Bracketology 2024: Purdue, Villanova, and BYU among Feast Week winners

2. Florida Atlantic Owls

If I did a “Bracketology Losers” piece from last week, FAU would’ve easily been No. 1. They lost at home to Bryant, almost guaranteed to be a Quad 4 defeat in Bracketology. Being in the AAC, the Owls don’t have many mulligans to help offset that defeat without getting on the bubble in March.

That made their performance in the ESPN Events Invitational very important. They nearly lost in the first round to Butler, an improved Big East team but that wouldn’t have been a great defeat to have. FAU avoided that with a late push to win, 91-86 thanks to six double-digit scorers.

The Owls followed that up with their best game of the year so far, beating a top-15 Texas A&M squad in the semifinals. It was another high-scoring affair, ending with a final score of 96-89. The guard duo of Johnell Davis and Alijah Martin had their breakout games together, scoring 26 and 25 pts respectively. It’s a definite Quad 1 victory and helps offset the Bryant setback.

Florida Atlantic still has some marquee games on its non-conference schedule, starting with Virginia Tech in the championship game of the ESPN Events Invitational. Liberty and College of Charleston follows it up in the Field of 68 Tip-Off.