Nobody will ever mistake Tobacco Road for 777 Glades Road, which is the address of one of history's most unexpected Final Four party crashers.
But there, across the street from a strip mall anchored by a Whole Foods in the upscale retirement town of Boca Raton, Florida, sits one of the fastest-growing, most-diverse college campuses that very few basketball fans had heard of until this month.
"Our basketball program is sort of representative of what FAU is," said Stacy Volnick."In my mind, they seek their opportunity to go farther than most might have imagined they would. Literally, we are a school that gives opportunities to students who might not otherwise have them."Dedicated in 1964 with a grand-opening speech from none other than President Lyndon Johnson, FAU started as a two-year school for upperclassmen and graduate students.
It boasts of being Florida's most diverse public university, and a school with no"equity gap" -- no difference between success rates of low-income and Pell-grant-eligible students and the rest of the student body. And while FAU will never be mistaken for North Carolina or Duke, neither will it be confused with Colorado or Oregon or Wisconsin or any of the dozens of flagship universities that stand as focal points in typical college towns. It is in Boca Raton, a well-to-do retirement town where nearly 25% of the population is 65 or over and the average resident is more concerned with that day's pickleball game than what the Owls are doing.
"It's been a great romance and it's produced, I think, a wonderful child," Schnellenberger said then in an ESPN.com interview.Their coach, former Florida assistant Dusty May, is certain to become a more popular commodity. The school is set to move from Conference USA to the higher-profile American Athletic Conference next season.
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