Sports
Florida Atlantic hosting North Carolina, UCF in closed college … – Palm Beach Post
Another sign Florida Atlantic’s college basketball brand is soaring:
FAU will host North Carolina, one of sports’ blue bloods, in a closed scrimmage before the 2023-24 season.
The Owls, coming off the program’s first Final Four appearance, will face the Tar Heels on Oct. 21 and UCF one week later at FAU Arena. Both scrimmages are closed to the public.
How far has FAU come? In the past, the Owls played exhibition games against Lynn University.
FAU was the only one of the three to make the NCAA Tournament last season. That led to Dusty May’s team advancing to the Final Four in Houston as the No. 9 seed where it lost to San Diego State on a buzzer-beater in the semifinal game. The Owls finished the season 35-4.
North Carolina was 20-13 in Hubert Davis’ second season. The Tar Heels, who started as the preseason No. 1 team in the Associated Press poll, then declined an NIT bid.
UCF was 15-11. After losing in the second round of the AAC tournament to Memphis — the team FAU defeated in its first game of March Madness — the Knights played in the NIT tournament where they defeated Florida and lost to Oregon.
FAU is returning its starting five and all but one of its top rotation players from last season. The Owls are receiving plenty of love in the preseason as a top 10 team in most early polls, including No. 4 by CBS Sports.
The Owls are moving into the American Athletic Conference this season after 10 years in Conference USA.
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