Behind the scenes with FAU: How the Owls prepared for the NCAA tournament

And that’s when anxiety was replaced by, well, more anxiety.

For FAU, the next 114 hours — from the moment the team was selected to tipoff against Northwestern at Barclays Center in New York on Friday afternoon — were a study in organized chaos. Logistics needed to be worked out, a scouting report had to be prepared from scratch, a game plan was installed and then it was time to finally play Northwestern.

May didn’t stick around to watch the rest of the selection show Sunday night. Once he found out the opponent, it was time to work — a news conference, several interviews with television stations, a lot of phone calls, then a lot more phone calls.

“I had a brief celebration with the guys to see their happiness and their joy, because it is special,” May said. “March Madness is special.”

The interviews were done by 7 p.m. By 7:15, May took a seat with members of his staff at a small conference room-type table in the men’s basketball suite at the school’s arena. Laptops were out, Northwestern games were being watched, film was getting studied. The building was otherwise empty.

May was asleep by 1 a.m. The alarm went off at 6:15 a.m. Monday. By 7 a.m., he was back in the office. Such was the schedule for the next couple days before the team left Wednesday afternoon for New York.

“Getting five hours sleep, that’s good for me,” May said as he picked at a mid-afternoon lunch of sushi doused with a little bit of soy sauce, then some shrimp and brown rice, with a new NCAA tournament sweatsuit still in the packaging on his desk. “Especially at this time of year.”

May delegates much of the little — but still important — details. His wife has a group text with his family, friends, even college buddies to go over what they needed for tickets for New York. KT Harrell, the team’s director of basketball operations, was tasked with the travel arrangements.

“A lot of what was needed, I went through last year,” Harrell said. “This year, I was ready.”

The first practice Monday had a new twist. FAU guard Johnell Davis had the idea for all the players to bring their commemorative basketballs from last season’s Final Four to practice. The reason: they were the type that would be used in the NCAA tournament, unlike the Adidas balls FAU usually uses at home. So, they were pumped up with tons of air — again, resembling new, slick NCAA basketballs – and used in practice.

“We just want to get used to it,” FAU guard Jalen Gaffney said. “Smart….