About three decades before its remarkable run from obscurity to the Final Four, Florida Atlantic was trying to avoid making a different kind of history.
The Owls were in jeopardy of going winless in their first Division I season after making the leap from Division II independent.
Two Centenary fans eventually felt bad for Pilipovich after halftime and asked, “Coach, can we help?” Not too proud to admit that he was overwhelmed, Pilipovich put them to work tracking how many fouls his players accumulated and how many timeouts he had left.The program that once drew opposing fans’ pity will play Saturday night on college basketball’s biggest stage.
The university that opened its doors to 867 students in 1964 bears only passing resemblance to the 30,000-student behemoth of today. For two decades, FAU was one of the only universities in the nation that offered exclusively upper-division and graduate-level courses, theorizing that the community college system could serve freshmen and sophomores.
Ex-players describe the coach who Mehl hired to start the program as an intense disciplinarian whose iron-fisted disposition struck fear into many of them. Former South Florida Community College coach Lonnie Williams spent his first year at FAU hunting for incoming freshmen and junior college transfers who would fit his aggressive, fast-paced system.
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