Tag: Florida Atlantic Basketball

Bill Raftery was absolutely dumbfounded by FAU botching the final seconds of regulation against Northwestern

Bill Raftery is all of us.

The Flordia Atlantic Owls will probably want their overtime loss to the Northwestern Wildcats back. A lack of urgency during the final seconds of regulation puzzled everyone, including the broadcast announcers.

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FAU and Northwestern’s matchup was so good. The Wildcats fought back tooth and nail to tie the game late in the fourth quarter behind a massive showing from Ryan Lanborg and Boo Buie, who combined for 47 points and eight assists. Northwestern’s grit and toughness eventually helped force their matchup into overtime and a 74-63 victory.

However, Johnell Davis from FAU actually had a chance to win the game but seemingly passed it up — yes, really — for a last-second heave. The lack of urgency was so mystifying that announcer Bill Raftery couldn’t believe it. Here’s Raftery’s call about it with Ian Eagle and Grant Hill:

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Would you like to see USC play FAU next December? Here’s how it could happen

It’s time for college hoops to be innovative in ways which give FAU and USC chances to prove themselves each season.

Florida Atlantic will be in the Final Four. The Owls beat Kansas State in the Elite Eight on Saturday to make a very improbable journey to college basketball’s ultimate weekend. However, don’t confuse improbability with flukishness. This was unlikely, but it wasn’t a fluke. This is a really good team in a college basketball season which lacked a dominant heavyweight team such as 2012 Kentucky or 2009 North Carolina. From parity emerged an FAU team capable of making a deep run.

We have to point out that Florida Atlantic’s schedule doesn’t look very impressive — not before the NCAA Tournament. The Owls had one notable nonconference win against Florida, and this season, the Gators weren’t very good. They were an NIT team which did not come particularly close to making the NCAA Tournament. The Gators were not on the NCAA Tournament bubble in the last two weeks of the regular season. They were eliminated from NCAA Tournament at-large consideration before the end of February.

The reality surrounding teams such as FAU — in leagues with the low national profile of Conference USA — is that high majors won’t voluntarily play them. Not consistently, at any rate, and not often enough to make a difference. Coaches, when they schedule games, are looking for paycheck games against cupcakes or a few high-profile games against other high-major programs. It’s really hard for a team such as FAU to get inside the door and play NCAA Tournament-level teams from the Power Five conferences.

Put this reality up against another reality: The Big Ten has been horrible in recent NCAA Tournaments. The Big Ten has put 26 teams in the last three NCAA Tournaments and placed just four of those 26 teams in the Sweet 16, only one in the Elite Eight. The Big Ten gets so many chances to win NCAA Tournament games and has won very few games over the past three years.

Hmmm.

The little guys get few chances and are operating at a disadvantage, and yet — in FAU’s case — still break through and win.

The big guys get lots of chances and are operating at an advantage, and yet lose quite consistently in March.

There needs to be a way to take Power Five teams — including USC — which lose early in the NCAA Tournament and put them up against the FAUs and Oral Robertses and Murray States of the college basketball world.

Maybe create an eight- or 16-team group event each November or December in which eight Power Five losers from the first round of the previous season’s NCAA Tournament have to play a top-two finisher from a mid-major league.

This would be a made-for-TV collection of games which makes ESPN and Fox some money. It would also create games the coaches (schools) don’t schedule. It would be a lottery system with eight teams being drawn to play eight opponents. This way, we are guaranteed to get games in which the little guy gets a chance to beat the big guy. The big guy gets a chance for a quality win against the little guy, without having to commit to a specific opponent in a specific scheduling (and financial) arrangement.

Maybe this idea isn’t perfect, but it’s the kind of concept which needs to make its way into major college basketball.

FAU versus USC on a neutral court in December? Sign me up. Sign the Owls up, too. They would like it.

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Florida Atlantic’s success is no fluke, which is important for college basketball

It’s clear #FAU is very good, but if the Owls lost 5 games instead of 3, they might not have made the NCAA tourney. That’s a problem.

The Florida Atlantic Owls entered this NCAA Tournament with a 31-3 record, and they were a No. 9 seed. Think about that while you contemplate the team’s improbable but not-fluky journey to the Final Four.

This team is the real deal. It is well-coached by Dusty May. It has legitimately good guards who can score and who take good shots. This team hasn’t gotten lucky in terms of 35-foot prayers going in at the buzzer or anything like that. The Owls get good looks.

FAU rebounds well. The Owls beat Kansas State in large part because they got a ton of offensive rebounds, including multiple offensive boards on missed free throws. That’s not easy to do. Florida Atlantic won its first-ever Elite Eight game with superior effort and toughness.

