FGCU takes the lead at the Big Dance

“They never heard of it,” Thompson said, speaking of those kith and kin mystified by his choice in colleges. “First, they thought it was Florida Gulf Coast College or Florida Gulf Coast Community College. And they had no idea where it was. I just let them know it was in Fort Myers, Fla.”

“But now it’s Dunk City. Guess they’ll have to change it up,” he said with a smile, suggesting that cartographers should be hard at work as we speak, reworking every existing map of southwest Florida.

Dunk City, the catch-all name given the Florida Gulf Coast program, is a busy place these days.

On Tuesday, lines at the university bookstore snaked past depleted racks, consumers waiting as long as an hour to buy some scrap of clothing that had “FGCU” screen-printed on it. Sweet 16 T-shirts were going like loaves of bread at a famine.

“They brought a new box and people were grabbing shirts by the armful. It’s crazy,” said Mickey Klassen, a snowbird from Pennsylvania who was filling orders from back home.

A steady stream of families in Florida on break stopped by Florida Gulf Coast’s 4,500-seat arena to pose for photos in front of the giant eagle sculpture. Not a “Field of Dreams” kind of run on the place, but a steady trickle nonetheless.

“We watched them and they inspired us,” explained Rose Hamilton, a visitor from Decatur, Ind. Her husband, Rex, wore an Indiana University shirt to the photo shoot.

It was still possible — and who’s going to rule out anything at this point — that the Hoosiers could meet Florida Gulf Coast in the national semifinals in Atlanta in a couple weeks. “I don’t want to play ’em,” Rex said, offering the ultimate compliment.

Secret revealed

Just seven days ago Florida Gulf Coast was a mostly anonymous campus of 13,000 students. It’s younger than the youngest basketball player, not opening for classes until 1997. Its basketball program only became eligible for the Division I tournament a year ago, the same time it hired a shooting shaman and Florida State assistant named Andy Enfield to be its coach.

The place literally is a hidden treasure, invisible from the highway that runs past it, secreted behind a veil of pine, cypress and wire grass. Nearly half of its 750 acres is set aside as a natural preserve, where the rare Florida panther is known to prowl. Alligator warning signs are posted here and there.

Their secret was blown when the Eagles became the first 15th-seeded team to advance to the Sweet 16. Sweeter yet is that they will play the state’s signature school, the Florida Gators, Friday night in Arlington, Texas.

Why, a week ago, Wilson Bradshaw was a distinguished scholar and dignified academic leader. Now the university president is known as the chief executive of Dunk City.

“It feels just great,” he said. “To get this kind of positive attention from around the world has been gratifying. To be the darling of the NCAA tournament at this point is exceptional for us.”

For much of the season the Eagles went about their business very quietly. “The bandwagon was not filled most of the season, and there’s still room left on it,” said Charles Agumagu, a sophomore from Miami. He and his friends were leaving a Monday night pep rally that drew more fans (an estimated 4,000) than in most of the team’s early-season games. Players stayed afterward and signed autographs for nearly two hours. That definitely was not a part of the Gators’ pregame regimen.

The Eagles (26-10) beat Miami by 12 in the regular season, but lost twice to Lipscomb. They made the Big Dance as a lowly 15th seed by breaking Mercer’s heart at the Atlantic Sun tournament in Macon. Then, all heaven broke out.

“It actually feels like it’s a basketball program now,” point guard Brett Comer said.

“You turn on TV now, and it’s about us. Look at a paper, it’s all about us. It’s literally crazy. I can’t keep my phone on anymore, it dies within hours. Crazy how much it has all changed,” he said.

It is Florida Gulf Coast’s turn to be the flare-up phenomenon that is such a charming part of the NCAA tournament landscape. These unknowns pop up routinely, unifying a campus and a community while stirring the curiosity of a bracket-busted nation. This latest Fad Five is playing the role as good as or better than most.

The stories the Eagles brought to the table have stoked a healthy intrigue.

Like the second-year coach with the Letterman-like gap in his teeth and a former Maxim model wife.

Florida Gulf Coast’s coach makes $157,000 per year. The Gators’ Billy Donovan makes $3.5 million. Weep not for Enfield. He reportedly made millions in a start-up software business and more as a shot instructor. He could be whatever he wanted, and he chose to be the coach of Dunk City.

Any imperfections thus far in his resume have been slight. “He’s a winner, look at his background. Not like he hasn’t failed — he didn’t shoot 100 percent, just 92.5 percent (from the free-throw line as a player at Johns Hopkins),” Florida Gulf Coast athletic director Ken Kavanagh joked.

Colorful personalities

Enfield’s gift has been to do what a coach is paid to do, elevate his players. Those at this level, nobody’s All Americans, are in need of significant polish.

A one-time walk-on, the greatly dreadlocked guard Sherwood Brown, became the A-Sun’s player of the year.

Coming out of Rockdale County High, Thompson shot the ball with the finesse of a man loading hay, pushing it with two hands, spinning it off his thumbs. That got corrected in one summer of intense drilling. As well as being his league’s defensive player of the year, Thompson scored 23 points in each of the Eagles’ NCAA victories.

What ultimately won over the undecided fan is the Eagles’ on-court joie de vivre, a spirit their coach has fostered.

They didn’t just sneak past second-seeded Georgetown and No. 7-seed San Diego State. They ran and ran and ran, playing up tempo to the end and winning both games by 10. Along the way they danced and dunked and mugged for the camera, going overtime with their five minutes of fame. Celebrating it all have been two Dunk City videos produced by students.

When you are at Florida Gulf Coast, you manufacture your enjoyment where you can. This is a place not literally on the Gulf, yet the school built up a very workable tropical beach on a lakeside. Being the view from the dorm where the players live, it is a potent recruiting tool.

So why not make the basketball joyous, too?

“I don’t think there’s anyone who has as much fun playing as we do,” Kavanagh said. Administrators are not exactly sure how all this got grouped together as Dunk City — the idea was born somewhere in the social media ether and quickly went mainstream. They definitely are working on trademarking it.

Actually, Dunk City is not a place so much a place as it is a state of mind.

Comer, the point guard whose full-tilt mindset is the font of all that the Eagles run, will tell you there is one very good reason the country has taken to Florida Gulf Coast.

“All we do is pretty much run. We just play, you know. We run the floor; we throw alley oops; we dunk; we celebrate; we have a good time doing it.

“The way we interact with the crowd, the way we play is different than most teams you see. Most teams are very systematic. We are so loose and we play so free, it’s different.”

In small print on Comer’s right arm is tattooed an anthem of sort that he wrote three years ago after his father, Troy, died. He called it “Pursuit of Happiness” and meant it as a way to move on from sorrow. Today, it might also serve as the official charter of Dunk City:

“Happiness is not something ready made.

“It comes from your own actions.

“You may not control all the events that happen to you.

“But you can decide not to be reduced by them.

“Love never hate; forgive but never forget.

“Live the life you’ve dreamed to the fullest.”