You Have To Love Fellow 16th Seed Cinderella UMBC Tweeting Through Fairleigh Dickinson's Historic Upset Of Purdue
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The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) broke everyone college basketball fan's brain five years ago when they became the first 16th seed to ever knock off a No. 1 seed in the NCAA men's tournament. Whereas the Retrievers smoked Virginia 74-54, Friday's thriller between Fairleigh Dickinson and Purdue was a lot tighter. In the end, the knights of FDU pulled it out to make for one of the most electric games in the history of March Madness.
It was a legacy game for El Pres.
But you know who else's legend — albeit for now, shrouded in anonymity — got a big boost from this piece of college hoops history? Whoever the fuck is running UMBC Athletics' Twitter handle.
This person was on more of a heater than Sean Moore down the stretch of the Knights' victory over the Boilermakers. Yeah, Moore scored a team-high 19 points and was about as clutch as you could be when it mattered most. That's how impressive this display of UMBC Twitter wizardry was. Only being slightly hyperbolic with that.
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When the possibility of FDU actually winning began to percolate in the minds and hearts of America, this was UMBC Athletics initial shot into the Twitter dialogue:
Then they trolled TNT for their when the network was just trying to give them a compliment. The HUMANITY.
Throwing up the damn Bat Signal in the first place is a mood that I'm down with.
How about this move: tugging on people's nostalgia by dropping links to a Rob Thomas number.
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Like if it doesn't happen at this point, what a heartbreaker, right? Wouldn't you know it, the superheroes of Fairleigh Dickinson, a private university based in Teaneck, New Jersey, were feeling romantic, inspired and were even smoother operators than Robby T and Santana in slaying a Big Ten giant.
I'm now listening to this song for the first time in a looooong time and yep, still slaps.
In Batman terms, Purdue was like the equivalent of a villain with Bane's brute strength and The Joker's anarchic depravity.
UMBC Athletics WASN'T DONE with the pop culture allusions. You can't really go wrong with the general public when you're giving on-point shoutouts to The Simpsons:
It's funny that UMBC focused so much on their collective feeling of solitude. First of all, what they experienced as part of that extraordinary, unprecedented 16th seed breakthrough is something no one else can 100% identify with. There has to be a subtle sense of alienation and ennui underlying all that. Not to mention, some morons on Twitter who despise their lives want to shit on you for no longer being "relevant". They blast your school for clinging to UMBC's Round of 64 win as if that was the only significant event in your entire life.
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Oh let me tell you, that's where this UMBC Athletics user really threw the hammer down.
That last one was shades of Geno Smith.
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They even did the yeoman's work of boosting FDU's own Twitter following and attendance numbers for their Round of 32 matchup against ninth-seeded Florida Atlantic:
And perhaps most impressive of all, to be this classy toward the Boilermakers on top of it all? Very, very commendable given that, well…
I'll heed your reminder, UMBC Athletics Twitter account runner. Because you put on a Cinderella performance of your own and became virally relevant on March Madness yet again. Just in time (Cinderella joke) for the newest, shiniest belle of the ball's big splash at the Big Dance. And you only elevated this watershed moment. Bravo.
Looking back on this eerily prescient post from Thursday, you almost wonder if this Twitter account runner is had some sort of foreknowledge of the madness that was to ensue…
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Or maybe it's just that…the NCAA Tournament…
HAS A SCRIPT.
OK enough offshoot tangents in this blog. How about another wholesome little nugget from UMBC Athletics to punctuate this weird thing?
The quality humans at FDU not only banded together for Friday's triumph on the hardwood, but put some good karma out into the world to UMBC's benefit. You can't say this didn't help their vibes a fraction of a percent.
Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok
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