Florida Gulf Coast wins to become first 15-seed to reach Sweet 16

PHILADELPHIA -- Florida Gulf Coast became the first 15 to reach the Sweet 16, and the Eagles not only made it look easy, they made it look fun.

Little-known FGCU beat San Diego State 81-71 on Sunday night, its second NCAA tournament upset of the weekend. Just like in their opening win over second-seeded Georgetown -- the Eagles' calling card to the nation -- there were plenty of laughs, dunks and dances.

"We don't take ourselves too seriously," said Florida Gulf Coast coach Andy Enfield, whose players tossed him in the air and doused him with water in a raucous celebration before his postgame interviews. "We try to have fun, get serious when we have to.

"Our goal was to make history and we did it."

With its campus in Fort Myers, Florida Gulf Coast opened its doors to students in 1997. The university only became eligible for postseason play last year. Now the next opponent for the upstart state school will be the system's flagship university, third-seeded Florida, on Friday night in the South Regional semifinal in Dallas.

"We tried to scrimmage them early in the season in the preseason," Enfield said. "Now we get our shot."

Bernard Thompson had 23 points and Sherwood Brown added 17 for FGCU, the Atlantic Sun champion.

In their first-ever NCAA tournament game on Friday, the 15th-seeded Eagles busted brackets everywhere with a win over Georgetown, a game in which they took control with a 21-2 run in the second half.

It went much the same way against seventh-seeded San Diego State.

This time the run was 17-0 and Brown, who was saddled early in the second half with foul trouble, had eight of the first 10 points of it. When it was over the Eagles led 71-52 with 4:19 to play and the only decisions left were how the players and fans were going to celebrate.

Brown stuck out his tongue after every big basket, often in the direction of the hundreds of Eagles fans jammed into one section.

Even when the game was tight, he and his teammates looked like they were glad to be on the court. The Eagles waved their arms and played along with a lively crowd that came to see an upset. There were big smiles and high-fives.

In short, they showed a kind of joy that's often missing from high stakes, high drama games in March.

"We're all about having fun and also playing really hard and that's something we like to do, we like to get the crowd involved," said Brown, the A-Sun's player of the year. "The whole crowd got behind us even if they are not from Fort Myers, or as I like to say, 'Dunk City.' "

It turns out a rap video called "Dunk City" sprang up overnight in praise of the Eagles.

The notoriously tough Philly fans jumped on the bandwagon, too. One seated behind the FGCU bench held a sign -- "Fly, Eagles, Fly!" -- the motto of the NFL team that plays across the street from the Wells Fargo Center.

And after it was all over, the whole team joined in a bird dance that the players on the bench had been doing during the game.

"I know I can say for all the players, this was the biggest game for us. None of us have played on this stage," point guard Brett Comer said. "We are blessed to be here."

FGCU played like it had nothing to lose. And really, the Eagles didn't. Given their school's short history, nobody expected them to win a game at the NCAA tournament, let alone two.

"They play with a swagger, and they have a right to do that," said San Diego State coach Steve Fisher, who knows about players with attitude, having led the Fab Five to consecutive national championship games at Michigan. "You can have that look and feel, but you have to compete and play to earn your spurs, and they've done that."

Comer, who didn't have as many lob passes for dunks as he did against the Hoyas, finished with 10 points and 14 assists, some of which resulted in dunks that had the crowd cheering and wanting more.

"We want to get out and run," Comer said. "We're just having so much fun."

FGCU even unleashed another offensive weapon. Christophe Varidel, a native of Switzerland, hit two big 3s early for the Eagles and finished with 11 points after going scoreless against Georgetown.

"If we can get him open shots, he's as good a shooter as I've seen," Enfield said. "He stepped up tonight and helped us and we needed that because Sherwood Brown was in early foul trouble."

Jamaal Franklin had 20 points and 11 rebounds for the seventh-seeded Aztecs (23-11), who were trying to reach the regional semifinals for the second time in three years.

Franklin spoke with Brown after the game.

"I just told him just keep being the leader that he is, make sure the ball is in his hands, make sure he does what he has to do to keep his team rolling," Franklin said.

Xavier Thames' layup brought the Aztecs within 54-52 with 11:33 to play but the Eagles were off on their spurt about 90 seconds later. FGCU held San Diego State without a field goal for more than 7 minutes as it again pulled away from a team with much bigger national profile.

"We just tried to keep a steady pace and tried to wear them down. We think we can play with anybody in the country," center Chase Fieler said. "When we got the running game going it felt like a home game."

The Eagles shot 55.9 percent for the game (33 of 59), including going 7 of 18 from 3-point range.

The Aztecs finished at 44.3 percent (27 of 61) and were 8 of 23 from beyond the arc.

"They ran. They ran hard, they ran consistent, and they ran effectively," Fisher said. "They're playing with a kind of momentum that they have earned."

FGCU had one of its highlight plays in the first half when Comer flipped the ball up toward the rim and a flying Eric McKnight grabbed it for a one-hand jam with 8:50 to play that woke up the crowd.

Suddenly it sounded a lot like Friday night, when the Eagles had several jams on lob passes that were a big part of the Georgetown upset.

McKnight was asked if that was his best dunk.

"I don't rate them," he said, "but it was one of my best ones."