Dusty May is on top of the world right now.
This past weekend, the fifth-year FAU men’s basketball coach led his team to its first-ever appearance in the NCAA tournament’s Final Four with an incredible run as a No. 9 seed. No matter what happens next weekend in Houston, he will likely be returning to Boca Raton with a hefty pay raise (barring a surprising power conference opening, for which he would surely be a primary candidate).
The Owls are just two wins from reaching college basketball’s mountaintop, but when May took the job back in 2018, he had instant regret and nearly quit hours into the job while the ink on his contract still wasn’t dry, according to CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander.
“I walk in the room and I started crying and said, ‘I just committed career suicide. I’m not good enough. I can’t do this,'” May told CBS Sports.
May — who was an assistant under then-Florida coach Mike White — apparently had such a good meeting with FAU athletic director Brian White (who had been hired less than a week prior) that he took the job hours after arriving in Boca.
He hadn’t even seen the facilities, including the arena, which seated just 2,500. After he did, he was so overcome with buyer’s remorse that he burst into tears in his hotel room.
Of course, a move that May thought would be disastrous for his career prospects ultimately proved to be the exact opposite. His team sits at 35-3 in what has been a storybook season for an FAU team that is now on the cusp of winning a national championship and will face San Diego State for the right to play for one Saturday.
With the Owls set to join the American Athletic Conference next season, which is in turn set to lose current powerhouse Houston, it may only be the beginning of what May can accomplish in Boca Raton.
