One of St. Peter’s top players, KC Ndefo, a 6-foot-7 shot-blocking specialist, followed him to Seton Hall as a graduate student to finish, he said, “what I started with Sha.”
Guard Doug Edert, who achieved folk-hero status during the tournament, with even his mustache causing a sensation, transferred to Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I., where some spectators now wear St. Peter’s shirts to games. Edert was averaging 7.3 points a game through 13 games.
Daryl Banks III, who scored 27 points in the upset of Kentucky, transferred to St. Bonaventure, where he is the team’s leading scorer with 15.6 points a game and a high of 34.
Hassan and Fousseyni Drame, 6-7 twins from Mali, are contributing at La Salle in Philadelphia. Clarence Rupert, who started at center during the tournament, transferred to Southern Illinois, where he has three years of eligibility remaining. Matthew Lee, after three seasons at St. Peter’s, left for Missouri State. Marty Silvera went to Southern Connecticut State in Division II. The former teammates stay in touch via a weekly text chat.
But don’t cry for St. Peter’s. It went from being a university that most people could not place on a map to being the face of the madness that the N.C.A.A. tournament promises each year. Applications for admission at the university spiked by 33 percent; unrestricted donations exceeded $2.2 million for the first time; online orders for Peacocks gear came from 45 states from March 18 to 20, after the overtime upset of Kentucky. On campus, $47,000 in merchandise sales was recorded from March 17 to 24, more than double the sales from the fall semester.
Two of the St. Peter’s games in March were among the top seven most-watched games of the tournament. More than 10 million people watched the upset of Purdue, making it the most watched round-of-16 game in more than a decade. More than 13 million watched the run end against North Carolina, the tournament’s eventual runner-up. Only the semifinal between Duke and North Carolina and the national final between North Carolina and Kansas drew larger audiences.
