Tennessee, FAU in Sweet 16 with brothers as AD

NEW YORK – As bracket of the NCAA tournament It came out 11 days ago, Danny White and Brian White both knew that only one of their schools could make it to the Final Four before they knew who Tennessee or Florida Atlantic would play in the annual showcase opener. Three entire regions were named without mentioning Tennessee or Florida Atlantic, where the brothers have four years apart in age served as the athletic director for each Sweet 16 representative.

With the Owls drawing a No. 9 seed and the Volunteers’ names being called not long after with the No. 4 seed in the East Region, the potential matchup at Madison Square Garden and the collision course of the award-winning program overseen by each brother came into focus. two away wins for each. Florida Atlantic needed a last-second shot against Memphis, and Cinderella and the not too ugly stepsisters from Fairleigh Dickinson to get to Manhattan. Tennessee survived Louisiana and thrived against Duke to return to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2019. Now a white one was watching as one of their programs was progressing to the threshold of the Final Four. The other one is gone city, as the athletic director job was never completed.

“I root for Tennessee every game they don’t play FAU,” Owls athletic director Brian White told Deadspin on Thursday afternoon. “There is a bit of an awkward component to it. Now, we’ve done this before and we both know we want the other to succeed. I think people assume there’s a competitive brotherhood, which there would be if something didn’t mean so much.”

Before the elder White became Tennessee’s athletic director in January In 2021, the brothers’ schools collided for nearly three years when they both worked at Florida State. His younger brother arrived at FAU in March 2018, and Danny has led the Central Florida athletic department since 2015. There has never been a rivalry between the schools like this postseason matchup with four wins in one national championship. The profile of the school is also very different. This is Florida Atlantic’s second trip to the NCAA Tournament and the first time the school has won back-to-back games The big dance. The Volunteers have participated in 25 NCAA Tournaments. While the Owls were picked to finish fifth in Conference USA this season, it was Danny White outside of Boca Raton who knew how talented FAU was before the season started.

“I followed them all year. I know how good they are. So it doesn’t surprise me that they’ve come this far,” Danny White told Deadspin Thursday morning, just before boarding a plane from Knoxville to New York. “I can’t say I’m shocked that the clash happened after I saw the console.”

The brothers aren’t even planning a friendly bet for the showdown in the Big Apple. They are two of five brothers who were sandwiched between Georgia’s top men’s basketball coach. The two White sisters are bookkeepers for Kevin and Jane White’s five children. Kevin White most recently served as Duke’s athletic director from 2008-2021. Mike White’s staff included current Owls head coach Dusty May at Louisiana Tech and Florida over seven seasons. The story of the white family was made Thursday’s game is a little sweeter knowing how far everyone involved in the sports industry has come and Danny and Brian’s pre-game meeting has been going on all week. They both know that the fall happened oncehe deserved nothing but the game their attention despite both were notnot a coach in the game.

“The bigger the game, the more stress and I think the more butterflies we all get,” Danny White said. “But that’s the beauty of competition. If you want to play in these big games, you better care. And if we’re lucky enough to win tonight, we’ll care even more on Saturday.”

Danny White spent late Thursday morning on the road packing for “an undetermined amount of days.” With … volunteers loss will fly to FAU in Seattle for the Lady Vols’ Sweet 16 matchup against top-seeded Virginia Tech. He would have been present The garden again if Tennessee has achieved it the second Elite Eight. Brian White saw the momentum at FAU before 99.9 percent of sports fans and will help Florida Atlantic move to the American Athletic Conference this summer. And with the introduction of the Owls a the American one has a bigger bandthe, the second-youngest White struggled to put into words what it meant to the small but mighty community of Florida Atlantic to play against his older brother’s school and the Sweet 16 from America’s biggest city.

“It’s just unbelievable,” said Brian White. “I hate to use common superlatives, but the excitement of the fan base is unlike anything we’ve ever seen.” And for one of the brothers, more history could happen this weekend.