Fairleigh Dickinson’s remarkable upset of Purdue, by the numbers

For just the second time in the history of the men’s NCAA tournament, a No. 16 seed upset a No. 1 seed as huge underdog Fairleigh Dickinson took down Purdue. The stunning victory came five years and one day after the UMBC Retrievers knocked off the No. 1 overall seed Virginia in 2018.

FDU’s journey to the win was incredible in a lot of ways, including the fact that the Knights didn’t even win their own conference. Thanks to some quirky NCAA rules that require teams to sit out a transition period when making the leap to Division I, the NEC tournament winner Merrimack had to stay home and watch FDU — which finished second — head to the First Four in Dayton and then on to the first round.

MORE: UMBC celebrates Fairleigh Dickinson’s massive upset of Purdue with series of tweets

Let’s dig into some of the wild numbers from FDU’s massive upset.

4

Last season, Fairleigh Dickinson won all of four games. FOUR. In 2022, the Knights defeated St. Francis (PA), Central Connecticut, Sacred Heart and Wagner. That’s it. Friday night’s win was the 20th for FDU.

+23.5

Purdue was favored by a massive 23.5 points, more than the spread for Virginia against UMBC in 2018 (20.5). It’s the biggest upset by spread in the men’s NCAA tournament.

Biggest upsets in NCAA Tournament by point spread since 1978:

Today: FDU +23.5 vs. Purdue
2012: Norfolk State +21 vs. Mizzou
2018: UMBC +20.5 vs. UVA
1997: Coppin St +18.5 vs. SC
1993: Santa Clara +18.5 vs. Arizona
2022: Saint Peter's +17.5 vs. UK

Data per @ActionNetworkHQ pic.twitter.com/Qp7SkCWRG1

— John Ewing 🦁 (@johnewing) March 18, 2023

298

What makes this FDU upset even more wild is that the Knights were ranked No. 298 (of 363) in Ken Pomeroy’s analytic rankings. For context, UMBC was No. 166 when they knocked off the Cavaliers.

-9

You might think a negative number means it’s a bad thing for FDU, but in this case, it’s more impressive than anything. The Knights are the shortest team in Division I men’s basketball, and Purdue had a massive height advantage with the 7-4 Zach Edey at center. Despite that disparity, Fairleigh Dickinson were only out-rebounded by nine over the course of the game and finished with 11 second chance points (to Purdue’s seven).

Purdue is ranked #1 in effective height on Kenpom. Fairleigh Dickinson is ranked #363 out of 363. Literal David v Goliath

(And FDU currently leads) pic.twitter.com/kR1niRBmKD

— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) March 17, 2023