Florida gulf shore guard Sherwood Brown (25) looks to the crowd as his team is in the lead against San Diego State in the second wizard-half during the triplet round of the NCAA basketb on the whole tournament at rise Fargo Center.(Photo: Eileen Blass, regular army TODAY Sports)
Sophomore guard Bernard Thompson sent a sum ab expose his Florida Gulf Coast team Sunday night.
" douse City is coming to Arlington," Thompson said. "So everybody be ready."
And if they aren't after the prime(prenominal) weekend of the NCAA tournament, they capture no excuse. Florida Gulf Coast, in disagreement I for just six years and eligible for the postseason for two, has sent shockwaves through the field of 68, crumpling brackets along the way, entertaining new fans with their subsist style and even inspiring a rap video, dump City.
RELATED: Florida Gulf Coast's amazing dunking, dancing
GAME STORY: Eagles topple San Diego State to instal Sweet 16
The Eagles all overly make level in this diachronic city, becoming the first No. 15 seed to reach the Sweet 16 thanks to an 81-71 victory against San Diego State in the third round of the South Regional.
And just as Florida Gulf Coast (26-10) had d whizz in Friday's stunning upset of second-seeded Georgetown, it was a strong second-half surge that put the Atlantic Sun throng champion in charge as SDSU (23-11) wilted chthonian the relentless offensive surge.
The Eagles will next meet Florida, achiever of the 2006 and 2007 national championships, in Friday's South semi closings in Arlington, Texas.
The Gators are one of the highest-profile designs in the nation. FGCU was hardly k straightn beyond its gather Myers campus on Florida's southern gulf coast before seizing the tournament spotlight.
They're thriving in it.
NCAA TOURNAMENT: Updated bracket
WHO'S LEFT : All 16 teams left in the field
When it was over Sunday, Atlantic Sun Conference worker of the year Sherwood Brown blew kisses to the crowd and he and his teammates mugged for television cameras and hugged at midcourt.
Bernard Thompson scored 23 touchs and Brown finished with 17 Sunday as the Eagles shot 56% from the floor and ran their offense with the same precision and efficiency that stunned Georgetown. FGCU took over with a 17-point run in the second half, much the same way as the Eagles outscored Georgetown 21-2 in the second half Friday.
"That's just our style of play. We want to foment the ball down the court and we want to attack, attack, attack," said point guard Brett Comer, who finished with 14 assists. "We're going to be in full attack mode the entire game."
MARCH SADNESS: NCAA tourney teams losing sadly
The Eagles became media darlings and caught the nation's attention Friday against Georgetown. But early in the regular season, the signs were there. FGCU outwit eventual ACC champion Miami (Fla.), straight off the No. 2 seed in the East.
None of the accomplishments come as surprises to second-year bearing Andy Enfield and his grouping of lightly recruited players.
Florida Gulf Coast forward Filip Cvjeticanin (15) celebrates in the final moments of an 81-77 win over San Diego State in the second half during the third round of the NCAA basketball tournament at Wells Fargo Center.(Photo: Eileen Blass, USA TODAY Sports)
Enfield, 43, is a power player at Division III Johns Hopkins (Md.), where he was the program's incomparable scoring leader and set an NCAA record with a 92.5% calling free-throw conversion rate, Enfield has long been have it awayn as a slam guru.
His shooting expertise and instructional videos helped get him assistant instruct jobs with the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics, yet he also got a know degree in business from Maryland.
More than a decade ago, he helped to start up a contract management gain for the health-care industry, called TractManager, which made him a fortune on Wall Street.
Enfield also is married to supermodel Amanda Marcum Enfield, who gave up her jet-setting career to become a coach's married woman and raise their three young children.
Seven years ago, he persistent to move to the instruct ranks full time, taking an assistant's job at Florida State. After learning around building a program from Seminoles coach Leonard Hamilton, Enfield felt he was ready to step out on his own.
Two years ago, he moved to FGCU, which was trying to install a name for itself in the Atlantic Sun.
While Enfield says some recruits he has talked to the past agree of years knew very little about the school (a few got it confused with Gulf Coast company College in Panama City, Fla.), that problem will probably by alleviated now.
Playing an up-tempo style in an era where scores in the 50s are common, FGCU reached the Atlantic Sun tournament final choke year and won 15 games, its most since joining Division I.
But that was nothing like what's happened this month, with a conference championship and now a couple of the more memorable upsets in NCAA history among Enfield's credentials.
After beating the Hoyas, Enfield said his players were a "bunch of crazy dudes." He returned to that theme Sunday, but made it clear they also know when to get to work.
Florida Gulf Coast coach Andy Enfield celebrates his team's win over San Diego State on March 24.(Photo: Howard Smith, USA TODAY Sports)
"We don't take ourselves too seriously," he said. "We have a lot of guys on the team who are characters. We're FGCU. hopefully by now, people are learning those initials. When we came into this tournament, we knew no one knew who we were or where we were. Most people don't even know where Fort Myers or Southwest Florida is.
"(The players) made huge jumps in the offseason, and they made a big jump from the middle of this season. We had a couple of really bad losses in the middle of the season, and now we've won 14 out of 16. So, we're playing at a high level."
And doing it at the right time.
Enfield said he knows Florida coach Billy Donovan well, and is familiar with many Gators players from recruiting them when he was at Florida State.
"They are great people," he said. "We know they can be beaten, but we also have an unbelievable amount of respect for them, the players and the coaching staff.
"They have one of the best programs and have had the success that all of us want to have one day."
That day competency not be far away.
HIGHLIGHTS: FLORIDA GULF COAST'S MAGICAL SEASON
Materials taken from USA Today
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