FGCU — heard of ’em, right? — pulls off stunner

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Sixteen second-round NCAA Tournament games gave us the following Friday:

*The eighth-ever No. 2 seed loss to a 15, with Georgetown and Big East Player of the Year Otto Porter falling victim to high-flying and crazy dunking Florida Gulf Coast University (78-68) – which has been a university since 1997 and was making its tourney debut;

*The South Regional’s top seed, Kansas, coming dangerously close to becoming the first-ever victim of a 16 seed before holding off Western Kentucky in Kansas City, 64-57;

*The continue superb collective effort of the five Atlantic 10 teams in the tournament, with La Salle (which knocked off Boise State in a First Four game Wednesday night) tripping up Kansas State (63-61) in a West Regional game played in Kansas City and Temple hanging on to beat North Carolina State (76-72) in an East Regional contest played in Dayton;

*Some of the West Regional’s top seeds continuing to make early exits, with No.’s 4 Kansas State (to La Salle) and 5 Wisconsin (courtesy Mississippi) joining Thursday upset victim New Mexico (No. 3, to Harvard) on the way home;

*The UCLA Bruins getting overpowered by Minnesota (83-63) in an South Regional contest in Austin that many believe will prove to be the final game in which Ben Howland serves as the program’s head coach and that freshman Shabazz Muhammad plays as a Bruin.

Just another manic NCAA second-round Friday . . .

The FGCU Eagles, whose campus is located in Fort Myers, finished a game behind first-place Mercer in the Atlantic Sun Conference.

But Coach Andy Enfield’s team knocked off North Florida, Stetson and then host Mercer to capture the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Those three ASC victories weren’t the reason why prognosticators such as me should have given the Eagles stronger mention as a potential tourney “Cinderella”.

Here is the reason: Three of the team’s losses came to Duke, Iowa State and Virginia Commonwealth squads playing in NCAA tourney third-round games Saturday or Sunday.

And one the Eagles’ 25 wins came at the expense of Miami – the ACC’s regular-season and tournament-winner, and a 29-point victor over Pacific in a second-round East Regional game in Austin Friday.

This is a team with the ability to stretch an opponent’s half-court defense with deep jump shooting and then slice it to ribbons via dribble penetration.

And they did so repeatedly against the Hoyas. And, oh, how about some of the resounding finishes launched almost violently and well above the rims?

Dang – that was entertaining.

While Kansas was struggling, the other top seed in action Friday – Indiana, playing at Dayton in the East Regional – did against James Madison what is usually expected in 1-16 matchups: The Hoosiers rolled, 83-62.

Five of the other six Big Ten teams in the tournament will be playing in the third round of the tourney Saturday or Sunday, with only Wisconsin – a 5 seed dropping a 57-46 decision to 12 seed Mississippi Friday at Kansas City – not part of the “Round of 32”.

Which eight matchups on tap for Saturday shape up as the most intriguing?

Well, how about Butler vs. Marquette (Lexington) in an East Regional that is a rematch of the Maui Invitational first-round game on Thanksgiving Week pulled out by Butler via that prayer-is-answered fling tossed up by Rotnei Clarke?