MARCH MADNESS!

Bliss · Mar 23, 2013

UPSETS~! Love em!

Florida Gulf Coast turns 'dream' into NCAA history

PHILADELPHIA – Eleven years ago, the Florida Gulf Coast University athletic department consisted of trailers in a swamp.

The school hired a basketball coach, but there was no arena. There was campus life, but a lot of it was wildlife: bears, panthers, alligators, and snakes. Poisonous snakes.

At that point, in 2001, it had been less than a decade since the Florida Board of Regents selected the plot for the school: "760 acres of land," the school website reads, "located just east of Interstate 75 between Alico and Corkscrew Roads."

"We had golf and tennis," says associate athletic director Michael Estes, who remembers having a trailer for an office. "And a dream."

.....So the Eagles ran. They ran and ran and ran. The Eagles ran from the beginning of the game, attacking the rim with blinding speed and jarring leaping ability. Comer, who played in the same backcourt with Austin Rivers at Winter Park High, pressed the ball as if the team was down 20. He busted into the paint, laying it up or kicking it out. Even when he peeled back, he dropped a backdoor dime to one of his slashing bigs – Fieler or Eddie Murray, who won a dunk contest in high school yet somehow found his post game amid the muck and the mire of Ft. Myers.

The Eagles didn't just flood the Hoyas like favorites, they preened like favorites, too. Sherwood Brown flexed his muscles after made shots, Bernard Thompson looked knowingly over at commentator Reggie Miller. And Comer kept chucking up prayers that got answered by Dunkensteins Enfield must have created in a campus lab.

"OOOOOHHHHH!!!!!"

At halftime, with a precarious lead hardly anyone expected, Enfield actually told his team to speed it up. He told his players to perform FGCU basketball. He told them to throw more alley-oops. He wanted the gas pedal all the way down, like it was after midnight on Alligator Alley.

Friday night, with less than two minutes left in one of the most shocking upsets in NCAA tournament history, that dream rested in the hands of a point guard from Orlando named Brett Comer.

And he chucked it high into the air................

…A nation of fans gasped.

FGCU's double-digit lead over heavy favorite Georgetown dwindled, and any basketball expert with any common sense knew the upstart team should protect the damn ball. Dribble some. Kick it out. Reset. Drain the freaking clock. Just don't do that.

But that's the essence of Florida Gulf Coast University, the school built on a swamp on the edge of the Everglades. The whole idea of building a competitive athletic program in Ft. Myers was a complete toss-up.

So that's what Comer did: he tossed it up. And out of nowhere, a lanky West Virginia swingman with a sick dorm room view of a campus beach leaped "12 feet in the air" and threw down an alley-oop slam that will likely go down as one of the best highlights of the year.

The guttural roar from the FGCU cheering section was unforgettable: "OOOHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Less than two game minutes later, the Eagles swarmed the court, celebrating a 78-68 win that is the seventh 15-over-2 upset in NCAA tournament history, but certainly the first tournament win by a school that came into this century without a basketball arena. FGCU is now undefeated in NCAA tournament play at 1-0.

"When you're 16 years old," said school president Wilson Bradshaw, "you don't have a lot of history. This will go down as one of the greatest days in school history."

Sixteen years old. And that fits perfectly, because this team plays with the spirit of a kid borrowing his dad's car for the first time. Asked about his ridiculous alley-oop pass after the game, Comer shrugged and smiled and said, "I've thrown crazier ones to him."

Click to expand...

To see the vid of the throw and for the rest of the amazing story on the heart of these kids and their coach.....

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaab-...urns--dream--into-ncaa-history-050655475.html

SexyBaltimorean · Mar 23, 2013

FGCU!!! Wow. I betcha' America knows who this sxhool is now!!!!..........lol

jaym15 · Mar 23, 2013

ole miss and fcgu crushed my brackets..

problem with Georgetown and Wisconsin is that they're style of play allows teams with lesser athletes and talent stay in the game early and gain confidence

Bliss · Mar 23, 2013

jaym15 said: ↑

ole miss and fcgu crushed my brackets..

problem with Georgetown and Wisconsin is that they're style of play allows teams with lesser athletes and talent stay in the game early and gain confidence
Click to expand...

