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…
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