Florida Gulf Coast's Sweet Sixteen: Cinderella on the Court

On March twenty fourth, twenty thirteen, Florida Golf Coast became the first and only fifteen seed in the NCAA Men's basketball tournament to make it to the Sweet sixteen behind the Moniker of Dunk City and captivated the nation during the first weekend of the tournament. Here's the story behind this amazing underdog story today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Rees, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day. We first need to start back in nineteen ninety seven when Florida Gulf Coast started as a university. They were a young school, but they were right on the beach, which was a draw for many students. And in two thousand and six they started Division one men's basketball and it only took them six years to have a chance to make history. In twenty eleven, they hired Andy Infield to be the head coach of their basketball team. He played basketball at John Hopkins and was an assistant coach for the Milwaukee Bucks the Boston Celtics in Florida State before taking this position, and he came in with confidence. During his first press conference with the team, he said we're not waiting. We're going to get successful. And they started that first season fifteen and seventeen, although the team was made up of mainly freshman and sophomores, with a combined eight on the team, but they gained valuable experience and heading into the twenty thirteen season, they were able to not only have a winning season, but finished second in the Atlantic Sun Conference and go on to beat the number one team in the conference, Mercer, in the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship, which gave them the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, and on March twenty second, twenty thirteen, they faced off against the number two seed, Georgetown, who was led by future NBA player Otto Porter and coached by John Thompson. The third and normally, when an underdog is able to beat one of the top seeds in the tournament, it's due to great shooting and great three pointers, but that wasn't exactly how Florida Gulf Coast played. They had the moniker of Dunk City for being a fast paced offense which often ended in dunks, and that's how they did it, and they won seventy eight to sixty eight. Two days later, on March twenty fourth, they came against San Diego State, number seven in the region, led by legendary coach Steve Fisher, and though a quality team, they were not able to keep up with the fast pace that the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles were running and also lost by ten points eighty one to seventy one. After this, they made national headlines for being the first fifteen seat to ever make the Sweet sixteen and also ruining everyone's brackets at the time. But sadly, they came up against a very strong opponent next, Florida University, led by head coach Billy Donovan, who had won two national championships previously, but they were able to use their high powered defense to clamp down on Dunk City and defeat them by twelve points, ending in a final of fifty to sixty two. The Cinderella story was over. The many of us will always remember Dunk City, and I always loved the fact that after their first win, the school was searched so much online that it actually could crash the website, and they also won the SA feed for best Upsets that season. Just shows you how popular March Madness can be and how fun and enjoyable upsets in Cinderella stories are Thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History. If you enjoy this, please come back for more. If you enjoyed this, please go tell a friend that you about all the sports history you're learning that they should join you, and come back tomorrow for more. For more Daily Sports History