All hail the bracket busters! FDU fans fill arena to celebrate March Madness history
Though Fairleigh Dickinson University’s March Madness run ended in a heart-breaking loss to Florida Atlantic University in the tournament’s second round, the campus celebrations were still going strong on Monday.
The university honored the men’s and women’s D1 basketball teams’ historic seasons in an hours-long gathering inside Hackensack’s Stratis Arena, bringing together members of the larger university community as well as the local political scene.
They celebrated not only the historic run by Knights men’s basketball in the NCAA tournament, but also the women’s Division I basketball team, which had its best season since 1991.
“It’ll be a tough act to follow,” said interim university president Michael Alvatroni of the historic seasons. “But we feel a lot of forward momentum, a lot more recognition of our name and who we are. And I'm hopeful we can build on that, and we can set the path forward for many years to come, both in athletics as well as an institution.”
The intimate gathering featured players from both teams, as well as their coaches and support staff. The teams were memorialized with commemorative T-shirts and posters. Hackensack’s mayor, John Labrosse, honored the teams with a city proclamation, and Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco gifted them with certificates and his very own “challenge coin.”
The players clearly enjoyed the moment, walking around like campus celebs, signing their autographs for their peers and fans.
FDU: the bracket busters
The Knights run in the men’s tournament was one for the ages. The team busted brackets across the country when it defeated Purdue, the No. 1 seed. FDU became only the second 16-seed team to ever defeat a top seed in the men’s tournament in NCAA history.
The hype put FDU on the map in a way no one saw coming, including Alvatroni, an FDU alum.
“I never thought I would see an arena of 20,000 chanting FDU,” he said. “I never thought that I would see just the way in which we kind of captured the hearts and stories of the nation — and it's just a point of pride, because it's something that I've always said about us institutionally, which is that, this is really our story of giving opportunity to students, and allowing them to, when they grab hold of it, to change the world.”
The hype may be to blame for a surge in attendance at admitted students’ day over the weekend at the university’s campus in Florham Park, he said. That campus has its own D-III athletics program, which competes in the Middle Atlantic Conference as the FDU Devils.
The crowd in Hackensack on Monday was not exclusive to the basketball community. There were guests with FDU gear representing an array of different teams, including women’s soccer, fencing, volleyball and track and field.
Tobin's final farewell
The celebration marked the team’s first public celebration with now former head coach Tobin Anderson.
As soon as the Knights’ historic run came to an end, Anderson was offered an opportunity to coach at nearby Iona. Though it was a “very, very hard” decision to make, he said, it was one he couldn’t refuse. “It was not part of the plan,” Anderson said.
In one season, FDU was able to establish a chemistry that carried them through the post-season — and it’s a connection that, Anderson said, will remain for the rest of their lives.
He recalled telling them, "You'll still be part of my family for the next 12 to the next 25-30 years. I’ll be at your weddings. I'll be around. Whenever you need anything, I'm here for you. And we'll still be close. We’ll still be connected. No matter what the situation. So, I do feel like that'll never stop.”
When asked about their team’s legacy from this year, junior guard Joe Munden Jr. said, “I just hope it makes everybody believe in themselves and [for] the people around us to make sure they believe in us, too.”
Anderson:How Fairleigh Dickinson coach Tobin Anderson got here after 20 years in D-2 and D-3
Historic year for women's hoops too
The FDU Division I women’s basketball team is also on the verge of something great.
For two years in a row, the team was one game away from securing its first-ever spot in the NCAA tournament. Last year, the team clinched the NEC regular season championship title for the first time since 1993. This year, the women’s team had their first 20+ win season since 1991, when they won 23 games.
Next year will be their year, head coach Angelika Szumilo assured the crowd on Monday.
Junior guard Abaigeal Babore is also hopeful. “I think the program can only go up from here," she said. "We've had so much success in the past year, so it's only built from when Coach Ang took over the program. I think the program is in great hands.”
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: FDU basketball fans celebrate historic March Madness upset
