Geoff JohnsonFlorida Gulf Coast continues their Cinderella story as they beat San Diego State on Sunday night to become the first team to reach the sweet 16 as a #15 seed in the tournament.
“We don’t take ourselves too seriously,” said Florida Gulf Coast coach Andy Enfield. “We try to have fun, get serious when we have to. Our goal was to make history, and we did it.”
FGCU beat San Diego State 81-71 with Bernard Thompson scoring 23 points and Sherwood Brown adding 17 for the Atlantic Sun champion.
“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.”
The Eagles beat the Miami last November, and suddenly that defeat doesn’t look so miserable for the Hurricanes, another team that is in the Sweet 16.
“We tried to scrimmage them early in the season in the preseason,” Enfield said. “Now we get our shot”.
Christophe Varidel, a native of Switzerland finished with 11 points and is part of the weird success this team has had lately. “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.”
The Florida Gulf Coast Eagles will meet the Florida Gators on Friday for a place in the Elite Eight.
