The 2024-25 Kentucky men’s basketball team was put together, in its entirety, in one offseason.
New UK Head Coach Mark Pope inherited a roster with zero returning scholarship players after John Calipari departed for Arkansas, and leaned heavily on the transfer portal to construct the entire group, finding diamonds in the rough from across the country.
With the group coming from all over the place, some have had plenty of experience in the NCAA Tournament while others have never played in the dance. One, however, was a part of perhaps one of the biggest upsets in NCAA Tournament history: Ansley Almonor.
A zero-star prospect out of Our Savior Lutheran School in New York City, Almonor didn’t have too many college offers at the NCAA Division-I level and opted to commit to a small school just outside his home city in New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson.
Under Knights Head Coach Tobin Anderson, Almonor had a sophomore year to remember as his squad benefited from an NCAA policy regarding schools transitioning to the D-1 level.
See, playing in the NEC, the best team in the conference was Massachusetts-based Merrimack, which not only won the conference’s regular season championship, but also won the NEC Tournament, which should have secured the Warriors a spot in the big dance.
Unfortunately for the 2022-23 Warriors, they were still in the process of transitioning to the top level of collegiate sports from the NCAA Division-II level and were denied a bid to the tournament.
Needing a representative in March Madness, the NEC awarded the bid to the runners up in the conference: FDU.
Being sent to Dayton for the First Four, Fairleigh Dickinson dominated Texas Southern 84-61 to make it to the first round of the NCAA Tournament against No. 1 seed Purdue. Almonor was crucial in this win as he logged a stellar 23 points to push the Knights to victory.
After the win, the Knights went viral online for a video showing Anderson telling his squad, “The more I see Purdue, the more I think we can beat them.”
Social media clowned on Anderson and the Knights as only one No. 16 seed had ever beaten a No. 1 in the history of the tournament and the Boilermakers boasted National Player of the Year Zach Edey.
Sure enough, however, when the final buzzer sounded in Nationwide Arena in Columbus, FDU did beat Purdue, winning 63-58 in one of the largest upsets in tournament history and the single largest point-spread upset in the history of the tournament. Almonor played 25 minutes in the game.
Sure, the magic would come to an end in the second round against eventual Final Four squad FAU — with current Michigan coach Dusty May and a plethora of high-level transfers — but the two-game stretch would be immortalized in college basketball history.
“Being a part of that was a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Almonor said.
Anderson would go on to be offered the job at Iona — which was losing Rick Pitino to St. John’s — and multiple players on the roster would get offers to move to bigger schools. Almonor, eventually, would end up at Kentucky for his senior season, a childhood dream of his.
Now heading into the NCAA Tournament for the first time with the Wildcats and looking to shake off the stench of postseason failures lingering around the program, Almonor is confident that his experience will be of value to him and the squad.
“It was a great experience as a young kid,” Almonor said. “Being able to be in March Madness, (the) culture, a huge upset. It’s great experience for me seeing how intense the games were, the media coverage and all those things like that.”
Almonor was also extremely complimentary of his former coach, Anderson, who himself has been in headlines lately, though for a different reason.
“Coach Tobin, he’s a great coach,” Almonor said. “He’s a great coach I only had for one year, (but) he made a big difference in my life, big difference in my career. I talk to him today, I talk to his family, he’s a great guy. I thank him for all he did for me and my career.”
Anderson himself didn’t quite get the storybook ending Almonor hopes to get at Kentucky, being fired at Iona after just two seasons in controversial fashion.
With plenty of fans and neutral fans alike criticizing the decision — one that many believe to be politically motivated with less to do with on-the-court results — Anderson took time to process the firing before finally releasing a statement.
“It’s been an honor to coach at Iona University the past 2 years and I am proud of what we built and were building,” Anderson said in a statement. “We were coming! We had a uniquely talented and unified group with a great recruiting class on the way, so it is especially disappointing that we will not have the chance to see things through with this team.”
Anderson continued.
“I was hired to coach and lead the Iona men’s basketball program. I did that to the best of my abilities. I apologize for nothing,” he said. “I love my players, I love my fellow coaches, I love my friends, but most of all, I love my amazing family. Jodi, Bryce, Alexa and I have been bruised, but we are not broken. I have an incredible fire and desire to lead my next team to greatness. Onward and upward my friends.”
Almonor did not comment on Iona specifically or the controversial firing, but reiterated that he still has a good bond with Anderson and remains in contact with his former coach.
“We still talk. I talk to his son, his wife, I hit him every time he’s free,” Almonor said. “He always reaches out to me. He’s a great guy.”
Anderson has yet to announce a new position with a new team, but his legacy is still being felt in the 2025 NCAA Tournament as his former player, Almonor, will hope to utilize what he learned and experienced in North Jersey with Kentucky.
Kentucky will tip off its NCAA Tournament contest against Troy at 6:10 p.m. CT from Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. The contest will air live on CBS.
