How To Be A Florida Atlantic Fan For A Night

As Tyler noted in KSR’s Cheering Guide for a Sweet 16 without Kentucky, we are all die-hard Florida Atlantic fans tonight. The Owls (that’s the mascot) play Tennessee, and we can all agree that the Elite Eight is no place for the Volunteers, so Florida Atlantic needs to do the Lord’s work by sending Tennessee home before the Vols get any closer to a Final Four. After all, Tennessee has been to only one Elite Eight in its entire existence, and it’s fun to remind Tennessee fans of that fact anytime we’re debating ball.

Now, you may be saying to yourself, “But Drew, I don’t know how to be a Florida Atlantic fan,” and that’s fair. I didn’t know either until about 30 minutes ago. But I did some Googling, and we can fake it for a night to get Tennessee out of the tournament.

Here are some things to know for your new life as an Owl:

— You’re about three miles from the beach in Boca Raton. (Just pretend.) If anyone asks, tell them you work for Office Depot or moved down from New York.

— Lane Kiffin left you for Ole Miss in 2019 and FAU Football hasn’t been right since.

— The costumed mascots’ names are Owsley and Hoot. I’m not clear on who’s who (or hoo’s hoo, lol), so don’t address them directly to be safe.

— FAU competes in Conference USA. The Owls won both the regular season and conference tournament championships to get here.

— FAU beat Florida in the Swamp back in November, so you’re not afraid of the SEC.

— It’s only the second time in the NCAA Tournament for FAU. The school’s first-ever NCAA Tournament win came last Friday against Memphis, then another over Farleigh Dickinson to advance to the second weekend. Needless to say, first Sweet 16 appearance in school history.

— The head coach is Dusty May, who got his start as a student manager at Indiana under Bob Knight. We’ll just have to look past that part. At least he survived.

— The Owls play in “The Burrow” back home in Boca. Real name: Eleanor R. Baldwin Arena, formerly known as FAU Arena and RoofClaim.com Arena. It seats around 3,000. You have season tickets, remember?

— You love the three-pointer. The Owls make over ten per game at 38 percent shooting from deep. Seven different players have over 30 three-pointers made this season. You got shooters.

— The leading scorer is Johnell Davis at 14 points per game. Another name to know is Vladislav Goldin, the seven-footer. They are two of your favorites on the team. Alijah Martin is another. A First Team All-Conference USA selection who missed that controversial windmill at the end of Sunday’s win. You wish he hadn’t done that.

— You hate the Vols. This part shouldn’t be hard.

Go FAU!

Ohhhhhhhh…. O-W-L-S! OWLS! OWLS! OWLS!

Now play the fight song…