guy. Even though because he shoots threes people think he was a finesse guy. We found out there was another side to him.
Cannizzaro: I thought Tobin had a tremendous game plan going into that Purdue game and it was executed perfectly. The game plan was to muddy it up and put as many guys as possible around Zach Edey and they did a great job with it. Until it was really over, it was hard to believe it happened.
Lappas: We have to understand this – FDU’s got two fifth year guards, they’re like 23 years old and they’re going against two 18-year olds who are more talented. That’s why all these teams want to get old in college basketball. You give me an 18-year old All-American and he’s going against a 23-year old who’s a good player, not a great player, that guy can get him on a given night. And so the age difference and the experience factor was huge that night.
Roberts: It was a special moment for the whole team, for all of FDU. It was special for everybody. We didn’t do too much celebrating because we’ve got another game (versus Florida Atlantic in the round of 32), but we just tried to find as much time to celebrate that win.
Almonor: It was a once in a lifetime feeling. I was so excited, so happy, we couldn’t even believe it at first.
Moore: The tournament we grew up watching, just hoping we could someday get on the stage, now that we were there and we did what we did, it was just mind blowing, a loss of words. My favorite memory is after the game we ran straight to the crowd and we all just got rowdy. That was my favorite moment right there.
Anderson: The celebration lasted a long time. We were on the court for a long time. There was still one game to be played and we’re still out there – my wife is out there, my brother is out there, my kids, we were all out there forever it seemed like. It was pretty cool.
Castleberry: Just the fact that one basketball game that you’re playing – it’s just a basketball game – that much of the world can be interested in that at one point in time and to be part of that is just nuts. That will never be lost on me. That’s what’s romantic about it. Everybody loves David vs Goliath in the NCAA tournament and we got to be David. It’s incredible, man.
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