In arguably the game of the season to date, the Florida Atlantic Owls silenced any potential doubt that had remained about whether the Owls’ Final Four last March had been a fluke.
FAU’s thrilling 96–95 double overtime win in Las Vegas over the No. 4 Arizona Wildcats was yet another feather in the cap for the work coach Dusty May has done in Boca Raton. For 50 minutes, the Owls went toe-to-toe with an elite program with legitimate national title aspirations in Arizona, weathering multiple early Arizona runs to pull off yet another signature upset for a program that has quickly become accustomed to such feats. That win, combined with sweeping the ESPN Events Invitational in November and a few other impressive mid-major victories, validates all the positive preseason buzz the Owls received.
It has been notoriously difficult for mid majors to follow up a Cinderella run like the one the Owls accomplished a year ago with similar success the following year. A popular comparison for the Owls in the preseason was when the Loyola Chicago Ramblers that went to the Final Four in 2018. The Ramblers were still a very good Missouri Valley team the following year, but fell short of dancing altogether a year after being one of the last four teams standing. But what if Florida Atlantic is more like the Butler Bulldogs teams under Brad Stevens that went to back-to-back national title games in ‘10 and ‘11? After a performance like Saturday’s, that at least feels possible.
