The Rundown: FGCU (25-2 | 12-0 A-Sun | 16 RPI) v. North Florida (11-16 | 2-10 A-Sun | 252 RPI)
The Matchup: Karl Smesko (Kent State, '93) 13th season at FGCU (339-66/83.5%) v. Mary Tappmeyer (SUNY Cortland '81) 23rd season at UNF (312-349/47.2%)
When: Wednesday, Feb. 25  |  7 p.m.
Where: UNF Arena  |  Jacksonville, Fla.
Video: via ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app
Live Stats: via UNFOspreys.com
Audio: via FGCUAthletics.com with Tom James
Hashtags: #WingsUp | #WeAreFGCU | #RainingThrees | #ASunWBB
Series History: FGCU leads 14-2 with 10 straight wins
Game Notes: FGCU  |  North Florida
 
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In its final road contest of the regular season, the No. 21/22 FGCU women's basketball team travels across the Sunshine State to take on the University of North Florida Wednesday, Feb. 25. Tipoff at UNF Arena is slated for 7 p.m.
 
The mid-week matchup pairs two teams on opposite ends of the Atlantic Sun standings. While the Eagles have sole possession of first place in the league, the Ospreys hold on in eighth place with a 2-10 record.  With the A-Sun tournament just a week away, it is likely the teams will face off again in the first round.
 
HOW TO FOLLOW
Live stats will be available via UNFOspreys.com with a video stream available through ESPN3 and the WatchESPN mobile app. Audio will also be available with FGCU's Tom James on the call via FGCUAthletics.com. As always, fans can also find live updates via Twitter at @FGCU_WBB.
 
GAME DAY TWEETABLES
• FGCU currently holds an RPI rating at 16 after rising to a program-best 13 to start Atlantic Sun action.  #EaglesRising
 
• @FGCUCoachSmesko earned his 400th career victory Saturday at Upstate. He stands at 400-93 with a win percentage of 81.1.
 
• FGCU is currently riding a 20-game win streak, which stands as the 5th-best in the nation. It's been 13 weeks since the Eagles fell.
 
• The Eagles have secured the No. 1 seed in the #ASunWBB Tournament and clinched the outright regular season title last weekend
 
• FGCU currently stands as the No. 21 team in the AP Top-25 poll and checks in at No. 22 in the USA Today Coaches' Poll.
 
• FGCU became #ASunWBB's first top-25 team since FIU in 1997
 
• The Eagles have held A-Sun foes to just 48.8 points per game this season and are on pace to set a new record.
 
• In the quest for their fifth-straight #ASunWBB Championships, the Eagles have compiled a record of 82-4 in the last five seasons.
 
• Senior Jenna Cobb was named to the WBCA's 'So You Want to Be A Coach' Class of 2015
 
THE GREEN AND BLUE
As of week 16, the Eagles hold a record of 25-2 with a win streak of 20 games, which stands as the nation's fourth-best streak.  The run sits behind only No. 14/14 Princeton, No. 3/3 Baylor, No. 1/1 Connecticut and is tied with No. 18/19 Chattanooga. The Green and Blue also holds an official RPI ranking of 16, second among mid-majors behind only Dayton at 15. The RPI stands ahead of 10 ranked teams including No. 11/13 Mississippi State, No. 12/12 Texas A&M, No. 14/14 Princeton, No. 18/19 Chattanooga, No. 19/19 Stanford, No. 20/18 Rutgers, No. 22/21 George Washington, No. 23/RV Syracuse, No. 24/RV California, No. 25/RV Northwestern, RV/24 Texas and RV/25 Seton Hall.
 
The team clinched its fifth-straight Atlantic Sun Regular Season Championship this weekend with a win at USC Upstate and will hold the No. 1 seed with home-court advantage throughout the A-Sun Tournament.
 
FGCU has won 23 of its last 24 games and holds a perfect 12-0 record in conference play this season. The Eagles received 74 points in last week's poll when they entered the top-25 for the first time in program history.
 
FGCU boasts three double-figure scorers in Whitney Knight (Winston-Salem, N.C./R.J. Reynolds High School), Kaneisha Atwater (Fort Pierce, Fla./Fort Pierce Westover High School) and Stephanie Haas (Avon Lakes, Ohio/Magnificat High School).  Knight is pacing the squad and the league with 15.6 points and 6.4 rebounds per game and leads the league with 80 made shots from the perimeter. Atwater has contributed 13.7 points per contest, while Haas adds 10.1 points off the bench.
 
