FGCU Basketball: Eagles don't mind waiting their turn

While at College of Charleston, Bowie watched from the bench as a redshirt freshman as Charleston won the Southern Conference and faced the University of Tulsa in the opening round.

"Duke was in our regional, and I remember seeing Elton Brand and I was like, 'That is one big dude,' " said Bowie, now a senior forward at Florida Gulf Coast University. "It was weird because you see a lot of people you're used to seeing on TV and then you play them and you realize it's not what you thought."

Charleston lost to the Golden Hurricane then and haven't been back to the "Big Dance" since.

Bowie knows he won't get a chance to play in the postseason this year either. The Eagles are serving the second year of an NCAA-mandated probationary period. FGCU, a provisional NCAA Division II school, begins its second year of basketball on Nov. 11 at Florida Atlantic.

What it means is the Eagles are ineligible for the NCAA Division II tournament despite going 23-9 last year and being ranked 20th in the preseason Division II Top 25 poll.

"(Missing the postseason) is no big deal," Bowie said. "We'll get a chance to play in some (regular-season) tournaments, so we'll get some good experience from that."

And it could be worse. This spring, FGCU successfully petitioned the NCAA to reduce its probationary period from four years to two.

All of which is great for the underclassmen, who could get a taste of the postseason starting in 2004-05. But it's of little consolation to the team's handful of seniors, though they admit they knew when they accepted a scholarship to play at the then-fledgling school that their seasons would end in late February or early March no matter what.

"We knew what we were getting into," Scot Wilson said. "I know for me, I got the chance to play in the postseason in junior college. We advanced all the way to the championship my sophomore year. And I know (guards) (Ryan) Hopkins and (Bryan) Crislip got to do it at their schools."

Wilson is pragmatic. Save for an improbable release by the NCAA, he knew there was no chance for the Eagles to get a small case of March Madness.

The NCAA's reduction of FGCU's probationary period only really affected one player, senior guard Brett Fritz.

Fritz, 22, played all of three minutes last season. He broke his collarbone in a car accident last September. He was laid up in the hospital for a week.

Rushing to get back, he played all of three minutes against the University of Tampa before he re-broke the bone.

Devastated, Fritz applied for a medical redshirt, which would have left him with two years of eligibility. When FGCU's probationary period was cut from four years to two, he thought he'd be around to help the Eagles go deep into the D-II playoffs in 2004-05.

"I saw how talented the team was, and how exciting it was going to be for me to play two more years, especially with my brother (freshman guard Tanner Fritz) coming to the team," Fritz said.

The NCAA, however, denied Fritz's request for a medical redshirt. Because he'd already used up his redshirt year while a freshman at Oglethorpe College in Georgia, Fritz couldn't get another waiver. Fritz said the NCAA told him only players who sustain injuries that span two seasons are eligible for medical redshirts.

He was disappointed, but at the same time, it made him understand just how valuable this season is.

"I've had to re-prove myself to myself," Fritz said. "I've been out of basketball for nine months. Nine months can seem so long."

No postseason simply means the Eagles have adjusted their goals. They believe they can play with the best D-II has to offer, and they'll get plenty of shots this season. The Eagles will play Florida Southern and Kentucky Wesleyan among others. Both schools are longtime D-II powers.

Throw in a handful of games against NCAA Division I schools like Florida Atlantic and Florida International, and the Eagles have as challenging a schedule as any you'll find in the country. And thanks to slightly looser purse strings, the team will go on road swings through Alabama, Arkansas and Indiana playing some of the best Division II teams in the country.

"How we play those teams, that's how we're going to judge our season," Fritz said. "We don't have anymore cupcake games."

And when it's all said and done, Fritz knows the seniors have a chance to set the standard that the program will be measured by for years to come.

"To be able to start up something new and to come back in 25-30 years and see your picture on the wall and see how far the program has come, that's why we came here," Fritz said. "That's what we're working for this season."