When guard Michael Forrest first arrived at Florida Atlantic, Owls basketball games were not the hottest ticket in town. In his freshman season, FAU averaged only 1,190 people in the stands.
But lately, Eleanor R. Baldwin Arena has no room to spare. FAU is one of the nation’s hottest basketball teams, winning 18 consecutive games and earning a spot in the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time in program history. Now Forrest, a senior and a Blanche Ely grad, has friends hoping he can help them squeeze into one of the gym’s 2,900 seats.
“People bug me all the time,” Forrest said, “but I just tell them, ‘You’ve got to buy them.'”
Forrest, a Lauderhill native, arrived at FAU’s Boca Raton campus right as coach Dusty May was taking over the program. The former Florida Gators assistant coach had never been a college head coach before, and he was taking over a program that went 12-19 the season before and had gone seven seasons without finishing above .500. The program’s one trip to the NCAA Tournament (in 2002) was distant in the rearview mirror.
But things started looking up quickly. The Owls went 17-16 in May’s first season and slowly improved, finishing two, then three, then four games over .500 in his next three seasons. This season, FAU picked up a big win Nov. 14 against Florida in Gainesville, which keyed the current streak. Since then, the team has clicked and rolled to a 19-1 record and the No. 21 spot in this week’s AP poll.
Forrest said May has developed as a coach since that first season in Boca Raton.
“He’s definitely grown as a coach,” said Forrest, who is the team’s lone senior. “When we first came in, we both came through some growing pains. … From my freshman year to now, we’ve both grown significantly. It’s been fun to see.”
However, an 18-game winning streak — second-longest in the nation behind No. 18 College of Charleston, which has won 20 in a row — is new territory. The Owls have done it without a superstar scorer or surefire NBA draft pick, too. Johnell Davis leads the team, averaging 12.7 points per game, and he has done most of his work coming off the bench. Guard Alijah Martin is averaging 12.2 points, center Vladislav Golden has 10.1 points per game and Forrest is averaging 9.6.
“Everybody’s sharing the ball,” Davis said. “It’s not just one player to do it all. The whole team is just like one. We’re having fun.”
May employs a large rotation of players for his squad. Nine players are averaging more than 15 minutes per game with none averaging more than 26. Even though many players rotate onto the court regularly, May said they all have chemistry with one another.
“We felt like there’s nine guys that deserve to play every single night, and there’s not much separation between the one and the nine,” May said. “And so we just play whoever’s playing the best that night or whoever’s the best matchup. They all want to play more, they all want to shoot more, they all want to do everything more. But that’s part of this team sacrificing for each other. They really, really love and support each other, and that’s the … thing that’s led to our success more than anything else.”
The college basketball analytics website Kenpom.com ranks FAU as the No. 36 most efficient team in the nation and No. 1 in Conference USA. The Owls are first in the conference (and 36th nationally) in adjusted offensive efficiency and 54th nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency.
The Owls will try to ride that formula all the way into March. FAU has one regular-season conference title (the 2011 Sun Belt title) and one tournament championship (the 2002 Atlantic Sun tournament title) in program history. If all goes well, May will punch his ticket to his first-ever trip to the NCAA tournament as a head coach.
“Obviously, it’s everyone’s goal every year,” May said. “It’s a great, great experience for everyone. You want all of your players to experience it each and every year. It’s very difficult. We just have to stay focused on practice tomorrow, staying healthy and continue to work with the same mindset that we’ve had to get us to this point. Once we start getting ahead of ourselves and looking towards March, that’s when, once again, we’ll get humbled quickly.”
FAU’s success has been noticed. Miami men’s basketball coach Jim Larrañaga, who led the Hurricanes to a surprise trip to the Elite Eight last season (after beating FAU in a close game earlier in the season), had praise for May and the Owls.
“I’m glad we’re not playing them this year,” Larrañaga said. “Last year, we beat them at their place. Isaiah Wong made a driving basket; we won by two points. Dusty’s done a great job, and he’s in a good league. As proven, they can play with anybody.”
FAU will look to keep its streak going against Middle Tennessee State (13-7, 6-3 Conference USA) on Thursday night. Their last home game — the Owls’ 15th win in a row — had a record crowd with an announced attendance that exceeded the arena’s official capacity by more than 100. Another sellout is expected Thursday, with only limited tickets still available.
“It means a whole lot,” Forrest said, “just because from my freshman year, coming in — when there was nobody in the stands — to now, we can’t even find open seats in the crowd.”