Collectively, the Eagles average 73.9 points per game, while holding their opposition to 55.6 points per contest for the league's best scoring average and scoring margin. The scoring margin also ranks among the top-10 in the nation. The team has maintained a shooting percentage of .439 with a mark of .358 from the perimeter this year. The Eagles rank third in the NCAA and first among the Atlantic Sun with 10.0 shots made from beyond-the-arc per game. On defense, the Eagles have been narrowly outrebounded, 35.1 to 35.5 per game this year but hold an advantage in turnovers, 11.4 to 18.3 and steals, 8.8 to 4.8. FGCU ranks fourth in the country with a turnover margin of +6.93 and 10th nationally in assist to turnover ratio at 1.32.
 
The Eagles currently lead the Atlantic Sun Conference in points per game, scoring margin, field-goal percentage, 3-pointers per game, turnover margin, assist to turnover ratio, assists per game and win-loss percentage. The team is the first A-Sun squad to earn a top-25 position since FIU in 1997.
 
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWIN STREAK
With 20-straight wins, the Eagles currently hold the nation's fifth-best win streak. They sit behind only Connecticut, Princeton, Baylor and Chattanooga. 
       
The team also holds a 21-game win streak in conference games dating back to last season to rank fourth in the nation and sits only behind the nation's top two teams in Connecticut and South Carolina with 24-straight wins at home, a streak that also spans two seasons.
 
TOP-25
After receiving votes for three-straight three weeks, the Eagles broke into the Top-25 for the first time as a Division I program last week. FGCU moved up in the rankings and stands as the No. 21 team in the AP Top-25 and the No. 22 team in the USA Today Coaches' Poll for Week 16 to sit among the nation's elite.
 
TOP-100
The Eagles hold a 7-1 record against the nation's top-100 teams based on RPI with 'W's over George Washington, Quinnipiac, Stetson, Wichita State and Southern Miss. Their only loss was in an overtime battle against the Big Ten's Ohio State in the US Virgin Islands.    
 
SUNSHINE STATE SUCCESS
With Florida State leading the way at No. 12, Florida boasts the most number of teams within the RPI's top-50. FGCU joins the Seminoles, USF, Miami and Stetson to lead the rest of the nation.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Head coach Karl Smesko earned his 400th career victory as the FGCU women's basketball team earned its fifth-straight Atlantic Sun Conference Regular Season Championship with a 75-59 win at USC Upstate Saturday afternoon. The Eagles picked up their sixth title in seven seasons and moved to 25-2 on the season with a 20-game win streak and an unblemished mark of 12-0 in conference play.
 
The nationally ranked Eagles took a 6-0 lead to start and never let go of the advantage.  Upstate challenged the Eagles in the first half but after holding a 41-31 lead at the break, the Green and Blue consistently increased the deficit with perimeter shooting and extended the advantage to 19 points midway through the second half.  Backed by a career-high in 3-pointers made from Knight, the team made 10 shots from beyond-the-arc with a 45.8 percent success rate from the floor to earn their 20th-straight win.
 
Knight paced all players with 26 points on the afternoon, just two shy of her career high. She set a new career best with six made 3-pointers on nine attempts and pulled down a team-best eight rebounds with three blocks, three assists and two steals. The Eagles saw a well-rounded scoring effort with another 17 points from Atwater and 12 from Meador.
 
As a unit, the Eagles shot 45.8 percent from the field with a 38.5 percent clip from 3-point range. The team outrebounded USC Upstate 35-33 and made 11-of-14 free throws. Led by five from Dunson, the team dished out 18 assists and forced 15 Upstate turnovers, while holding the Spartans to a 42.1 percent success rate from the floor. Upstate went just 2-for-12 from the perimeter but knocked in 9-of-10 shots from the charity stripe.
 
ALL-TIME MEETINGS WITH THE OSPREYS
The Eagles hold an all-time record of 14-2 against the Ospreys dating back to the 2007-08 season. FGCU has won the previous 10 meetings including a 75-42 win at Alico Arena in January and last fell in Jacksonville in 2010. FGCU has averaged 12.0 points per game more than the Ospreys and has held UNF to under 60 points in all but two meetings.
 
SCOUTING THE HOME TEAM
UNF enters its final home contest of the 2014-15 slate with a record of 11-16 and an Atlantic Sun mark of 2-10.  The Ospreys compiled a nonconference mark of 9-6 before opening the conference slate with losses to JU and FGCU. Since the first meeting between the teams, UNF has gone 2-8 with wins over Northern Kentucky and Lipscomb. Despite earning a double overtime win over NKU in January, the Ospreys fell to the Norse 67-29 in their most recent contest.
 
The Osprey were selected as the league's underdog with just 12 points in the Preseason Coaches' poll after finishing last year with a 2-16 record in conference.
 
