Amid the palm trees that sway in the sultry sun of southwest Florida is an upstart basketball program that has obliterated virtually everyone's NCAA brackets. Despite this, they are quickly becoming the darlings of fans near and far as a Cinderella, the likes of which we have never seen before.
As the first 15 seed to advance to the Sweet 16, the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles are making a name for themselves. At the helm of this young program is Andy Enfield, former entrepreneur turned coach.
Enfield knows a thing or two about basketball, holding a number of hoops records from his years at Johns Hopkins, not the least of which was 2,025 career points and a 92.5-percent free throw average. Following undergraduate school he earned an MBA, paid for from the proceeds of his startup lacrosse camp.
With this entrepreneurial spirit in his blood, he moved to New York and launched Onenetshooting.com, and providing consultative support to various NBA franchises. Enfield subsequently became one of the first employees at TractManager, a very successful health care contract management solution. As he says, “Since I had my MBA in finance, I wanted to try to build a startup company and see where it went,”
As his entrepreurial spirit blossomed, he couldn't get basketball out of his blood. He was able to sell a portion of his investment in TractManager, giving him the financial freedom to pursue his real passion, that of being the CEO of a Division I basketball program.
After spending five years as an assistant with Florida State, he took on the challenge of the fledgling Florida Gulf Coast program and in his first year led the Eagles to a record 15 wins and the championship game of the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament.
This year, it was time for the big dance. Enfield has put together a run and dunk offense that is taking opponents by storm. Prior to being the first #15 in history to advance to the Sweet 16, the Eagles dismantled a tough Miami program during the regular season. This same program is in the tournament as a #2 seed, the same ranking as the Eagles latest victims, Georgetown.
Only time will tell if the Eagles can continue on this path to success, but certainly Andy Enfield has laid the foundation. As discussed in Blocking & Tackling: The Playbook for the Winning Claims Organization, the keys to victory combine elements of the right people, the right processes and the right technology.
To say the players taking to the floor for the Eagles are athletic is an understatement. This is a team that has won back to back tournament upsets by ten or more points with aerial displays that would be make the Blue Angels envious. Aerial theatrics aside, this is a team that does everything well. They execute basic Basketball 101 with extreme precision, guided by a former Wall Street executive who understands the basic premise of building a winning formula. It is this process improvement that has turned a once unheard of program into a household name.
Last, there is the technology component, clearly a strength for a coach who once launched a website focused on basketball fundamentals. In the information age, he has identified key players overlooked by other schools. With only one player from Florida's Gulf Coast, FGCU has leveraged technology to pull in talent not only domestically, but from throughout the world with Christophe Varidel, Alexander Blessig and Filip Cvieticanin hailing from Central Europe.
Next up for the Eagles is cross state rival Florida. As a team with the capability to win the entire tournament, they will have their hands full. As current 13 point underdogs, they certainly have the potential to wreak havoc on the oddsmakers. Whatever the outcome, this has been a great run with many lessons on who to build organizational success that we can all learn from.
Christopher Tidball is an executive claims consultant and the author of multiple books including Blocking & Tackling: The Playbook for the Winning Claims Organization. He is an insurance industry veteran and currently a consultant with Mitchell International.
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