FAU played 39 games last season, finished 35-4 and never once lost to a team ranked lower than 122nd at KenPom.com even though the Owls played 21 times against teams ranked lower than 122nd at KenPom.
FAU was as reliable as anybody last season. On Saturday night, though, the Owls were not. A crazy upset was the result for this program that returned all five starters from a team that made the 2023 Final Four.
Final score: Bryant 61, FAU 52.
Yes, Florida Atlantic — the preseason favorite in the AAC — lost at home to a Bryant team that entered ranked 275th at KenPom and with a 1-3 record featuring losses to Boston University (293) and Manhattan (322). FAU closed as a 22.5-point favorite against Bryant, making what happened inside Eleanor R. Baldwin Arena the biggest upset any ranked team has suffered this season.
"Hats off to Bryant," said FAU coach Dusty May. "They played determined. They played well. They made plays when they needed to make them."
Florida Atlantic did not.
The Owls were outscored 35-23 in the second half while becoming the third preseason top-15 team to lose to an unranked mid-major opponent in the first 13 days of the season. In those upsets, a pattern is easy to identify — specifically that all three preseason top-15 teams shot terribly from the perimeter when they were upset at home. To wit: Michigan State was 1-of-20 (5.0%) from 3-point range in its 79-76 loss to James Madison. Arkansas was 4-of-23 (17.4%) from 3 in its 78-72 loss to UNC Greensboro. FAU was 5-of-30 (16.7%) from 3 in its 61-52 loss to Bryant.
Bad 3-point shooting is a recipe for upsets.
As much as it might feel appropriate to completely eliminate Florida Atlantic from the Top 25 And 1 after such a lousy loss, what I realized a while back is that removing highly ranked teams from the Top 25 And 1 after one head-scratching loss this early typically proves to be an overreaction. With that in mind, years ago I developed a 10-spot auto-drop for highly ranked teams that lose weird games early. It allows me to punish without overreacting to what often proves to be little more than one bad outing.
That means Florida Atlantic is No. 15 in Sunday morning's updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, down 10 spots from No. 5. Over the next eight days, we should learn whether FAU's loss to Bryant was an anomaly or something more significant because the Owls will next play in the ESPN Events Invitational, which gets started Thursday at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Florida.
FAU will open with Butler and then play either Texas A&M or Penn State. Iowa State, Virginia Tech, VCU and Boise State are on the other side of the eight-team bracket, meaning the Owls could get games with the schools ranked 11th (Texas A&M) and 24th (Iowa State) in the Top 25 And 1 next Friday and Sunday. The schedule breaking that way would give FAU an opportunity to either add quality wins that would help offset this ridiculous defeat or stack more losses and further push itself toward a place where building an at-large resume for the 2024 NCAA Tournament could be challenging coming out of an American Athletic Conference where Memphis is the only school besides FAU currently ranked in the top 85 at KenPom.
