DAYTON, Ohio - For the third time in eight years, the Knights are dancing! #16 FDU (19-15, 10-6 NEC) are set to do battle against a fellow 16-seed in Texas Southern (14-20, 7-11 OVC) in the NCAA tournament First Four on Wednesday, March 15 at 6:40 p.m. ET live on truTV.
The Knights were the first team in the nation to punch their ticket to the Big Dance having clinched the Northeast Conference automatic qualifier to the tournament after besting Saint Francis U (Pa.) 70-50 in the NEC Championship semifinal on March 4. Since, the Knights have been in the national spotlight with hundreds of outlets highlighting the team's 15-win improvement from last season's 4-22 campaign.
Bolstered by the shortest backcourt in Division I, FDU makes their seventh NCAA tournament appearance behind fifth-year transfer guards
Demetre Roberts and
Grant Singleton, each named to the First Team All-District by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. Roberts, named to the First Team All-NEC, was joined by a longtime teammate in Singleton who earned a spot on the league Second Team. Among the five returners for
Tobin Anderson's Knights, sophomore forward
Ansley Almonor more than tripled his offensive output, averaging over 13.9 points per game en route to being named the NEC's Most Improved Player, the first Knight to earn the honor since 2016.
Opening up NCAA tournament play with a team from Texas for the second-straight trip to Dayton, FDU faces a Texas Southern team that has been hot as of late having come back from an 7-11 conference record to run the table in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament, knocking off the Regular Season Champion Alcorn State in the quarterfinal before grinding out wins over #5 Alabama A&M and #2 Grambling State by a three-point margin in the title game. Standing at 6-foot-5, Davon Barnes paces the Tigers in scoring, averaging 13.6 points a night in 32 games, starting all but two. 2-8 in their first 10 games, Texas Southern's first victory over the campaign came over another NCAA tournament-bound team in Arizona State by a 67-66 margin back on November 13. The Tigers are in the NCAA tournament for the third time in as many seasons and are facing an NEC opponent in the First Four for the second time in that span having seen then-league member Mount St. Mary's in Indiana in the bubble tournament of the 2020-21 season.
FDU's year has set up a possible Cinderella candidate as the Knights search for their second NCAA tournament victory in as many trips to March Madness. Opening up with a thrilling overtime setback to Loyola Chicago, the Knights bested regional foes Manhattan, NJIT, Columbia and knocked-down Saint Joseph's on the road by 17 points in what CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein called "the epitome of brutality."
Picked tied for sixth in the nine-team NEC, FDU opened up 5-1 in NEC play, finishing in second behind NEC tournament and regular season champion with a 10-6 record, including series sweeps over St. Francis Brooklyn and LIU and Merrimack, though FDU fell in the NEC tournament final.
The winner of Wednesday's game will square-off against #1 Purdue on Friday, March 17 in Columbus, Ohio at 6:50 p.m. on TNT.
FDU NCAA tournament notes
- FDU is 1-6 in NCAA tournament games (2023 marks seventh appearance)
- A win would secure FDU's 11th 20-win season (first since 2019)
- Tobin Anderson holds a 10-7 record in NCAA tournament games, including an Elite Eight appearance at Division II St. Thomas Aquinas
- The shortest team in Division I, FDU stands at an average height of 6-foot-1
- A win would match FDU up against #1 Purdue for the first time in 35 years in the NCAA tournament with that game also taking place on March 17 (1988)
