INDIANAPOLIS — Three years ago, Dusty May and his players were adamant that Florida Atlantic wasn’t a Cinderella. The word itself almost seemed to trigger them. But with the perspective of time gone by, seeing the Owls cut down the nets at Madison Square Garden and head to the Final Four is one of the all-time great college basketball stories — Cinderella or not.
FAU had a total home attendance of 38,050 in 17 games that season. To play on the Final Four stage in front of nearly 74,000 fans in Houston,
and millions on CBS for that program, is unimaginable in the transfer portal era. Sure, anybody who watched the Owls play that season knew how good they were, but not many did.
May’s first trip to the Final Four was anything but expected. His second? It’s been the only conceivable outcome since November.
“It felt a lot different than it did at FAU,” May said. “This felt like something our guys expected, and even our fan base, it felt like they expected it a little bit, as well, and so did I because of the guys we have wearing a Michigan jersey.”
In his second year as Michigan’s head coach, May leads the Wolverines into Lucas Oil Stadium as the favorites to cut down the nets. Michigan ran through the Players’ Era Festival, then dominated the Big Ten, and tore up the Midwest region of the NCAA Tournament. Its 95-62 win over Tennessee in the regional final was the most lopsided margin at that stage of the tournament in 37 years.
Instead of spending the winning Regional Final press conference answering questions about how making a run to the Final Four helps put his University on the map, he’s answering questions about how the program he now leads has made Final Fours in six of the last seven decades.
And his Monday looked a lot different too. May said that in 2023, he spent all of Monday after defeating Kansas State talking to coaches who had been to the Final Four and trying to figure out how to prepare. Because at this stage, everything is different from every other game you’ve played.
“The first day (after we won) was learning,” May said. “Because we obviously didn’t anticipate going to the Final Four.”
It’s two full days of media swarms between open locker rooms, press conferences with the national media, and interviews with all of the TV and radio networks involved in the production. It’s playing in a football stadium in the biggest game of your life in front of the biggest crowd of your life. May could draw on his own experiences this time, instead of leaning on others.
“This year, it was more of our staff getting together,” May said. “Going through our notes and checklist about what we didn’t do well and what we did, and try to recreate what we did well and try to figure out a better way for what we didn’t. So I feel like we’re a step ahead there.”
At Florida Atlantic, May’s Owls finished the regular season 28-3 and ran through the C-USA Tournament in order to clinch a berth in the NCAA Tournament, but it may have taken all of that just to make the Tournament. They earned a nine seed, and scrapped past Memphis in the first round before beating FDU to advance to the Sweet 16.
Simply making it to the dance was historic. Winning a game for the first time in program history was special. Continuing the run all the way to Houston was unthinkable.
“(In 2023), we were on the innocent fight for about three or four months where we were just lost in the fight,” May added. “Battling every single day, scrapping for everything, not knowing if you’re even going to be in the tournament, let alone make it to the Final Four. I think here we probably clinched an NCAA Tournament bid after Players’ Era in November, so just the entire thing has felt different.”
Because of where he was and the level that he was winning at, May’s previous success was shrouded in discourse around the coaching carousel. He stayed another year at FAU, returning essentially all contributors in what he called the “most difficult year of his life,” in coaching.
After that, he took the Michigan job. His leaving FAU was an inevitability. His second team at Michigan feels just as inevitable. A dominant team, and back with unfinished business in the Final Four.
“I’d challenge you to walk into our offices and arena at FAU and and everything about what that group did and even just to look at a picture of that group and their journeys to get there,” May said. “And then this one. It’s two different situations.”
