FAU wins ESPN Events Invitational and other south Florida college basketball news
Last Saturday, FAU stunningly lost a home game to little Bryant College. But the Owls bounced back in a big way winning the ESPN Events Invitational at Disney World on Sunday afternoon.
In the final the Owls defeated Virginia Tech 84-50. On Friday, FAU beat Texas A&M and on Thursday the Owls had beat Butler.
The Owls have been without Nick Boyd for several games while Alijah Martin wasn’t fully fit until this past week. Giancarlo Rosado has also struggled with injuries in this early season stanza.
Jalen Gaffney broke out and starred this week alongside Martin, Vlad Goldin and Johnell Davis. Bryan Greenlee was benched after the Butler game but has proven to be a valuable sixth man contributing unselfish play in both the Texas A&M and Virginia Tech wins.
FAU, quite frankly outside of the Bryant game looks a team that could win the National Championship. The Owls have both the depth and the sort of quality guard play that few schools have in the sport currently.
Other South Florida schools so far:
- Miami is ranked in the AP Top 10 and already boasts power conference wins over UCF, Georgia and Kansas State. None of those three games were particularly competitive, with Miami running away from the opposition before halftime. But tough tests this week are coming up for the Canes as they travel to Rupp Arena tonight to face Kentucky and play Notre Dame on Saturday. They also play a good Colorado team next week. A case can be made that Miami has “overscheduled” early in the campaign, but after the Colorado game, they have a relatively light Holiday season. Miami is the defending ACC Regular Season Champion.
- FIU is 1-6. The Golden Panthers have shown signs of life but just haven’t gotten over the hump.
