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Now that they’ve shocked the world, get to know Florida Gulf Coast

Florida Gulf Coast

Be honest. How much did you know about Florida Gulf Coast before they beat Georgetown (not to mention when they became the first 15 seed to reach the Sweet 16)?

If you follow college basketball actively, you probably know they got here by winning the Atlantic Sun tournament championship over Mercer. You may also know that they beat Miami earlier in the season when the Hurricanes were without Durand Scott. You probably also know that the Eagles feature Atlantic Sun Player of the Year Sherwood Brown.

But what about the institution itself and the program’s coach, Andy Enfield?

Florida Gulf Coast sits on 760 acres of land in Fort Myers, Fla., and was founded in 1991. It has 11,279 undergraduate students, including some who beat No. 2 Georgetown Friday night. The school offers 52 undergraduate degree programs and 30 graduate degree programs and has a few notable alumni, despite only being just over 20 years old.

Among them is Courtney Jolly, a former beauty queen who went on to drive monster trucks. Find out more about her here. Alumni also include Florida state representative Matt Caldwell, who has served in that capacity since 2010. He is the chair of the state’s Agriculture & Natural Resources Subcommittee. On the athletics front, Chicago Cubs pitcher Casey Coleman played for the school’s baseball team before being drafted in the 15th round of the 2008 Major League Baseball draft.

When it comes to the basketball program, coach Andy Enfield is in his second season as head coach and leads this team to the NCAA tournament Round of 32 in just the second season that the program has been eligible for it in Division I. He took over in 2011 as just the program’s second-ever coach. Last season, he led the Eagles to the Atlantic Sun championship game in its first year of eligibility for the postseason.

Prior to coming to Florida Gulf Coast, Enfield was an assistant at Florida State and also worked as an assistant in the NBA with the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks.

Florida Gulf Coast now moves on to play San Diego State, which beat Oklahoma in the Philadelphia night cap Friday.

Daniel Martin is a writer and editor at JohnnyJungle.com, covering St. John’s. You can find him on Twitter:@DanielJMartin_