Every once in a while, an unheralded mid-major program goes on a deep run in the NCAA Tournament, capturing the hearts of fans everywhere and etching their name into college basketball lore.
Most of the time, however, these programs fade back into relative obscurity within a year or two. Some programs find success for at least another year, like Wichita State’s magical season in 2013-14 following their run to the Final 4 as a nine seed in 2013, but for every story like that there is a Loyola-Chicago, George Mason, or Florida Gulf Coast.
For that reason, fans are often skeptical when a team that went on a deep run is highly regarded the next season in the polls, like Florida Atlantic – who came into the 2023-24 season as the No. 10 ranked team after last year’s run to the Final 4.
Skeptics were rewarded after FAU’s third game, a loss to Bryant where they only managed 52 points, but the Owls have since responded by hanging 91 points on Butler – another NCAA Tournament darling who parlayed their success into a spot in the vaunted Big East Conference – and then scoring 96 on No. 12 ranked Texas A&M on Friday to advance to the ESPN Events Invitational Championship on Sunday, where they will play the winner of Virginia Tech and Iowa State.
The Owls are now in the American Athletic Conference alongside Memphis – their first-round opponent in last year’s NCAA Tournament – and they look primed to have another wildly successful year, potentially bucking the trend of mid-major teams flaming out after Cinderella runs in the big dance.
No team has managed to fully become ‘the next Gonzaga’, who parlayed an Elite 8 run in 1999 into 24 straight NCAA Tournament appearances, but FAU looks more than capable of staying in the limelight at least for 2023-24 and could keep the momentum going for years to come.