DAYTON, Ohio — The smallest team in the NCAA Tournament is living large.

The Fairleigh Dickinson basketball team has an average height of 73.4 inches (or 6-foot-1) and is ranked the 363rd smallest team out of 363 Division I teams.

In short, every team the Knights play is bigger than they are.

No matter.

FDU routed Texas Southern in the NCAA Tournament “First Four’’ game, 84-61, Wednesday night at University of Dayton Arena to move into the tournament bracket of 64 to play No. 1 seed Purdue on Friday in Columbus, Ohio.

In significant contrast to FDU, which improved to 20-15, Purdue’s top player is 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey.

FDU’s win over Texas Southern was the school’s second-ever NCAA Tournament victory in nine games, its second in the “First Four’’ round. The Knights’ win over Prairie View A&M in 2019 was their only NCAA Tournament win before Wednesday night.

The win, too, was a significant milestone for FDU head coach Tobin Anderson, who came from Division II St. Thomas Aquinas College to take over a Knights team that went 4-22 last year and had only five scholarship players remaining on the team, none of whom was a starter in 2022.

This is some kind of story FDU is penning, and it has a chance to become even bigger on Friday when it faces mighty Purdue.

In the back of the minds of every FDU player is the storybook run that Saint Peter’s made to the Elite Eight as a No. 15 seed last year. Saint Peter’s, by the way, defeated Purdue in the Sweet 16 to advance to the final eight.

“Nobody expected them to make that type of run,” FDU fifth-year-senior guard Demetre Roberts said. “We feel like we can do the same and even better. So why not?’’

Sure. Why not?

For small schools like FDU this time of year is defined by “why not?’’ It’s what makes the NCAA Tournament the must-see sporting event it’s become.

The aggressive, pressing style that FDU plays is the last thing the top-seeded teams like Purdue want to see. That style had Texas Southern (14-21) on the back foot from the start Wednesday night, as the Knights raced to a 14-2 lead just four minutes into the game.

“We’re going to go after them,’’ Anderson said before the game. “We’re going to play fast and throw the first punch.’’

They did. Mission accomplished.

Texas Southern hung on for a while, whittling the FDU lead to 26-23 with 7:20 remaining in the first half. A quick 6-0 Texas Southern run with the FDU defense looking discombobulated and passive, forced Anderson to call timeout for a regroup.

Anderson reinserted Ansley Almonor, FDU’s 6-6 sophomore forward from Spring Valley, into the game and it paid immediate dividends as Almonor drained two 3-pointers to put the Knights back in control.

Almonor’s presence sparked a 10-0 FDU run, which gave the Knights a 36-23 lead. And the Knights didn’t stop there, continuing their dominance and pushing the lead to 18 points at 45-27 with 1:06 remaining in a first half that ended with FDU leading 45-29.

The most stark difference of the first half was at the 3-point line, where FDU was 7 of 15 and Texas Southern was 0-for-8, giving the Knights a 21-point advantage from long distance.

FDU was led by Almonor, who scored 23 points and had eight rebounds. Roberts scored 15 points and had four assists, Grant Singleton scored 13 and had seven rebounds and Sean Moore had 10 points.

Texas Southern, which was making its third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, having become the first No. 8 seed to win the SWAC Tournament, was led by John Walker III, who scored 22 points.

Anderson, in his pre-tournament press conference Tuesday, told reporters: “There’s a saying: ‘Scared goes home.’ ’’

The Knights weren’t scared on Wednesday night, which is why they’re not going home. Not yet anyway. On Friday, they move on to a bigger stage than the one they occupied Wednesday night.

“Guys aren’t intimidated anymore,’’ Anderson said. “I don’t think there’s a fear factor of all of a sudden playing against guys you’ve seen on TV. There are a lot of good players at all levels now.’’

And FDU has a few of them.

“Yeah, we are very undersized, but we play extremely hard, and we use that to our advantage,’’ Singleton said. “We don’t really pay attention to size.’’