There is danger lurking, even amid the glory. Florida Atlantic’s gilded run to the Final Four has been one of March Madness’ cheeriest stories, but it doesn’t guarantee a similarly smiley future.
The fear, heard in the subtext of head coach Dusty May’s thoughts, is that these past couple of weeks and all the thrills they have brought might even be the catalyst for excessive difficulty, because college basketball is complicated and recent rules have made it even more so.
For a small program that reaches for the clouds, things are hard enough already. The things to overcome are not just limited to reputation, but also the simple reality that it’s tougher to load your squad if your blood doesn’t run blue, or unless you at least rub shoulders with those types in a beefy conference.
East region champ FAU has been masterful leading up to its Saturday date with San Diego State, and before you get started on the “fortune” of top seed Purdue losing to No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson and opening up a path, consider that May’s team won a section that also included Marquette, Kansas State, Tennessee, and a trio of little clubs named Duke, Kentucky and Michigan State.
You’ve noticed, I’ve noticed, and you can bet your busted bracket that other teams from around the country have noticed what the likes of Johnell Davis, Vladislav Goldin and Alijah Martin have done through four tournament games.
Now, the vultures are circling. In this era of the transfer portal and NIL, holding onto your prime talent – especially once they do things worthy of widespread attention – is no simple task.
“Absolutely, you’re always concerned because they’re getting recruited now,” May told reporters last week. “They’ve been recruited through this tournament. There are so many outside parties. It’s part of it.
“Our job as coaches is to do the best job we can, every single minute of every single day, to provide the environment that they think this is the best thing for them in the long term.”
What he’s saying is that bigger programs are coming for some of May’s players – Goldin, Martin and Davis are all third-year sophomores, meaning they would have time left to potentially contribute elsewhere.
And they might have been coming for May himself, because success in March is what every board of regents craves, bringing with it recognition and national exposure and good things that translate to economic benefit.
The widely reported news that a new four-year deal for May looms will have brought some sighs of relief in Boca Raton.
May appears to love the job and its location, and the story of how he rides his bike to work is often repeated. When it comes to his players, time, as ever, will tell.
Such thoughts should, of course, be pressed to the back burner until after the showdown with an experienced and bruising San Diego State group in Houston, or, wow, until after the national title game against UConn or Miami on Monday.
But that’s not how it shakes. The talk has started, and it won’t slow. This, right here, might be as good as it gets for FAU, if an exodus beckons.
“We’re loyal over here,” Martin said, and basketball romantics everywhere fervently hope he is proven right.
Staying united and building on the platform of an extraordinary run wasn’t how it went down for Saint Peter’s, the 15-seed that charmed its way to last year’s Elite Eight, then lost coach Shaheen Holloway to Seton Hall and eight players to various portal destinations and wound up placing 10th in the 11-team Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
Florida Atlantic’s current run isn’t as much of a shock as the Peacocks’ was then. According to the Owls, it’s fine to describe them as underdogs, but to term them a Cinderella is downright disrespectful.
FAU’s No. 9 seeding was one of the more undervalued selections of the tournament and ignored some highly favorable metrics. They have won more games, 35, than any other team in the country, and play a brand of ball that’s flexible enough to be hard to prep for.
Their situation is a strange kind of “careful what you wish for” fable. The most optimistic outcome is that this experience will convince the stars of the team to stay, whoever comes knocking.
May himself, schooled under Bob Knight as a student manager eons ago, will play a vital role in trying to keep things together. He has a tight group, but so did St. Peter’s. College careers, basketball careers, heck, life itself, is short. Some opportunities only come around once.
“It’s not uncommon,” May continued, on the threat of losing players. “Every school in the country in some capacity is dealing with it. The missing piece that is very understated is these guys truly love each other. When you love your teammates it is hard to go jump … you don’t know what’s out there.”
This weekend is a step to the unknown, too. That’s the case for each of the four squads, even with UConn carrying its historic name. The tournament is a time to live in the moment, and like the song says, to try to shine for a moment.
FAU needs to focus on that part. It has, reality dictates, no other choice.
