Dave Hyde: Is FAU’s end of season the end of Dusty May’s era, too?

Dusty May watched the final seconds disappear Friday, walked to midcourt for the good-sport handshake, and you expected the screen to go dark, the credits to roll and then some heartfelt words appear. A postscript.

May provided the words, too.

“I’d like to express some gratitude to this group for taking so many on a great ride,’’ the Florida Atlantic men’s basketball coach said after a 77-65 loss to Northwestern in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Isn’t that it? Doesn’t that sum up the past two years for anyone watching the FAU program?

Sometimes the magic is on the other side. Northwestern wasn’t too good Friday as much as too tough, too hungry. They made the biggest play to send the game to overtime and created the big moments from there, just as Florida Atlantic did all last tournament in its run to the Final Four.

Or May said: “Did it go all our way (Friday?) No. But it went our way last year.”

That’s best way to see it, even if it hurt a little. It wasn’t just this loss so much as probably represents the end of this particular show at FAU. The full cast of starters who returned from last year’s Final Four trip will move on now.

The question is May, if it’s in fact a question. There were rumors he was up for the Ohio State job before the Buckeyes promoted an assistant. Now the whispers say Louisville and Michigan are interested in him. Why wouldn’t they be?

May took a team that had been to one NCAA Tournament in its history to back-to-back tournaments, including that noted Final Four. He’s a Midwestern kid, too, bordering both states while weaned on Bobby Knight’s Indiana team.

Schools would be crazy not to consider him.

He’d be crazier not to go, if the offer comes.

This is his moment. Sometimes that moment to land the big contract, coach at the big school and achieve a career hope only comes along once. The previous FAU coach to reach a NCAA Tournament in 2002, Sidney Green, returned with the idea of building up the program and his name even more. He was fired three years later.

FAU rode last year to playing in national tournaments this season. The Owls sold out every home game. They put in a second row of courtside seats. FAU did everything to maximize the fun of that Final Four trip, right down to reaching the tournament again.

The disappointing part of Friday’s end is it didn’t feel representative of what this team accomplished. It’s one thing to lose, as happens especially in one-and-done tournaments like this.

But FAU had a season-low 20 points at half. It committed a season-high 21 turnovers in the game. It had the ball and a two-point lead with under 30 seconds to play in regulation and couldn’t take the day.

“Credit to them,’’ May said of Northwestern. “They were statistically better at every facet of the game, and we weren’t at our best. They made the plays when they needed to.”

Then came an overtime where Northwestern ran FAU off the court.

“This is the first time we’ve lost consecutive games this year,’’ May said. “It’s the first time we lost in double digits in a long, long time. We looked a little bit out of gas in overtime and emotionally spent.”

Senior guard Bryan Greenlee said afterward players were taking a moment in the locker room to consider what they’ve accomplished.

“I can sit here and appreciate these past two years, especially,’’ he said. “But the whole time I’ve been here it’s been about building something from the ground up. It’s disappointing (to lose Friday), but you’ve got to appreciate even making the tournament.”

May sat behind a microphone, said he loved his players, and said a loss like this was as much as the experience as all those big wins last year.

“I wish I’d coached better in the offseason and in practice,’’ he said. “I’ve been doing this 20 years, and I don’t think I’ve ever ended a season where I’ve been disappointed I didn’t coach better.”

It felt like more than the end of a season at FAU. It felt like the end of a good movie, right down to May saying how he appreciated going on this great ride with his players.