USC coach Andy Enfield reflects on his last Sweet 16 run with FGCU

Andy Enfield wasn't a well-known name for college basketball fans yet entering his last memorable NCAA tournament run, but that experience with Florida Gulf Coast in 2013 changed everything and is ultimately why he's here now at USC.

And with his Trojans into the Sweet 16 for the first time in his eight years with the program, he's had plenty of reasons this week to reflect back on that experience and how it compares to what his USC team has accomplished so far.

"Well, I don't think anything can compare to the Florida Gulf Coast run because we were the first 15 seed to get to that level, the Sweet 16, and just the way that whole season unfolded was such a brand new basketball program, brand new school in southwest Florida and what that meant to the university as a whole to put the university and the basketball program on a national stage, I think that was very special what our players accomplished there. So that was a totally different feeling," Enfield said Thursday.

"We've been to the NCAA tournament a few times here at USC as a coaching staff, obviously these players are new to us, but to reach this level again is great. It means I have terrific assistant coaches -- Jason Hart, Chris Capko, Eric Mobley, Kurtis Shultz have been with me a long time -- and we have great players. They really came together."

The situations are certainly different, but Enfield nonetheless found some comparative value in showing his current Trojans highlights from the 2013 FGCU team before the start of this tournament and relating the key tenets of that underdog run that captured the spotlight of March Madness eight years ago.

Enfield was in his second year as a head coach then, taking the FGCU job after time as an assistant coach in the NBA and at Florida State, and the Eagles for that matter were only in their second year of full NCAA eligibility as a program. After finishing second in the Atlantic Sun regular-season standings, FGCU toppled Mercer in the conference tournament to earn its spot in the NCAA tournament field as a No. 15 seed.

The team that would garner the nickname "Dunk City" then caught the attention of the national audience with a 78-68 upset of No. 2-seeded Georgetown -- a dominant win in which FGCU led by as many as 19 points. They then beat No. 7 San Diego State, 81-71, to make NCAA tournament history as, like Enfield noted, the first No. 15 seed to reach the Sweet 16. The magic ended with a 62-50 loss to No. 3 Florida, but the impact endured far beyond that March.

Enfield parlayed his newfound spotlight into a big promotion as he was announced as USC's new head coach that April 1, and that FGCU team has continued to be mentioned annually in NCAA tournament lore.

"Anytime March Madness comes around, I do get a lot of text messages and things sent to my email or phone regarding the Florida Gulf Coast run. Obviously, it's been eight years ago, but when you reminisce a little bit it seems like it was just yesterday," Enfield said. "What a great group of young men we had there, the players were just terrific, they performed at the highest level. In fact Brett Comer, our point guard there, came to our Kansas game the other night, I got him tickets. He's at Dayton on their coaching staff with coach [Anthony] Grant so it was nice to get him to come see us play and also have spoke with a few other guys on that tam as well as some of the Florida State players I had as an assistant coach for five years with coach [Leonard] Hamilton. ...

"That's one of the great things about coaching. You develop relationships and you have friends for life, especially when your teams are successful and there's a common bond. Even if you haven't seen each other in many years, you still have that common bond of your success in March Madness."

Flash forward to the present and Enfield is in the midst of another significant run -- not in the context of NCAA tournament history at large this time but still plenty notable with regard to USC basketball history.

With a 72-56 win over No. 11 Drake and an 85-51 dismantling of No. 3 Kansas, USC is through to the Sweet 16 as a No. 6 seed and will take on No. 7 Oregon on Sunday night.

It's just the third time the Trojans have advanced past the second round of the NCAA tournament since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985 (and now 68 teams), including an Elite Eight appearance in 2001 and their last Sweet 16 trip in 2007.

But this team isn't quite the same underdog story with 7-foot freshman, second-team All-American and projected NBA draft lottery pick Evan Mobley leading the way.

"This is a different feeling because we're just so impressed as a coaching staff what our players have done to have grad transfers, undergraduate transfer, three returning players, a couple freshmen come together and keep getting better and better as a team to reach this point," Enfield said. "So it is a different feeling [than the FGCU run], but same excitement level because were in the Sweet 16 and have a chance to move on."

Different but relatable all the same. It was before the tournament started that Enfield thought there might be a lesson or two to convey to his Trojans from that FGCU run eight years ago, so he broke out the highlights and spoke to his players about what made that team capable of surprising everyone that March.

"Andy showed film on his team and showed how much energy they played with and how focused they were and how hard they played," said USC graduate assistant Desmon Farmer, who was on the Trojans' 2001 Elite Eight team. "He showed us video of their run to show the guys that this is what it takes and this is what we need to do if you're trying do something special."

Said Enfield: "Before the tournament started and before our first game against Drake, we did show some video of the Florida Gulf Coast team, and the point was to win games in the tournament, you have to execute on offense, you have to have a pace to your game and then you have to defend at a high level. So we did show some highlights of that as well as our USC teams that have been in the tournament.

"It was a new experience for all our players, because only Chevez Goodwin had ever played in March Madness [with Wofford]. In fact, none of our players had ever played in the Pac-12 tournament the week before. So it's great to see these guys starting from the Drake game to the Kansas game really came together and played terrific basketball on both ends of the court."

And the Trojans will hope that their story still has some chapters left to write.