From empty Burrow stands to the Final Four: FAU basketball's inspiring rise
Editor's Note: Zach Weinberger, a 2022 Florida Atlantic University graduate, has covered the Owls' sports teams for the campus newspaper as well as The Palm Beach Post since 2018 — the same year FAU hired a new men's basketball coach.
From near-empty stands at The Burrow in Boca Raton to the mecca of basketball in New York City, it has been awe-inspiring to watch the rise of the FAU men’s basketball team onto the national stage.
While fans are going to feel sour with the season ending on a buzzer-beater shot from San Diego State, it’s important to look back on what the Owls did this season.
There is no doubt that this has been the greatest athletic season in the school’s history.
If someone had confidently said that FAU would win more than 30 games and reach the Final Four, there’s a big chance that they were lying.
Even though I’m 23 years old, part of me feels I’ve grown up alongside head coach Dusty May and the players on the team.
In 2018, May accepted a job with no prior head coaching experience and I was entering my freshman year of college.
Both happened to be at FAU.
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Like May, I was nervous, possibly feeling some remorse. May and I were entering a new stage of our lives in different ways with hesitation.
It turned out to be the best decision each of us made.
What he’s done for the program is unprecedented, and it’s been said time and time again this season, but anyone could’ve seen the seeds planted back in 2018.
I joined the FAU student newspaper, The University Press, during my freshman year and was assigned to do a preview for the 2018-19 season.
Going to media day and meeting May for the first time, his personality was contagious. He seemed like a coach someone would go through a wall for, but also remain positive when the cards were down.
There was nowhere near as much media attention then and you could tell that May appreciated me for being there to cover a team with little to no traction back then.
I would like to say that to some degree, May, the FAU basketball program and I had parallel trajectories.
As the team kept getting better, I rose up the ranks within the student newspaper. I covered the basketball program as the sports editor and eventually when I became editor-in-chief, albeit less so since the scope was beyond athletics.
I took my talents to The Palm Beach Post to cover FAU sports at the start of 2021. When the basketball season came around, it was great to connect back with coach May and form new relationships with players.
Still, with the lack of coverage, you can tell that the players and especially May appreciated local media and the effort to be there most days to cover the team. He was incredibly helpful to me when I was conducting interviews and gathering information for stories.
I graduated in August 2022, plunging into a new era of my life, while the team was about to embark on a journey that would change the lives of the players and coaching staff.
Covering Owls this past season was an experience
Covering the team this season has been a whirlwind. Traveling to New York City and Houston on the biggest stages of college basketball was surreal. I can't imagine what it was like for the team.
It was easy to see that the team would take a significant jump, but no one ever never thought they would reach these heights.
In contention for a conference championship? Sure.
Having the longest active winning streak in the country? Being ranked for the first time in program history? Winning a national tourney game? Reaching the Final Four? Definitely not.
I remember a packed FAU Arena in November 2021 in an early-season matchup against the University of Miami. The Owls were heavy underdogs against a South Florida powerhouse, but still took them to the limit, losing by a buzzer-beater.
This was one of the first games that fans and I alike saw how competitively FAU could play a top program and the infancy of what players like Alijah Martin would become. A freshman at the time, Martin scored 17 points with six rebounds.
Loss aside, it seemed like they were destined in the very near future to upset a big-name program. It happened the next season against another big Sunshine State program in the University of Florida.
It was inevitable this team would make some noise, but people thought it might be an anomaly.
Obviously, it wasn’t, and the rest is history.
Even with the abrupt, upsetting ending to the season, let’s take a moment to realize that you witnessed history.
For May, he said that it was important for the team to be selfless, and even besides the sports element, these players are going to excel outside of basketball.
How impressive it is for 18- to 22-year-olds to never — we talked about, they never felt themselves. They're all about the work, the process, doing it together. Different guys stepped up each and every night.
Getting college students ready for the 'real world'
“So the wins, the banners, all the stuff, the young guys chase that stuff. I'm just proud to be a part of this group and to see them — they're ready for the real world. That's our job when they're done here,” May said. “The winning's awesome, but these guys, they're going to go into the real world and be ready to knock it out of the park.
"So just proud to be a member of this team with this group. When I look at a picture, man, I'm going to smile at the contributions from so many people because there's a lot of guys in that locker room, staff, players, who really did it together.”Who knows what next season will bring, but May and the rest of the team, they’re ready to run it back.
FAU can serve as an inspiration not just for smaller teams looking to make a major impact but for individuals who are looking to overcome larger-than-life obstacles. The Owls were perceived as David and everybody else was Goliath. All it takes is one stone from a sling to shock everybody.
The story has inspired me from a reporter’s point of view, and I have no doubt it’s been a motivating ride for fans equally.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: FAU basketball's inspiring rise through the eyes of local reporter
