Little-Known Florida School Makes NCAA History

Florida Gulf Coast University has became the first No. 15 seed team 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.

Watch Chase Fieler's one-handed dunk against Georgetown (at 0:26):

"Dunk City" music video: