After a magical run to the Final Four in 2023, plus another NCAA Tournament bid this year, Florida Atlantic coach Dusty May has been a hot candidate for openings at Power Five schools.
May specifically has been mentioned as a top possibility at Louisville, which fired former Knicks assistant Kenny Payne after two seasons with a 12-52 record.
There also presently are vacancies at Michigan, West Virginia, Vanderbilt and other larger programs than FAU.
“I try not to get caught up in it,” the 47-year-old said at Barclays Center, where his Owls will face Northwestern on Friday. “It is distracting, but our job is to compartmentalize what we are supposed to be doing.
“But also add on that Instagram is distracting, Twitter is distracting, having your kids with you watching movies while you are trying to watch film is distracting. We all have a lot of distractions, and we all have a job to do, and that is to prepare to play our best against Northwestern.”
Duke coach Jon Scheyer said key freshman guard Caleb Foster will miss the tournament with a stress fracture in his ankle.
“My heart breaks for Caleb,” Scheyer said. “There’s no replacing Caleb. He’s got a big heart. He’s a tough competitor and he’s just somebody that makes everybody better on the floor.
“Unfortunately we’ve had to play without him since the Wake Forest game [Feb. 24], and there’s no replacing him. But we have really capable players off the bench.”
Duke (24-8) dropped its regular-season finale to North Carolina and its first game in the ACC Tournament against N.C. State for a 4-seed, and now has a first-round matchup against America East champion Vermont.
Junior guard and Rockville Centre (Long Island) product TJ Long is the leading scorer for the No. 13 Vermont Catamounts after transferring in from Fairfield.
“I rooted against Duke [growing up] because most of my friends were Duke fans,” Long said. “From the area, I was a big St. John’s fan, and I also was a big Kansas fan.”
Top-seeded UConn’s first opponent, Stetson, is making its first tournament appearance since becoming a Division I program in basketball in 1971.
“It means everything, the excitement — 53 years we have been Division I, to have a chance to come here on this platform,” Hatters coach Donnie Jones said. “We’ve been known for our academic excellence and we’ve had some success in other sports, baseball, and women’s basketball. But men’s basketball just had not been to this platform.”
Former Cy Young winners Jacob deGrom and Corey Kluber played baseball at Stetson.
Sun Belt champion James Madison enters with a 31-3 mark, tied with UConn for the most wins in the tournament ahead of the No. 12 Dukes’ No. 12 matchup against No. 5 Wisconsin.
“When you get into this, you’re obviously going to face a really good opponent,” Badgers coach Greg Gard said. “I saw James Madison on the very first night of the regular season when they won at Michigan State. They obviously caught the nation’s attention and they’ve had a phenomenal year.”