It was a joyous scene in the Fairleigh Dickinson locker room after the No. 16 Cavaliers stunned the world by beating No. 1 Purdue, just the second upset in March Madness history.
The Boilermakers’ locker room was another story.
As the cameras caught Farleigh Dickinson head coach Tobin Anderson celebrating the upset with his teamthere was little evidence of what happened at Purdue’s postgame meeting, except that some anger was vented on a shoddy, unsuspecting whiteboard.
There was a lot to be angry about for Purdue. Matt Painter’s team spent seven weeks atop the AP Top 25 poll during the 2022-23 regular season and won the Big Ten regular season and conference tournament titles, only to lose to a 13th seed or worse for the third year in a row. .
[2023 March Madness: Fairleigh Dickinson’s upset of Purdue shocks the world]
It also marks the second straight NCAA men’s basketball tournament in which the Boilermakers fell to a top seed from New Jersey after losing to No. 15 Saint Peter’s in the Sweet 16 in 2022. Princeton, which beat No. 2 of Arizona as No. 2. 15 then Thursday, also hails from New Jersey.
The chalkboard image quickly went viral after the game as the internet reacted to Purdue’s shocking loss, with some even commenting that the hole in the chalkboard looked a bit like the state that now haunts Boilermaker fans dreams.
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