Jeff BorzelloESPN Staff Writer8:55 PM ET6 Minute Read
NEW YORK — All signs pointed to another chapter in the history of Markquis Nowell, another all-time performance for Kansas State in one of the greatest singles heats in NCAA tournament history.
With 8:37 left in Saturday’s East Regional finals against Florida Atlantic, Nowell caught the ball on the right wing, used a ball save and took a contested step-back 3-pointer over the Owls’ Johnell Davis. It kicked in, giving the Wildcats a six-point lead. Nowell ran down the pitch and gave his version of a Michael Jordan shrug.
It happened again.
And suddenly it wasn’t anymore.
Kansas State didn’t score another field goal for nearly seven minutes, with FAU on a 15-1 run that led the 9-Seed Owls to a 79-76 win over the 3-Seed Wildcats.
FAU (35-3), who had competed in an NCAA tournament prior to this season and had not a single NCAA tournament win in program history, became the first No. 9 to reach the Final Four since Wichita State in 2013 and finished ninth Seed #9 or lower to make it this far since planting began in 1979.
The Owls play the winner of the South Region playoff between Creighton and San Diego State on Sunday for a spot in the championship game.
“We always say these kinds of shots, guys like that can’t hit us enough to hit us,” said FAU guard Bryan Greenlee. “They might hit enough to keep it close, but eventually they’ll run out of gas. And I feel like that happened.”
Nowell, fresh from his record-breaking performance against Michigan State in the Sweet 16, finished the tournament with 30 points, 12 assists and 5 steals – but this time he couldn’t get a consistent performance from the supporting cast. Fellow star Keyontae Johnson was limited to eight minutes in the first half by foul problems, and although he started the second half with a couple of baskets, he finished with nine points and fouled with 2:44 to go.
Despite Johnson’s struggles, Kansas State (26-10) stayed in the game thanks to Nowell and then seemed to separate a bit in the second half. The Wildcats took the lead with a 6-0 run at halftime and built it up to seven points with 12:02 left. But every time it seemed like Kansas State could blow up the game and keep FAU at bay, the Owls reacted.
Kansas State went on five, Greenlee hit a 3. Seven, Vladislav Goldin and Davis hit. Six again, another Greenlee 3. And then, after the Wildcats extended their lead over Nowell’s banked 3 to six one final time, FAU began their run.
The owls’ resilience never wavered.
“A lot of times people try to hit home runs to close that lead and we don’t really get upset in situations where we’re behind,” Greenlee said. “We’ve been in too many of them. So we just take it one at a time and focus on getting stops.”
“We know we’re going to do some recording at some point,” Goldin said. “We’re here. If we’re seven points behind, we don’t care. We’re still playing.”
Second-half runs were an issue for all FAU tournaments. The Owls were 2.5 seconds from being KO’d by Memphis in the first round until Nick Boyd hit a game-winning layup for a one-point win. They trailed 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson in the second half in the second round before going on a 12-2 run midway through the period. Against Tennessee in the Sweet 16, FAU used a 16-2 run to turn a six-point deficit into a ten-point lead.
“We’ve had power surges all year, and we had one in the first half,” said coach Dusty May. “So just stay the course, hang around, hang around, and then we always have a run. And because of our depth, our boys believe we can play harder than any of our opponents for longer. And that may or may not be true, but we believe it.”
35 wins is 35 wins regardless of schedule strength or conference ranking. And when you win that many games — and it’s now two more than anyone in college basketball — eventually winning becomes part of a team’s DNA. Comeback wins, wins narrowly, wins by any means.
In addition, as May said, there is no fear of losing.
“You weren’t afraid to lose today and go home. You’re not afraid to fail,” May said. “We put it on the floor and what happens after that is more than enough because we do that every day.” have made. So there isn’t a moment where we get tight because we’re not afraid of what will happen if we do. can’t get it.”
This composure was evident in the final minutes when FAU held on with a one-point lead. Kansas State fouled Michael Forrest, who hadn’t attempted a free throw all day, with 17 seconds left. If FAU had nerves, none of the 19,680 people in Madison Square Garden noticed.
There May stood, expressionless, on the traction mat on the sidelines, arms crossed. It could have been the first half of a November game; it could have been the last minute in late March, with a Final Four spot on the line.
Forrest followed his coach at the foul line and calmly knocked down two free throws. He did the exact same thing 10 seconds later, extending FAU’s lead again to three by 6.9 seconds.
“Only [wanted] return to my training. Every day we shoot all the free throws,” Forrest told ESPN. “Just being at the free-throw line for me was the icing on the cake.”
FAU entered the tournament 300-1 to win the championship at Caesars Sportsbook and would be their longest attempt to win it all since seeding began in 1979, according to an investigation by ESPN Stats & Information.
In an NCAA tournament full of surprises, a tournament with zero 1-seeded players in the Elite Eight and a record low number of top 2 seeded players in the Elite Eight, a 9-seeded FAU team still made it to the Final Four registered to achieve. Only six Final Four teams in NCAA tournament history have been seeded lower than the Owls. FAU’s basketball program, which only moved to Division I in 1993 and had one regular-season title in program history prior to that season.
At the same time, this is a team that won 20 straight games earlier this season and is now on an 11-game winning streak. The Owls were in the top 25 for most of the second half of the season and entered Saturday’s game higher than Kansas State in most forecast metrics.
Unable to put it into perspective yet, May recalled a game earlier in the NCAA tournament when a player made a mistake and he reached out to an assistant coach and mentioned how it needed to be fixed in the offseason.
“That’s just how I’m wired,” he said.
FAU entered the East Regional as the lowest-ranked team in Madison Square Garden and were the ones to impose their style on the opposition. It surpassed the toughest team left in the tournament in Tennessee. It’s made more big shots than most clutch players in the previous tournament against Kansas State.
And FAU wants their respect.
“You can call us whatever you want, but we’re a bunch of pit bulls and a rottweiler,” Alijah Martin said. “We go out there and show it every night.”
Despite Nowell’s tournament-long heroics, he didn’t even have a chance to level the score on the final possession with Kansas State, three seconds down and 6.9 seconds from the end. Nowell dribbled across half the court and passed to Ismael Massoud, who was quickly caught and lost the ball to Davis.
The clock struck zero and FAU had their nation-leading 35th win of the season – the most important for now.
Boyd ran to the FAU crowd and yelled, “I tried to tell you! We are pit bulls!”
Cinderella no more.
Said Forrest, “We should be here.”
“It’s unreal. I want to burst into tears, but I can’t right now,” Davis told ESPN. “I’m not really celebrating right now. We have Saturday and Monday.”