Mike Avaltroni didn’t bring much more than a toothbrush for his March Madness journey. What he witnessed, like everyone following college basketball, was the glaring mismatch between No. 1 Purdue and the underdog Fairleigh Dickinson.
“It resembled a Marvel movie,” commented FDU’s interim president. In this narrative, FDU was like Ant-Man, the small but mighty hero, while Purdue was the grand antagonist.
Though it wouldn’t be accurate to label the Boilermakers as villains, they represented everything that FDU is not. Purdue stands as a wealthy, resource-laden powerhouse from a major conference, contrasting sharply with the smaller, less affluent FDU.