Even though Dusty May left FAU in 2024, the relationships he made in Boca Raton are still close to his heart. The current head coach of the No. 1 seed Michigan Wolverines spoke about his time with the Owls on Friday during a press conference.
“We did try to bring a mindset that we’re here to win,” May said. “We’re not here to rebuild, we’re not here to see how long this can take and stretch this out. We’re here to do something, and that’s to win, and the rules and climate of college basketball allows it to happen. I felt like we won at FAU and we won in year one before the portal, and coming off of signing 10 players. We felt like it was possible to win at a high level if we brought the right mindset, work ethic, culture and people.”
May’s teams have gone to the NCAA Tournament four-straight years, winning a game in all but one tournament appearance (2024). On Saturday, the Wolverines beat the Saint Louis Billikens 95-72 to become the third team May has led to the Sweet Sixteen.
“The last year [at] FAU, we had high-major problems at a mid-major,” May said. “I think that prepared us for what we were going to have to face when you do get a job in the Big Ten Conference.”
However, the Billikens are not a new opponent for May, as he is close friends with Saint Louis head coach Josh Schertz. May cultivated his relationship with Schertz during his time coaching the Owls.
“Before the transfer portal, there’s graduate transfers and [Schertz] had a player leaving his Division II school and I was at FAU early on,” May said. “It was year two and we were considering this player and I downloaded a couple games that Lincoln Memorial played Division I games against Butler, and I believe it was Tennessee. I’m watching our kid play, and I thought, wow, this is a well coached team. So he and I struck up a relationship and he ended up coming back to Boca a lot because that’s where he grew up and he would come to practice and we’d have lunch and talk ball and just hit it off from day one.”
Going further in depth about their friendship, May recounted a day where he and Schertz stayed in his office in Boca Raton for 10 hours talking about basketball strategy.
“I think it was immediately after one of the seasons and [Schertz] said, ‘I’m going to come through; we’ll sit and we’ll talk ball for a couple hours, then we’ll have lunch,’” May said. “I think we’re going to meet [Nova Southeastern coach] Jim Crutchfield to play pickleball. We ended up sitting in my office for 10 straight hours. We missed Crutchfield, pickleball, and we just got caught up. I had a notebook full of notes, and about a million ideas running through my head.”
May said the two would meet about basketball and share practice notes and plays with one another. Schertz then moved to Indiana State in 2021 before being hired as the Saint Louis coach the same year May left FAU.
“I loved it when [Schertz] was at Division II,” May said. “We were at different levels.”
For the first time in their careers, the man who coached a team to a Final Four in Boca Raton and the man who grew up there faced off in Buffalo on Saturday. Michigan beat Saint Louis, but the Billikins put up a fight in the first half.