About three decades before its remarkable run from obscurity to the Final Four, Florida Atlantic was trying to avoid making a different kind of history.
The Owls were in jeopardy of going winless in their first Division I season after making the leap from Division II independent.
They had failed to post a single victory in 19 games. They had lost more than half by at least 20 points. And they were setting out on a two-game road trip without head coach Tim Loomis, who had come down with a convenient case of food poisoning.