NJ teams again upset & surprise in March Madness

Nobody expected Princeton University to upset the #2 seed Arizona last Thursday in the NCAA Tournament.

It busted up a lot of brackets for the millions playing along and betting on the games. Then the audacity to upset the number 7 seed Missouri Saturday night to advance to the sweet 16.

It's only the second time an Ivy League team has advanced to the sweet sixteen since the tournament was expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

The Princeton Tiger's Men's Basketball team dominated Missouri in Saturday night's game leading by as much as 21 points in the second half and came away with a 78-63 win over much-favored Missouri.

Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

It's the second year in a row that an unexpected New Jersey team has made the Sweet 16. Last year St. Peter's University of Jersey City made it to the Elite Eight last year before being eliminated by basketball powerhouse North Carolina.

Yet another New Jersey team almost made the Sweet 16 as Farleigh Dickinson University from Teaneck surprised the basketball world by beating the No. 1 seed Purdue Friday night.

Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images

Sunday night they just didn't have enough to beat Florida Atlantic to advance to the Sweet 16.

FDU coach Tobin Anderson and his players have plenty to be proud of going as far as they did.

Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images

New Jersey's last hope in the tournament is now with the Princeton Tigers. New Jersey loves an underdog because the state is an underdog. We're sandwiched between two of the biggest cities in the country, the butt of jokes, from people who don't know better, for generations.

So when one of ours makes it on the big stage, the whole state takes notice and roots for one of our own. Princeton takes on Creighton University from Nebraska this coming Friday. Go Tigers!

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy only.

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NFL pros from New Jersey

There are more than 60 active pros with NJ roots.

More than 10 players who made it to the NFL conference championship games this year have NJ ties — and four active NFL quarterbacks were born in the Garden State.

Some of them may even be on your fantasy football team.

Play ball NJ: These MLB pros are from New Jersey

A fair amount of New Jersey born baseball players have made it to the majors. These pros, active to start the 2023 season, all have NJ roots.

Source: NJ loves an underdog because our state’s an underdog: March Madness surprise again