Top 25 And 1 rankings
Rk | Teams | Chg | Rcrd | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Hunter Dickinson finished with 27 points and 21 rebounds in Tuesday's 89-84 win over Kentucky. The Jayhawks' next game is Monday against Chaminade. | -- | 23-11 |
| 2 |  | Zach Edey finished with 28 points and 11 rebounds in Monday's 83-71 win over Xavier. The Boilermakers' next game is Monday against Gonzaga. | -- | 34-5 |
| 3 |  | Caleb Love finished with 20 points and six assists in Friday's 100-68 win over Belmont. The Wildcats' next game is Sunday against UT Arlington. | -- | 27-9 |
| 4 |  | Mark Mitchell finished with 20 points and six rebounds in Friday's 90-60 win over Bucknell. The Blue Devils' next game is Tuesday against La Salle. | -- | 27-9 |
| 5 |  | Tyler Kolek finished with 24 points and six rebounds in Tuesday's 71-64 win at Illinois. The Golden Eagles' next game is Monday against UCLA. | 1 | 27-10 |
| 6 |  | Emanuel Sharp finished with 15 points and six rebounds in Friday's 76-66 win over Utah. The Cougars' next game is Sunday against Dayton. | 1 | 32-5 |
| 7 |  | Cam Spencer finished with 25 points and four assists in Tuesday's 87-53 win over Mississippi Valley State. The Huskies' next game is Sunday against Indiana. | 1 | 37-3 |
| 8 |  | Baylor Scheierman finished with 23 points and nine rebounds in Saturday's 82-50 win over Texas Southern. The Bluejays' next game is Wednesday against Loyola Chicago. | 1 | 25-10 |
| 9 |  | Matthew Cleveland finished with 18 points and six rebounds in Friday's 79-67 win over Georgia. The Hurricanes' next game is Sunday against Kansas State. | 1 | 15-17 |
| 10 |  | Dalton Knecht finished with 18 points and three rebounds in Tuesday's 82-61 win over Wofford. The Vols' next game is Monday against Syracuse. | 1 | 27-9 |
| 11 |  | Henry Coleman III finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds in Texas A&M's 74-66 win over Oral Roberts. The Aggies' next game is Thursday against Penn State. | 1 | 21-15 |
| 12 |  | Jayden Nunn finished with 25 points and four assists in Tuesday's 99-61 win over Kansas City. The Bears' next game is Wednesday against Oregon State. | 1 | 24-11 |
| 13 |  | Graham Ike finished with 25 points and 11 rebounds in Tuesday's 123-57 win over Eastern Oregon. The Zags' next game is Monday against Purdue. | 1 | 27-8 |
| 14 |  | Reed Sheppard finished with 25 points and seven assists in Friday's 101-67 win over Stonehill. The Wildcats' next game is Monday against Saint Joseph's. | 1 | 23-10 |
| 15 |  | FAU missed 25 of the 30 3-pointers it attempted in Saturday's 61-52 loss to Bryant. The Owls' next game is Thursday against Butler. | 10 | 25-9 |
| 16 |  | Tyrese Hunter finished with 18 points and four assists in Wednesday's 80-64 win over Rice. The Longhorns' next game is Sunday against Louisville. | -- | 21-13 |
| 17 |  | David Jones finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds in Friday's 92-75 win over Alabama State. The Tigers' next game is Wednesday against Michigan. | -- | 22-10 |
| 18 |  | Armando Bacot finished with 21 points and seven rebounds in Friday's 77-52 win over UC Riverside. The Tar Heels' next game is Wednesday against Northern Iowa. | -- | 29-8 |
| 19 |  | USC shot 19.0% from 3-point range in Tuesday's 70-60 loss to UC Irvine. The Trojans' next game is Sunday against Brown. | -- | 15-18 |
| 20 |  | Tyson Walker finished with 21 points and four assists in Friday's 74-54 win over Butler. The Spartans' next game is Sunday against Alcorn State. | -- | 20-15 |
| 21 |  | Arkansas missed 19 of the 23 3-pointers it attempted in Frida's 78-72 loss to UNC Greensboro. The Razorbacks' next game is Wednesday against Stanford. | -- | 16-17 |
| 22 |  | Terrence Shannon Jr. finished with 22 points and seven rebounds in Friday's 87-64 win over Valparaiso. The Illini's next game is Sunday against Southern. | -- | 29-9 |
| 23 |  | Mark Sears finished with 24 points and six assists in Friday's 98-67 win over Mercer. The Crimson Tide's next game is Friday against Ohio State. | -- | 25-12 |
| 24 |  | Keshon Gilbert finished with 16 points and six rebounds in Sunday's 86-55 win over Idaho State. The Cyclones' next game is Sunday against Grambling State. | -- | 29-8 |
| 25 |  | KJ Simpson finished with 23 points and six assists in Tuesday's 106-79 win over Milwaukee. The Buffaloes' next game is Monday against Richmond. | -- | 26-11 |
| 26 |  | Ryan Dunn finished with 15 points and five rebounds in Thursday's 62-33 win over Texas Southern. The Cavaliers' next game is Monday against Wisconsin. | -- | 23-11 |
