Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK
The Owls have been one of the best teams in the country all year. Now everyone is getting to see it in March Madness.
Cinderella (adjective): a surprise team that exceeds expectations of those that were set. An underestimated team that wins the hearts of college basketball fans everywhere.
As Alijah Martin went airborne to attempt a windmill 360 dunk at the end of Florida Atlantic’s 78-70 victory over Farleigh Dickinson, the adoration of the plucky Owls from Conference USA turned quickly into vitriol. Cheers turned into boos after Martin went up for the dunk, which he missed. The Cinderella quickly became the evil stepsister, magnified after a photo was taken of an FAU student manager waving goodbye to FDU fans.
However, I want to present a differing theory to you: FAU was never a Cinderella, because they’re too damn good at basketball to be. The Owls have been one of the best teams in the country this year, a force created over the five year period that head coach Dusty May has been roaming the sidelines.
This team isn’t a Cinderella, they’re just really good at basketball.
According to Ken Pomeroy’s ratings, the Owls are 22nd in the country in Adjusted Efficiency Margin, and 13th among the remaining teams in the NCAA tournament. Their Adjusted Offensive Efficiency is 10th among teams left and 30th overall. Their offense is built to be more like water than steel, flowing and thriving regardless of the star. Sophomore Johnell Davis has been FAU’s leader in the tournament, scoring 25 points in the recent victory over FDU. Against Memphis? Backup sophomore big man Giancarlo Rosado led the way with 15 points. If you want to go even further back, sophomore wing Alijah Martin led the way with 30 points. This team-oriented offense is what makes the Owls go, and it’s made them extremely effective all season.
According to Owls 247 writer Kevin Fielder, May was inspired by the European offenses when building this offense. A basketball junkie, May says that these offenses aren’t that much different from the ones you see now and it makes them stronger against multiple defenses. FAU has five players at or above a 13% assist rate, and their ability to move the ball and create shots for others makes them so hard to prepare for. They don’t have a go-to-guy; they have multiple guys who can get tough buckets or stop scoring droughts.
The scariest part of their run in the men’s NCAA tournament has been that they’ve won these games despite not shooting rather well. They’ve shot 17-of-59 from deep in two games, a large discrepancy from where they were at going into March Madness (they were hitting ten threes per game before March). Unless the Owls simply forgot how to shoot, they’ll find their stroke eventually. In fact, their shooting marks have gone up in each game.
What’s brought them into the Sweet 16 is a defense that is underrated in its own right. Boasting an 18th ranked Raw Defensive Efficiency rating via KenPom, the Owls kept the FDU offense in check for most of the game, and also held the Memphis Tigers 6/22 from deep.
They are not a Cinderella.
The Owls are built via years of consistent team-building and dedication to constructing the team that’s playing the Tennessee Volunteers on Thursday. Of the players who have played over 10% of the Owls’ possessions, only one of them is a senior. That senior is guard Michael Forrest, who took on a diminished role from last year, moving to the bench. Forrest is a part of a deep Owls squad that will play nine guys in each game, a group that is made largely up of sophomores that can come back next year.
The Owls have been through thick and thin. Since Dusty May took over, the Owls have consistently been over .500, but they’ve never had a season like this. FAU was in the CBI Tournament last year, and lost to Northern Colorado. In 2019, they lost in the first round of the CIT Tournament to Charleston Southern. This isn’t lightning in a bottle, no. This is constantly swinging the axe and getting results. The ball of clay that Dusty May has molded has finally turned into a Sweet 16 crashing machine, and one thing is for sure:
They aren’t a Cinderella.
