GLENDALE, Ariz. — The man who engineered Fairleigh Dickinson's stunning upset against Purdue has taken on an unexpected sideline job this season.
Tobin Anderson has become a go-to consultant for other coaches trying to devise a game plan to beat the Boilermakers.
It started in nonleague play when Anderson received call-ups from several other teams with games against Alabama and Purdue on the horizon. The calls picked up again during the NCAA Tournament, as coaches from North Carolina State and other programs asked Anderson questions.
“Every team that plays Purdue calls me beforehand and says, 'What do you think?'” said Anderson, who left FDU last spring to become Iona's head coach. . “We try to tell them what our approach is and what worked for us.”
The blueprint provided by FDU in the first round of last year's NCAA Tournament wasn't easy for others to replicate. Purdue's six returning key players have used the bitter memories of a 29-win season coming to a halt to accelerate their quest for redemption.
Purdue won each of its five NCAA Tournament games by nearly 20 points and faced a total deficit of 19 seconds in the second half. Now, the Boilermakers are one win away from pulling away from Virginia and one win away from redefining the tradition of going from losing to a No. 16 seed to bouncing back to winning a championship, when they face fellow No. 1 seed U.S. on Monday. heading into tonight's title game.
As Purdue sheds the tag of a poor March performance, FDU players who once tormented the Boilermakers are taking the time to catch bits and pieces of games and study box scores and highlights. Many FDU players and coaches are happy for Purdue coach Matt Painter and star center Zach Eady. Several members of his FDU team last year are also rooting for the Boilermakers.
“I'm personally going to root for them,” FDU forward Joel Emanuel told Yahoo Sports. “If they win, it just further legitimizes our victory. People can't say they're not that good anymore. Now they've proven they're that good.”
Purdue entered last year's NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 seed, as it did this year, but the Boilermakers' impressive performance masked some vulnerabilities. Their freshman guard was showing signs of fatigue and declining confidence. Brayden Smith and Fletcher Royer were misfires from behind the arc and struggled with full-court pressure.
Anderson sounded confident when he spoke to his players two days before the game against Purdue. Anderson was well aware that the cameras were on him and said, “I want Purdue to see this. The more I watch the Purdue game, the more I think we can beat them…the world.'' Let's give you a shock.”
“It gave us a lot of confidence,” Emmanuel recalls. “If he said that, any of us would run into a wall.”
FDU was the shortest team in Division I college basketball last season, but Anderson turned that supposed weakness into a strength.
Offensively, FDU spread the floor and attacked the basket, forcing the 7-foot-4 Eady to leave the paint and defend in space. Defensively, FDU relentlessly pressured Purdue's turnover-prone guards, denied post-entry passes, and stood in front of Eadie looking for someone to hit.
Eady had 21 points and 15 rebounds, but only attempted one shot in the final 12 minutes of the game. His supporting cast had a hard time forcing passes to him, sinking the wide-open jumpers that FDU was daring to make, and producing easy layups.
“We were shooting really hard,” current FDU coach Jack Castleberry told Yahoo Sports. “We had nothing to lose in that situation.”
Purdue cowered from that moment on. FDU has made great strides.
“Style creates conflict,” Anderson said. “The way we played caused them problems. Funny thing is, our team was built to beat them.”
In the offseason, Painter tackled a complex problem. How do you fix something that might not be broken? Is there a tweak to a program that cruises from November to Selection Sunday every year, only to suffer three consecutive meltdowns when it shines brightest? Or?
After evaluating every aspect of the program, Painter's answer was to resist the temptation to overreact. Instead, he tweaked the edges, adding Lance Jones, a transfer from Southern Illinois, as a defensive specialist and secondary ball-handler, and the players are mentally and physically fresh entering March. I looked for ways to maintain my condition.
A motivated and talented Purdue team defeated Tennessee, Arizona, Marquette, Alabama and others in non-league play to win the Big Ten title by three games and declare for the regular season. The Boilermakers have won the NCAA Tournament five times and are dominant.
“When you go through what we went through as a team, your heart either breaks or you come out stronger on the other side,” Eady said Sunday. “You see we have a lot of people who really believe in themselves.”
Every time Anderson watches Purdue this season, he sees a team “strengthened by shared suffering.” Anderson talked about how mentally tough the Boilermakers have become, how good Eady's supporting cast is shooting from the perimeter, and how well Painter gets the ball to the big men in scoring position. There are many different ways to find or rave about.
When coaches called Anderson for advice, he pointed to two areas he felt Purdue could still use. Relentless defensive pressure could still trouble Purdue's guards, and Eadie isn't built to guard smaller, faster players in space just yet.
“I'll be interested to see how much pressure UConn can put on the guards Monday night and how much trouble that will cause them,” Anderson said. “If they can handle college pressure on the perimeter, they should be fine. But UConn has the athleticism and they have quick guards. They have the same kind of speed and quickness that we have. We have, but they were 6-5 and 6-6 and we were 5-9 and 5-10.”
Who will Anderson and Castleberry root for on Monday night? Both say they are neutral.
“That said, it's good to see Purdue having success,” Anderson said. “In a way, it's even better that we were able to beat them.”