I know a lot of brackets were ruined last night, lol.

True, but staying in the game with less talent makes for more exciting playoff college bb.

On a PA note, our La Salle Explorers have won their first two games and our
Temple Owls also move on. Nova lost though

Bliss · Mar 23, 2013

SexyBaltimorean said: ↑

FGCU!!! Wow. I betcha' America knows who this sxhool is now!!!!..........lol
Click to expand...

Haha, thousands predicted the big upset...and some even have them winning the whole Title!

How many people picked Florida Gulf Coast to win the national title?
By Kevin Kaduk | The Dagger

Believe it or not, the members of the Florida Gulf Coast basketball team weren't the only ones who believed they could upset second-seeded Georgetown on Friday. Here's a look at the FGCU data from the over 3 million brackets that were entered on Yahoo! Fantasy Sports' Tourney Pick'Em contest. Yes, the dream of a FGCU national title remains a possibility for 337 dedicated and delirious souls.

· 47,950 brackets (1.5 percent) picked #15 FGCU to win their game over No. 2 Georgetown
· 18,583 picked them to also win their Round of 32 game and make the Sweet 16
· 4,982 picked them to also win their Sweet 16 game and make the Elite 8
· 1,591 picked them to also win their Elite 8 game and make the Final Four
· 696 picked them to also win their Final Four game and make the Championship
· 337 picked them to also win the NCAA Championship

Despite those 337 brave souls, FGCU was close to the least supported team in terms of title hopes (they ranked 61st out of 68 teams on our pick distribution). Here's a breakdown of how many times the No. 15 and No. 16 teams were picked to win the title. It's interesting to note that each 16 seed finished on top of all the 15s, though we suspect that's just the work of a solid group of wisenheimers.

1. #16 Western Kentucky — 776 brackets
2. #16 North Carolina A&T — 580 brackets
3. #16 James Madison — 574 brackets
4. #16 Southern — 377 brackets
5. #15 Albany — 372 brackets
6. #15 Pacific — 340 brackets
7. #15 FGCU — 337 brackets
8. #15 Iona — 322 brackets
Click to expand...

The Dark King · Mar 23, 2013

Bliss said: ↑

UPSETS~! Love em!

Florida Gulf Coast turns 'dream' into NCAA history

To see the vid of the throw and for the rest of the amazing story on the heart of these kids and their coach.....

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ncaab-...urns--dream--into-ncaa-history-050655475.html
Click to expand...

How much you wanna bet this becomes a Disney movie like RememberThe Titans

Bliss · Mar 23, 2013

The Dark King said: ↑

How much you wanna bet this becomes a Disney movie like RememberThe Titans
Click to expand...

Only if they win it all. No glory in second. Wait, did the Titan team win it?, I forget...

The Dark King · Mar 23, 2013

Bliss said: ↑

Only if they win it all. No glory in second. Wait, did the Titan team win it?, I forget...
Click to expand...

Yeah they did actually

Bliss · Mar 24, 2014

NEW playoff "SEASON" 2014

More upsets..yes!

- Duke defeated by Mercer

- Undefeated season Wichita State lost to Kentucky...
(great recap of the thrilling final minute of the game here..http://sports.yahoo.com/news/kentuc...e-statements-in-thrilling-game-011954587.html.)

Tbc...

1449225 · Mar 24, 2014

Made the Sweet 16...about to destroy Tennessee

free816 · Mar 25, 2014

1449225 said: ↑

Made the Sweet 16...about to destroy Tennessee
Click to expand...

Slow down

blacklexus · Mar 26, 2014

Go Gators.....Chomp Chomp

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