Doug Edert has quickly risen to fame in the past week, going from the sixth man for a small Catholic school’s basketball team in Jersey City, playing in an arena the size of a suburban high school gym, to the face of the 2022 NCAA Championship.
After a 20-point performance off the bench in St. Peter’s unlikely victory against Kentucky in the first round, the junior guard has found himself in one of those unique positions that you couldn’t really explain to someone fifteen years ago. “Viral” doesn’t quite do the trick anymore — what isn’t viral these days? Edert, by no effort of his own outside of helping his team to a historic victory and sporting a wispy mustache, has become a universally beloved figure over the course of a single week.
Everyone loves an underdog, and the junior Jersey native exemplifies that archetype — not only does he play for the virtually-unknown St. Peter’s Peacocks, he’s not even a starter. But he’s made his mark as the Peacocks head to the Sweet 16 to face Purdue — he followed up his clutch performance Kentucky with 13 points against 7-seed Murray State, including a ten-point run within three minutes.
His face has been plastered across Twitter and Instagram. He essentially guaranteed that it would be when he stuck out his tongue in celebration after his team’s insane overtime victory against the Wildcats. And he cemented himself as the face of this year’s madness.
It’s not every year that we get a face of the tournament, but it does happen sometimes. Inexplicably, the entire world falls in love with some 20-year-old for two weeks, only to forget his name after a month or so. Gonzaga’s Drew Timme kind of found that singular fame through his mustache and on-court antics last year, but he was helped on (and therefore hindered from becoming a true America’s sweetheart) by playing for the best team in the country.
So is it the power of the stache? Does Doug blow up on social media in the same way he did if he doesn’t have it?
“I said, ‘Maybe the mustache is giving me powers,” Edert told The Athletic. “And now it’s everywhere. I never thought this was going to happen, but it’s just hilarious.”
Added his father, Bill, “the ‘stache is cash.” Ain’t that the truth. Just this morning, Edert announced an NIL partnership with Buffalo Wild Wings. The ‘stache literally is cash.
St. Peter’s faces Purdue on Friday, and if you’re experiencing withdrawals from March Madness content before tomorrow evening, do yourself a favor and search “Doug Edert” on Twitter. I’ve been laughing for days.