NEW YORK CITY SWEET

Rural Indiana in America’s heartland. Madison Square Garden in the heart of New York City.

Legends from towns like French Lick and Heltonville often learn the game on dusty courts shooting at baskets mounted on farmhouses in quiet, remote locations.

Legends from city courts like Rucker Park and West Fourth Street often learn the game on asphalt playgrounds shooting at chain nets underneath subway platforms.

Two parts of the country diametrically opposed in so many ways yet connected by a shared love of basketball. The Hoosier State. The City Game. And for two nights during the 2023 NCAA Tournament,

Indiana basketball and New York City basketball shared a specific connection … Florida Atlantic Head Coach Dusty May.

A product of Eastern Greene High School in Bloomfield, Indiana, and a student manager at the University of Indiana in the last years of Bob Knight’s legendary tenure, May took the Owls on a glorious run through the 2022-23 college basketball season. And the run included the opportunity for FAU to play for the first time, and triumph, in the venue dubbed the World’s Most Famous Arena.

“To walk the sidelines and coach at Madison Square Garden is a dream come true and something that I never imagined that I would be doing,” May said.

It wasn’t a dream. In fact, it was quite real that as the clock approached midnight on the evening of March 23, chants of “F-A-U, F-A-U” reverberated throughout the Garden.

The 46-year-old May transformed the FAU men’s basketball program. After inheriting a team that had gone 50-105 across the previous five seasons, the Owls posted five straight winning campaigns (101-60) under his leadership. He was named the 2022-23 CBS Sports Coach of the Year, C-USA Coach of the Year and a semifinalist for the national Naismith Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year Award.

Prior to arriving in Boca Raton in May 2018, May spent seven seasons on Mike White’s coaching staff, first at Louisiana Tech University for four and then with Florida for three. White is the older brother of Brian White, who was named FAU’s vice president and director of athletics in March 2018.

May was a student manager at Indiana from 1996-2000. Thus, his coaching career essentially traces back to the fiery Hoosiers leader, Knight, who won three national championships with the storied program but was equally as known for his controversial temper and clashes with media and students as he was for his innovation and accomplishments.

“You volunteer 40 to 80 hours a week just to learn from a legend, an expert coach, expert teacher. I take something daily from what I learned from that experience,” said May in referring to his time under Knight. “But the entire journey has hopefully prepared me to be in the position I’m in.”

After graduating from Indiana, he began his professional career as an administrative assistant/video coordinator at the University of Southern California (2000-02) and returned to his alma mater in an administrative role for three seasons before taking his first step as an assistant coach with Eastern Michigan University (2005-06). He also served as an assistant at Murray State University (2006-07) and UAB (2007-09).

Five years into his head coaching tenure, May is the Owls’ all-time winningest coach who put Florida Atlantic into a spotlight previously unknown to the university.

The national media exclaimed “From Boca to Broadway” as the Owls advanced to New York. And more than four months after the November road trip that essentially jumpstarted the historic season, they once again readied for another SEC opponent, the No. 4 seed University of Tennessee.

Down five points after a sluggish opening 20 minutes and trailing by six as the clock ticked under 13 minutes remaining, FAU suddenly found its game. Back-to-back 3-pointers by “Mr. FAU” Michael Forrest, the second coming just past the midway point of the second half, gave the Owls a lead they would hold the rest of the way.