For the past two weeks, America has been obsessed with Doug Edert and the St. Peter’s University Peacocks. March Madness has captured the nation with millions of sports fans glued to their TVs hoping they correctly predicted their brackets. For many, the hopes of a perfect bracket fell apart when the Number 15 seed St. Peter’s Peacocks knocked off No. 2 seed and Final Four contender, the Kentucky Wildcats.
Going into this year, 15 seeds had a record of 9-135 against 2 seeds in the tournament. The odds are heavily against 15 seeds, which are usually teams from mid-major or low-major schools that barely scraped their way into the tournament. The cards were stacked against St. Peter’s going into their bout with Kentucky in more ways than one.
St. Peter’s University is a small school in New Jersey. Reports have recently emerged regarding the basketball team’s budget and facilities. Most NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball teams pay three assistant coaches to be on the road recruiting players. St. Peter’s on the other hand until recently, paid two coaches and had a third act as a volunteer.
To put the immense financial differences between Kentucky and St. Peter’s into perspective, here are some numbers. Kentucky’s head coach, John Calipari makes $8.6 Million a year. St. Peter’s entire basketball budget for a year is $1.6 Million including coach’s salaries, basketballs, etc. The Coaches at St. Peter’s work on the roof of the rec center underneath a tennis bubble. They often deal with flooding in their office and experience extremely hot and extreme cold temperatures.
The team itself goes through its fair share of hardships as well. They don’t have the facilities that other schools have. They have to share their basketball court with other students as well as the local community. This leads to court damage, stolen basketballs, and scheduling conflicts where the peacocks cannot practice full court.
Perhaps the saddest but most heartwarming aspect of all was that the program could not afford to fly the cheerleaders out to either of the first two games. NBC owns the streaming service title Peacock, and upon discovering the plight of the cheerleaders, NBC rented a private bus so the cheerleaders could travel from New Jersey to Indianapolis to cheer on their school.
Heading into the first round of the tournament, nobody expected anything from St. Peter's. When creating their brackets, 6% of people picked Kentucky to win all 6 games and win the national championship while only 3% of people picked St. Peters to win one game in order to just beat Kentucky. St. Peter’s, however, shocked the world when they beat No. 2 Kentucky in overtime 85-79, becoming one of ten 15 seed schools to win their first game in tournament history.
St. Peter’s went from being an unknown school in New Jersey to being a viral sensation in the course of 24 hours. Next up in the tournament, the Peacocks took on the No. 7 Murray St. Racers. Again, the Peacocks were the underdogs and everyone perceived their first win as a fluke. However, for the second time they shocked the world with a 70-60 win over the Racers, becoming only the second 15 seed to make it to the Sweet Sixteen.
Moving up in the tournament, the Peacocks faced another team that in all aspects, should have been the favorite over them. They played the No. 3 Purdue Boilermakers led by 7’4” Center Zachary Edey, the tallest player in Big 10 history. The Peacocks found themselves in a harrowing nailbiter and pulled off yet another upset, making them the most unlikely Cinderella story and the first-ever 15 seed to make it to the Elite Eight.
They went from being one of the most underfunded programs in college basketball, practicing in abysmal conditions to being considered one of the best eight teams in the nation. This Cinderella-like magic, however, wore off on Sunday, March 17, when the Peacocks were decisively beaten by the No. 8 seed North Carolina Tar Heels 69-49, eliminating them from the tournament.
Although they lost, St. Peter’s made a statement to teams across America: no matter your funding, or if you are considered less talented than another team, if you work hard, anyone can compete with the best programs in the country. This story truly attests to the madness of the NCAA tournament and why March basketball is so unpredictable. While the school that makes these improbable runs changes every year, you can always count on the fact that a small, low seeded school will ruin your bracket every year.