FAU also has quality big men with size, length, rebounding quality, and shot-blocking ability.

This is a complete team. It went 31-3 … and was a No. 9 seed.

If FAU had lost twice more, and once in the Conference USA Tournament (particularly before the final against UAB), the Owls’ NCAA Tournament status would have been in real doubt heading into Selection Sunday.

Maybe FAU would have gone to the First Four in Dayton, but it would have been a real question. Losing a late-season game to Rice or another middle-tier Conference USA opponent would have dragged down the profile from a No. 9 seed to a No. 10 or 11 seed. Then, another loss in the Conference USA Tournament (to another C-USA opponent) might have soured the selection committee on Florida Atlantic.

Five losses instead of three might have pushed this really good team out of the field.

That should be an indication that we need to reform how teams are evaluated, and how seasons are structured, in college basketball. We’re going to propose some ideas in separate articles.

Stay tuned.

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Florida Atlantic radio broadcaster scrambled to call game’s final seconds after power outage

A broadcaster’s worst nightmare almost happened as FAU was about to beat Kansas State.

Just as No. 9 seed Florida Atlantic was on the verge of locking up its first Final Four berth in program history Saturday night with a win over No. 3 seed Kansas State, the absolute worst-case scenario was playing out for at least one radio broadcaster calling the game.

FAU radio broadcaster Ken LaVicka, in a video shared by college hoops reporter Andy Katz, said the ethernet in his media row at Madison Square Garden “went out” for about 30 seconds with 18.6 seconds left in the game.

It was a moment Katz perfectly described as “the call of [LaVicka’s] life,” and every broadcaster’s worst nightmare was playing out instead.

LaVicka told Katz:

“We actually got saved by a Kansas State layup and a timeout called by Jerome Tang that gave me time to scramble. And you saw me, Andy. It was getting a little rough. My life’s dream is crumbling before me.

“I grabbed from that second table an ethernet cord, plug it into my broadcast equipment. One of my teammates from ESPN West Palm and West Palm Beach sitting next to me held the Comrex unit while I called the final 15 seconds of the game and the day was saved.”

So what was LaVicka’s call, for those who weren’t tuned into the the radio broadcast?

“I said, ‘Houston, you have a problem. Florida Atlantic’s coming to win a championship.’ — or along those lines.”

LaVicka said he loved his call of the game’s final moments, and thankfully for him, he ensured it happened, as the Owls topped the Wildcats, 79-76.

Stop ripping FAU’s Alijah Martin for his flashy, meaningless last-second dunk attempt

Was this a good idea? No! But let’s move on.

If the question is if he should have done it, the answer is no. Florida Atlantic sophomore Alijah Martin should have just let the clock expire.

After securing perhaps the biggest upset in NCAA tournament history, No. 16 seed FDU was not able to keep its Cinderella story alive and fell short against No. 9 seed FAU.

Once the game was no longer within reach, FDU coach Tobin Anderson opted not to foul and instead assumed his opponent would just dribble the ball until the final buzzer that would allow FAU a chance to compete in the Sweet Sixteen.

Martin, however, instead used the final seconds of the game to throw down a huge slam. To make matters worse, he missed the 360-degree dunk attempt.

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Following the embarrassing miss, the crowd booed Martin at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. Moments after the game, FAU coach Dusty May appeared to apologize on Martin’s behalf to FDU’s Anderson.

Some fans described Martin as a “basketball enemy for life” while others said he was “classless” and the “villain” of March Madness.

Many remain upset at Martin and it is safe to assume that the anger could carry into FAU’s Sweet Sixteen game against Tennessee at Madison Square Garden. But let’s not get carried away.

This was an unfortunate moment that didn’t need to happen but it doesn’t define Martin or the FAU program. It was just a very brief lapse in judgment sparked by adrenaline and the thrill of advancing to the next round.

Martin presumably heard as much from his coach and from his opponents in the handshake line. But that doesn’t make him a bad kid.

Here is how coach May has described Martin (via Palm Beach Post):

“He’s even-keeled, he’s never too up, never too down. He really tries to process everything where a lot of guys take in information and it goes in one ear and out the other,” May said. “We feel like he’s always processing what the coaches ask him to do, what his teammates are saying, and so usually when he opens his mouth, there’s a lot of thought and it’s usually on the money but he’s mature and hard working, he’s a great teammate. He’s just a wonderful person, first and foremost.”

As a two-sport athlete in high school, he was also described as a “good kid” and a leader on the football team as well.

Maybe the dunk wasn’t advisable but relax. We can move on from this.

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