Why Richard Williams is pulling for Dusty May, FAU basketball in NCAA Final Four

STARKVILLE — Former Mississippi State basketball coach Richard Williams usually doesn’t care who’s playing in the Final Four. If it’s last season’s field with blue bloods Duke, North Carolina, Villanova and Kansas, Williams is going to watch. If the Final Four is San Diego State, Florida Atlantic, Miami and Connecticut, nothing changes.

Williams is a basketball junkie, so he doesn’t need to have a rooting interest to watch a champion get crowned at the conclusion of March Madness in the NCAA Tournament. However, this week he admits he has a team he’s pulling for.

“I want FAU to win it,” Williams told the Clarion Ledger. “I’m emotionally involved with this tournament much more than any tournament I’ve watched – except when we were in it.”

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Williams is good friends with FAU coach Dusty May – a relationship stemming back further than Williams remembers.

In the late 1990s, after Williams retired from coaching, he took a trip to Indiana to watch coach Bob Knight. He spent three days with the Hoosiers as they went through the process of preparing to face Ohio State.

Williams was impressed with the intensity of IU’s prep, from Knight’s approach in practice to the work ethic of the student managers. When he walked into the coaches locker room inside Assembly Hall, Williams said there were 13 VHS tapes of Buckeyes film compiled by the managers.

Among those managers was May, who has since become one of the most intriguing young coaches in the game.

While Williams doesn’t recall meeting May then, their paths crossed again in 2008 when their friendship truly took off. Mike Davis – a former Knight assistant – was the coach at UAB (2006-12).

He hired May onto his staff in 2007, and the following year Williams was added as a consultant/director of operations. The two overlapped for a couple seasons in Birmingham before moving to Louisiana Tech where Kerry Rupp – a former IU and UAB assistant – was the coach.

May spent six seasons with the Bulldogs while Williams spent one, but their relationship stayed strong.

“He’d come through Mississippi recruiting, and he’d stop at my house,” Williams said. “We’d go to Newk’s. They didn’t have a Newk’s in Ruston, Louisiana, and he loves Newk’s. The Newk’s ‘Q’ sandwich is his favorite. Then, we might drink a cold beer at the house, hang out and talk basketball.”

May’s passion for the game’s fundamental always stood out to Williams. Along with a strong knowledge of fundamentals, Williams felt May succeeded at teaching those skills to his players.

“You watch (Knight) practice every day for four years,” Williams said, “you can’t help but learn basketball.”

Williams says he and May talk a couple times a year, including a conversation they had Wednesday. They discussed the upcoming weekend in which Williams, who led Mississippi State to a Final Four in 1996, made clear it’s difficult to anticipate what the experience is like.

“There’s no way the first time you go that you can be prepared,” Williams said. “You cannot be prepared for the media coverage all of a sudden you’re going to get, the ticket requests, people think you have access to hotels, all kinds of stuff.”

But May is doing his best to prepare as much as possible. He has called various coaches and compiled a list of things to know, according to Williams. It’s a testament to May’s willingness to seek wisdom while balancing an obvious confidence his team has carried through its run.

“They all believe that they should be there and win the thing,” Williams said. “Whether they will or not, I don’t know. I hope they do.”

Stefan Krajisnik is the Mississippi State beat writer for the Clarion Ledger. Contact him at skrajisnik@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @skrajisnik3.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: FAU basketball, Dusty May have Final Four fan in Richard Williams