NEW YORK — The room hummed and whirred and howled in their muggy, magnificent corner of Madison Square Garden, a high-brow playground typically reserved for basketball royalty but whose admission standards had, over the course of two unforgettable evenings, been shattered and shaken by these unflappable beachgoers from a retirement town in South Florida.
Nascent athletic departments like the one at Florida Atlantic aren’t supposed to field teams that win 20 consecutive games in the regular season, that rip through a conference tournament and then upend not one, not two, but three programs far richer in pedigree while storming from one round of March Madness to the next until the only thing left is a trip to the Final Four.
But here exulted the perpetually underrated, progressively more decorated Owls, fresh from yet another NCAA Tournament upset, passing the East Regional trophy locker to locker and player to player while snapping a series of selfies they’ll never forget. The mood was equal parts pleasure and sweat-soaked perplexity despite the un-erased remnants of a pregame message from head coach Dusty May that said “PERFECT MATCHUP” and “WE ARE BUILT FOR THIS MOMENT” in black marker on a whiteboard in the middle of the room.
An encouraging message in the Florida Atlantic locker room proclaimed Kansas State the “perfect matchup.” (Photo by Michael Cohen)
The moment was an Elite Eight matchup with third-seeded Kansas State after the Owls disposed of No. 8 Memphis and No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson in Columbus, Ohio, before traveling to New York and toppling No. 4 Tennessee earlier this week. Those three wins represented the first, and only, NCAA Tournament victories in history for a program that didn’t exist until the 1988-89 season and had qualified for this competition just once before, as a 15-seed that fell in the first round in in 2002. But on Saturday night, while most of the 19,860 fans in attendance longed for Harlem’s own Markquis Nowell to light up the Garden for a second consecutive game, Florida Atlantic clawed back from a seven-point deficit to claim the first spot in this year’s Final Four with a 79-76 triumph.
“Astronomical,” said Brian White, the school’s athletic director, as he spoke with reporters during the net-cutting ceremony. “It could not be a bigger deal. We think about hanging a Final Four banner and, I mean, hey, hopefully hanging more. But it’s just amazing when you step back and look at it.”
All around him, the celebration raged.
There was guard Brandon Weatherspoon (seven points, 2-for-2 from 3-point range) broadcasting live on his social media accounts to anyone and everyone who’d listen. “We’re going to the Final Four, baby!” Weatherspoon shouted as he showcased the white T-shirt and hat celebrating FAU as East Region Champs. “You best address me the right way!”
There were his teammates Bryan Greenlee (16 points, 4-for-5 from 3-point range) and Alijah Martin (team-high 17 points) posing for photos near the free-throw line with the East Region trophy clutched between them and their pieces of a freshly-cut net prominently displayed.
There were the children of FAU’s coaches, staffers and high-level boosters rollicking in the confetti that spilled off the raised platform and pooled at midcourt. They made snow angels amid a sea of red and blue squares before grabbing pieces by the fistful as keepsakes worthy of preserving.
There was Russian-born center Vladislav Goldin (14 points, 13 rebounds, two blocks) clutching a reporter’s notebook and pen so he could scrawl the words “Final Four” across the page in his native language.
“Extremely rewarding to see a group give as much as these guys have all season — shots, playing time, minutes, everything you could imagine, grit, everything 100% every day in practice — and then be rewarded because there’s never a guarantee,” May said. “You’re always relying on faith that you believe it’s going to happen, but you never really know.”
The 46-year-old May became the epicenter of their collective belief despite never wanting to be in this position at all. When May was a child, his mother signed him up for basketball even though nobody else in the family played the sport. He stormed around the court with such aggression from such an early age that his mother insisted May wear sweatpants because of how often he came home with floor burns. May told reporters earlier this week that his only career goal was to be a high school coach in Indiana, the state where he grew up, and that everything else in his eventual path — from the student-manager position at Indiana under legendary coach Bob Knight to his stints as an assistant at Eastern Michigan, Murray State, UAB, Louisiana Tech and Florida — just sort of happened until he was hired by Florida Atlantic in 2018.
