Dusty May delivered the talk to his team that never gets old this time of year. Florida Atlantic University is having a historic season. It’s 31-3. It’s ranked No. 25 in the country. It sold out its arena for the last seven games, marking the seven biggest home crowds in school history.
Do you see what’s at work here? A booster even donated $15,000 to fly regular ol’ students to the Conference USA tournament last week in Frisco, Texas. FAU won that tournament and now enters the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in school history.
You see what a ride it’s been? It’s a grand success no matter what ninth-seeded FAU does against eighth-seeded Memphis on Friday night in Columbus, Ohio.
“Our guys felt under-seeded,” May said.
That’s the lead-in to the talk May gave before a practice this week. It’s a great talk. It’s given every year at this time of March by a dozen coaches in the tournament.
“Let’s make sure we’re not content to be here,” May told his players. “Let’s go out and put Florida Atlantic on a national stage. We don’t have to do anything special — just what we’ve done for most of this season.”
Someone’s going to be Cinderella this first tournament weekend. That’s the maddest part of March Madness. Some small school you didn’t know about, or haven’t heard from in years, will win a game or two and suddenly be the sensation of sports.
FAU thinks the glass slipper fits.
Why shouldn’t it?
Mike Forrest arrived from Pompano Beach’s Ely High as part of May’s first recruiting class five years ago. Florida Atlantic had back-to-back six-win seasons. It had seven straight losing seasons. It had a succession of bigger name coaches — Sidney Green, Matt Doherty, Rex Walters, Mike Jarvis, Michael Curry — and had just a 2002 tournament appearance under Green to show for it.
“We brought it up from basically nothing,” Forrest said. “It’s been rewarding to come in here and watch the program grow year by year to where we are now.”
Those 31 wins? No team in the country has won more, and the next-best FAU season in three Division I decades was 21 wins. That national ranking? It got as high as No. 19 this year, the highest the school has ever been. Those sell-out crowds? They rode the end of 17 straight home wins — 18 straight going back to last year, which makes it the third-longest home streak in college basketball.
“Looking back at it, we’ve had an amazing season, from everything we went through to get here,” Forrest said. “But we know we’re not done. We’ve got to keep it going.”
FAU has a few factors to support that idea. It plays a nine-man rotation, meaning its deep enough to withstand foul trouble or an injury. It has two scorers in Johnell Davis and Alijah Martin. It has a defensive rim protector in 7-2 Vladislav Goldin.
“He impacts every possession,” May said of Goldin. “Against Middle Tennessee, he had a game-saving block. Against (Alabama-Birmingham), he protected the rim. With him, it’s all about staying out of foul trouble.”
Memphis is the bigger-name favorite. It’s played on a bigger stage, beating the likes of Auburn, Texas A&M and Houston and losing to No. 1-seed Alabama by a point. It’s also coached by former NBA star Penny Hardaway, who everyone knows.
May is just becoming known nationally. There already are enough rumblings about him being courted by larger programs. He sounded like he expects to sign a new deal at FAU, but a win or two in this tournament and everything can change.
Will March Madness meet May Madness? You know a small-name school or two will pull an upset. They’ll be the toast of college basketball. It happens every year.
“We want it to be us,” Forrest said.
If the slipper fits, why not?
