FORT MYERS, Fla. – By winning its last six home games and advancing to the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament semifinals for the first time in five years, Florida Gulf Coast University's men's basketball team wrapped up last season with the momentum of a growing and developing program. That growth and development has not taken a summer break as the Eagles just wrapped up their eight-week summer workout period.

Basketball teams get eight weeks in the summer to hold practices and workouts. They provide teams a chance to integrate new players into the fold, begin laying the groundwork for the upcoming season and to be able to focus on strength, conditioning, fundamentals and team cohesiveness.

"We got better and we're coming together," FGCU head coach Pat Chambers said of his team's summer workout session. We're coming together as a group. There's connectivity. There's care. That's the goal of this summer because, ultimately, we need to build trust amongst each other."

One focus of the summer for FGCU has been in the Sublett Family Strength and Conditioning Center, where associate strength and conditioning coach Carter Brewster, MAT, ATC, CSCS has made noticeable gains with the roster in terms of conditioning and strength training.

"I'm genuinely impressed with the way we've attacked summer workouts this year,"  said rising senior George Washington III. "This team has really been locked in this summer. The coaches haven't made it easy; they have really been pushing us to get to that next level. It really excites me as a player."

The summer offered a chance for FGCU to build a team bond and engage in character building before the fall semester started. While the current landscape of college athletics trends towards rosters completely turning over year-after-year – Division I programs as a whole averaged 7.5 transfer portal entries per program – FGCU has been the aberration. The Eagles lead the ASUN in returning players from last year's roster and navigated the portal window far below the national average in transfers out of the program with four, nearly half the national average.

However, Chambers and staff didn't rest on their laurels. The Green & Blue brought in four additions from the transfer portal, led by Penn State transfer and the first 7-foot player in program history, Justin Houser.

"We put in a lot of work this summer," Houser said. "We have great resources here at FGCU. We have great coaches that are high-level coaches, just like it was at Penn State. It's been great here.
For Houser, there's plenty of similarities FGCU's program and with how Big Ten programs are ran.

"The strength program is very similar. I was able to put in a lot of good work this summer. Thanks to the staff here, I was able to lose 3% body fat and got down to 7% body fat overall while putting on muscle at the same time."
The 2026-27 basketball season is less than 90 days away and Eagles fans will want to jump on every opportunity possible to see the Green & Blue play this year. Season tickets for the upcoming campaign are on sale now. Mini plans, single-game tickets and other group options will be available later.
 
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