Michael Perez/Associated Press
Sherwood Brown, the Atlantic Sun's player of the year, during Florida Gulf Coast's victory. Brown had 9 rebounds and a game-high 24 points.
PHILADELPHIA — The final two and a half minutes were, in Andy Enfield's estimation, the longest two and a half minutes of his life. The game could not end soon enough, not with the way Georgetown was making 3-pointers and chipping away at Florida Gulf Coast's lead.
Yet his players continued to conduct themselves with the same old flair, a borderline recklessness that had carried them to the cusp of an improbable achievement. So Enfield watched and waited, and when his point guard, Brett Comer, decided to throw a low-probability lob to teammate Chase Fieler with the game on the line, Enfield well understood that his players were simply staying true to themselves. They had to do it their way.
"I've got some crazy dudes on my team," he said.
Not long after Fieler finished the play with an emphatic dunk, Friday's game turned into an extended celebration for the Eagles, anonymous no more.
Florida Gulf Coast, a plucky upstart from the Atlantic Sun Conference, ousted college basketball royalty in a 78-68 victory over Georgetown at Wells Fargo Center. The Eagles (25-10) secured more than a spot in the Round of 32. They joined a small fraternity, becoming just the seventh No. 15 seed to take down a No. 2.
Sherwood Brown, a high-octane guard, scored 24 points after delivering an impassioned pregame speech to his teammates, reminding them that had earned their spot in the tournament.
"Now we've got to go out there and take it," he recalled saying.
Bernard Thompson added 23 points as the Eagles limited Georgetown (25-7) to 37.5 percent shooting over all. It was another harsh disappointment for the Hoyas, who were considered one of the tournament favorites to reach the Final Four. In the past six seasons under Coach John Thompson III, Georgetown has not advanced past the Round of 16.
"More than anyone on earth, I've tried to analyze it, think about it, look at it and think about what we should do different," he said, "and I don't know."
Florida Gulf Coast, a university based in Fort Myers that opened in 1997 and completed its transition to Division I only two years ago, ensured that its first trip to the N.C.A.A. tournament was a memorable one. The Eagles did not simply defeat the Hoyas. They humiliated them, leading by as many as 19 points in the second half and rendering decades of college-basketball tradition an afterthought.
Florida Gulf Coast was not the least bit intimidated. The Eagles had already beaten Miami, the Atlantic Coast Conference champion, this season. They went 13-5 in the Atlantic Sun, tackling opponents that were deeply familiar with their personnel. Despite their low seeding, they had credentials.
"I told our team before the game that Georgetown is ranked eighth in the country," Enfield said, "but after you get out on the court for two or three minutes, you're going to realize that you're just as good if not better than this team, and we did that."
The team took its cue from Enfield, 43, whose career trajectory has been just as unconventional as his team's style of play. As a college player, he set the N.C.A.A. career free-throw percentage at Division III Johns Hopkins. He later founded a software start-up that was valued at $100 million when he opted out. He decided to get into coaching, and took the reins at Florida Gulf Coast two years ago. In his spare time, he married a supermodel.
"We just all have a good time together," forward Eddie Murray said.
It showed against Georgetown, which watched Florida Gulf Coast assemble a 21-2 run early in the second half. There were dunks. There were 3-pointers. There were gasps from the crowd.
As this was playing out, Ken Kavanagh, Florida Gulf Coast's athletic director, noticed on a courtside monitor that CBS kept referring to his university as "Florida G.C." in its graphics. "That's so disrespectful to us," he said. "We're F.G.C.U. or Florida Gulf Coast. We even put that in our notes."
His basketball team introduced itself to the world by taking Georgetown out of its element. The Hoyas were constructed as a grind-it-out team, one that built leads slowly, meticulously, with Otto Porter operating as the fulcrum. They were not particularly good at catching teams from behind this season.
So the Eagles pressured the Hoyas on the perimeter and bumped them on the interior. Georgetown had no choice but to employ a full-court press in an effort to create some easy baskets, and they had some success, at least for a stretch. Two late 3-pointers from Markel Starks whittled the lead to 4.
But then Enfield called a timeout, and his team gathered around him: no panic, no sweat, not on this night.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: March 23, 2013
An earlier version of this article included several errors. Georgetown's record is 25-7, not 25-6. Florida Gulf Coast's record in the Atlantic Sun was 13-5, not 17-1. Florida Gulf Coast became the seventh No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2 seed, not the sixth. Georgetown has now failed to advance past the Round of 16 in the past six years under Coach John Thompson III, not the past seven. Florida Gulf Coast forward Eddie Murray was incorrectly referred to as Eddie Murphy. Florida Gulf Coast was misidentified in some instances as Gulf Coast College.
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