{"id":26740,"date":"2013-09-29T14:27:19","date_gmt":"2013-09-29T18:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=26740"},"modified":"2013-09-29T14:27:19","modified_gmt":"2013-09-29T18:27:19","slug":"first-official-fgcu_mbb-practice-in-the-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2013\/09\/first-official-fgcu_mbb-practice-in-the-books\/","title":{"rendered":"First Official @FGCU_MBB Practice In The Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The highly-anticipated 2013-14 FGCU men\u2019s basketball season got underway Friday afternoon in Alico Arena with #DunkCity\u2019s first official practice of the campaign.<\/p>\n

The NCAA allows teams to practice 30 of the next 42 days, and first-year head coach Joe Dooley<\/strong> took advantage of the first opportunity with a high-intensity practice which lasted a little more than two hours. It was the squad\u2019s first official practice since its record-setting NCAA Tournament run in March when it became the first-ever No. 15 seed to advance to the Sweet 16.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we got a little tired; a little fatigued at the end. We started to get a little sloppy, but that\u2019s probably to be expected at this time of the year,\u201d said Dooley, who has spent the previous 10 years as the top assistant at Kansas. \u201cI thought there were some good things for us to watch and some things to clean up. But for the most part I thought the guys were pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The start of practice is two weeks earlier than last year. Many of the Eagles remained on the beach-lined campus during the summer to work out, which helped accelerate the bonding of an already-cohesive group that returners four starters from an Atlantic Sun Championship-winning club that defeated second-seeded Georgetown and seventh-seeded San Diego in its March run which garnered the nation\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n

That national attention includes SWFL as with season-ticket sales at record levels and more than doubled from a year ago, additional Priority 2 reserved seats in Alico have been created to meet the growing demand. In turn, a limited number are still available for the season; Club Level is sold out, while mid court Priority 1\u00a0are nearly gone and remaining Priority 2 options are disappearing\u00a0quickly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In addition to the limited season tickets remaining, general admission\u00a0single-game tickets\u00a0and new\u00a0mini-plan packages for the year are currently on sale. With the exception of FGCU\u2019s home-opening \u201cBreakfast at the Beach\u201d nationally televised contest on ESPN2 against Hartford on Tuesday, Nov. 12 at 7 a.m., all men\u2019s games have been packaged into four\u00a0tiers\u00a0to provided added options and savings for fans,\u00a0in addition to single-game purchases. Additional ticket information can be found by clicking here.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

FGCU went 26-11 last year, knocked off eventual ACC Champion Miami and earned an ESPY for \u201cBest Upset.\u201d Junior\u00a0Brett Comer (Winter Park, Fla.\/Winter Park HS)<\/strong>\u00a0has been named by Bleacher Report as one of the Top-10 Most Exciting Players for the 2013-14 season, while senior\u00a0Chase Fieler (Parkersburg, W. Va.\/Parkersburg South HS)<\/strong>\u00a0has been tabbed as one of the Top-20 Mid-Major Stars for the upcoming year by the same outlet. Junior Bernard Thompson (Conyers, Ga.\/Rockdale County HS)<\/strong> is also the defending A-Sun Defensive Player of the Year after finishing second in the nation in total steals (102).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For up-to-the-minute information and behind-the-scenes access to the men\u2019s basketball program, follow @FGCU_MBB on Twitter and Instagram, and \u201cLike\u201d us on Facebook at \/FGCUMBB<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2013-14 men\u2019s basketball season tickets are selling quickly, and only a limited amount remain. N<\/em>ew this year are mini-plan packages for all games, with the exception of \u201cBreakfast at the Beach,\u201d and individual-game tickets are now on sale. Fans can reserve their seat(s) by visiting the Alico Arena Ticket Office, calling 239-590-7145 or logging on to<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>FGCUAthletics.com\/Tickets<\/a>.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The highly-anticipated 2013-14 FGCU men\u2019s basketball season got underway Friday afternoon in Alico Arena with #DunkCity\u2019s first official practice of the campaign. The NCAA allows teams to practice 30 of… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26740"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26740\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}