To overhaul a program that won 20 games in a season just once over the last three decades, May began by establishing a culture rooted in equality. Players appreciated the evenness of his approach that saw stars and reserves afforded the same level of attention, the same depth of instruction, the same extension of resources. They recognized how unusual it was for a head coach to spend extra time in the gym rebounding for his players, but May was always willing to aid their development however he could. He loved that nobody on this year’s team, which has now won 35 of the 38 games it’s played, ever chased stats on the offensive end of the floor, and on Saturday there were four Owls who finished with 13 points or more.
All of that explains why they’ve bought into May’s idea of restricting cell phone use during the NCAA Tournament, even as the team soared in popularity. May convinced his players that limiting their distractions every evening would pay dividends during what everyone hoped was an extended postseason run. Players agreed to silence their cell phones in the team hotel as each player was tasked with holding his roommate accountable. They carried over the habit from Columbus to New York, where Florida Atlantic was an underdog in both games, and then reveled in the moment by capturing more photos and videos on Saturday than they’ll know what to do with.
“We have a lot of confidence in Coach May and the staff and our student-athletes,” May said, “and it’s a great group. I feel like I keep saying this, and it sounds cliché, but it’s a hardworking group that loves each other. And we’ve seen that for some time.”
Standing between the Owls and an unlikely trip to the Final Four was Nowell, the 5-foot-7 dynamo whose 20 points and 19 assists on a tweaked ankle in the Sweet 16 willed the Wildcats to an overtime win against Michigan State. The return of a hometown hero from 109th Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan beckoned rappers and ex-NBA stars to the Garden earlier this week, and Nowell played so well that he set a new NCAA Tournament record for assists that landed him on the back covers of both the New York Post and the New York Daily News by Friday morning.
Come Saturday night, the front-row seats behind K-State’s bench that were occupied by musical artists Cam’ron and Ma$e during the Sweet 16 now belonged to Jadakiss, another famous New York rapper who brought an entourage to watch Nowell. Jadakiss jumped to his feet and waived a towel after Nowell split two defenders for a double-clutch layup in the first half. Then he removed his gray New York Yankees hat to stare at the heavens after Nowell buried a deep 3-pointer to trim Florida Atlantic’s lead to 72-69 with 1:47 remaining. That was Nowell’s final field goal on a night he scored 30 points and dished out 12 assists to be named the regional’s Most Outstanding Player in a losing effort.
“I’m happy and grateful that I got the opportunity to play in Madison Square Garden,” Nowell said. “I always dreamed of something like this, just playing here, being here, playing my heart out. I feel like I gave my heart and soul for these past couple games because I wanted to see (my teammates) win and smile and (let them) know what the standard is for winning.”
Two nights after carving open Michigan State with breathtakingly incisive passing, Nowell faced a more difficult challenge when the Owls dared him to beat them with scoring. They recognized his preference for transforming penetrating drives into drop-off assists and countered with the kind of sticky defense that clogged passing lanes. Time and again Nowell collided with the hulking 7-foot-1, 240-pound frame of Goldin, the former wrestler whose childhood coach in Russia taught him basketball terminology in English, and the results were rarely pretty. Nowell needed 21 shots to score 30 points and washed away all five of his steals with an identical number of turnovers as fatigue eroded his performance.
Trailing by a point in the final minute, Kansas State began extending the game by fouling Michael Forrest on consecutive possessions. The senior guard had been held scoreless in Florida Atlantic’s first two NCAA Tournament games against Memphis and FDU but broke loose for 11 critical points in the upset of Tennessee. Forrest cleared his head by going for a walk in Central Park on Thursday afternoon, prior to tipoff against the Volunteers, and later that night he was serenaded with chants of Mi-key! Mi-ke!, Mi-key! when he finally entered the euphoric locker room.
“We know how hard he gets on himself,” said guard Jalen Gaffney, who rooms with Forrest on the road.
And though he only shot 73.3% from the free-throw line this season, Forrest dripped with poise in the waning seconds against Kansas State. Part of his confidence stemmed from what his teammates had done two nights earlier; part of it came from Forrest’s insistence on practicing free throws before, after and between each of his workouts.
He swished the first two with 17 seconds remaining. He swished two more 11 seconds later to send the Owls to the Final Four.
“We worked every single day,” Goldin said. “We never stopped. People are surprised we’re here, but we know why we’re here.”
Florida Atlantic was built for the moment, just like the whiteboard said.
Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_Cohen13.
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