This season, the team is averaging 54.4 points per game and allowing foes to 61.4 points per contest. The Ospreys have compiled a success rate of 36.1 percent from the field with a 30.9 percent clip from 3-point range and have held opponents to a 37.2 percent rate with a 33.8 percentage from the perimeter.  The team's field-goal percentage defense ranks second in the conference but its 3-point percentage defense is eighth in the eight-team conference. The Ospreys average 40.8 rebounds per game to rank first in the league and have outrebounded opponents by 2.5 boards per contest. The team has allowed 17.8 turnovers per game with an assist to turnover ratio of 0.6.
 
Individually, the Ospreys are led by senior Destinee Smith. Smith averages a team-best 13.3 points per game. Smith shoots 35.6 percent from the field with a 34.1 percent clip from outside. She has also dished out 71 assists and grabbed a squad-high 34 steals.  Paulina Zaveckaite paces the league and the team with 11.9 rebounds per game, which also ranks as the seventh best performance in the nation. Zaveckaite averages 10.4 points per contest and has recorded 10 double doubles on the season.  Janea Williams leads the team with 37 blocks but has added just 4.6 points per game, while Amber Robinson adds 4.7 points per game and a shooting percentage of 38.5.
 
UNF's Mary Tappmeyer is in her 23rd season with the Ospreys and like Smesko, is the program's only coach. She holds an overall record of 312-349 at UNF.
 
STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE
The Eagle's tough nonconference schedule has been crucial in the team's high RPI ranking this year. The team currently stands at 66 in the official NCAA SOS.
 
SMESKO'S PREPARATION
Smesko's game preparation is one of the most crucial factors in the Eagles' all-time success.  Last season, the team went 14-2 in games when they had four or more days to prepare.  In 13 seasons, Smesko holds a record of 121-20 in games with that much time for preparing for a win percentage of 86 percent. 
 
PRESEASON PREDICTIONS
On the heels of four-consecutive regular season championships and the team's second Atlantic Sun Championship in three years, the Eagles were once against picked to win the Atlantic Sun in the annual preseason coaches' poll.
 
With 62 points and six first-place votes, the Eagles finished four points ahead of in-state rival Stetson University.  The Hatters garnered two first-place votes to finish second in the poll with 58 points. The Green and Blue picked up 11 first-place votes in the media poll for 123 total points, with Stetson earning four top nods and 104 total points.
 
The 2013-14 defending Atlantic Sun Champions earned three wins over the Hatters last season, including the regular season finale and the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship Final. With help from those wins, the Eagles finished with their fourth-straight regular season title and earned their second tournament championship title in three seasons.
 
In addition to the team's predicted success, three individuals also garnered preseason All-Conference accolades.  As a former First Team All-Conference member, Knight picked up the Player of the Year nod, while Cobb and Haas also earned spots on the 10-member Preseason All-Conference team.
 
UP NEXT
The team will conclude the regular season Saturday, Feb. 28 with a 7 p.m. matchup with Jacksonville at Alico Arena before hosting the first round of the A-Sun Tournament Friday, March 6.
 
As the No. 1 seed in the 2015 Atlantic Sun Conference Championship, the Eagles will host each game of the tournament. Tickets for all A-Sun tournament games are on sale online at FGCUAthletics.com, over the phone at 239-590-7145 or in person at the Alico Arena Box Office.
 
For up-to-the minute information on the FGCU women's basketball team, stay tuned to FGCUAthletics.com and follow the official Twitter of FGCU women's basketball at @FGCU_WBB.
 
Head coach Karl Smesko earned his fourth-consecutive Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year award after a successful 2013-14 campaign. Under his direction, the team completed the season with a record of 26-8, including a 17-1 mark in conference action and won the program's 300th win last January. Smesko guided the Eagles to their fifth-consecutive regular season championship with a record of 12-0 in A-Sun action this season and earned his 400th career victory on Feb. 21. With 25 wins already in the 2014-15 season, Smesko has guided the Eagles to 11-straight 20+ win seasons.  He maintains a record of 339-66 at FGCU for a win percentage of 83.6 with a mark of 129-13 (90.7 W%) in Atlantic Sun contests and has led the team to a 65-1 record in conference play in the last four seasons.  The five-time Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year ranks among an elite list of just four active Division I coaches with a career win percentage of .800 or higher.  Smesko joins Connecticut's Geno Auriemma, Baylor's Kim Mulkey and Stanford's Tara VanDerveer in the esteemed group.
 
SUPPORT THE CAUSE
FGCU Athletics sponsors events throughout the year to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visitwww.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.