DENVER — It was a somewhat new feeling for Dusty May.

The Michigan head coach, locked into a close first-round game against UC San Diego, couldn’t help but notice that nearly everyone in Ball Arena not in Wolverines garb was rooting against his team.

“We’ve been in these and you feel it. It got loud in there tonight,” May said after the 68-65 win last Thursday. “I was impressed with how many people were pulling against us.”

May then joked that, as the No. 5-seeded team taking on No. 4-seeded Texas A&M two days later, he expected otherwise neutral fans to pick them as the team to root for. And two days later, when the matchup arrived, he approached Wisconsin fans, whose game was later that evening, and asked for their support.

“I bartered with them and said: ‘I promise you that if you cheer for us and give us a little jolt, we’ll rally the troops across the way and be Badger fans in Game 2,’ ” May said.

All of this is different to May. Well, winning in March isn’t new. But doing it as the favorite creates a different dynamic than what the first-year head coach of the Wolverines is used to.

May’s last big NCAA Tournament came two years ago, when he led Florida Atlantic to the Final Four, a heartbreaking buzzer-beater away from a national championship game. In that environment — save for a second-round game against Fairleigh Dickinson — his team was the underdog.

FAU was the great story that everyone gravitated toward. Michigan is a storied program — eight trips to the Final Four, 32 NCAA Tournament trips and a name brand recognition of their university.

FAU’s run was magical because it had only been to the NCAA Tournament one other time, 21 years prior. Two years ago, May’s team came out of nowhere to capture the hearts of a neutral audience that is no longer partial to his new team.

“In my mind, there is no underdog,” said Vladislav Goldin, the Michigan center who also starred on that FAU team. “I’ve been in a Final Four as an underdog, and as soon as you relax, as soon as you think somebody’s better than you, you’re going to lose.

“If you’re in March Madness, you deserve to be here, and all the teams are great. You cannot think you’re the underdog or the favorite.”

Goldin is the player who makes Michigan the favorite. This program might be far more high-profile than FAU. But when May took over, he had less to work with roster-wise than what he’d left in Boca Raton.

Michigan was coming off a 3-17 Big Ten season, ranked 128th in KenPom and a spot ahead of Tarleton State. It was a roster full of players who either graduated or transferred. May built it from scratch, and he opted to build with the player who got him here.

“That’s where I wanted to start this program,” May said of Goldin.

Added Goldin: “I chose to be here because of the relationship we built together. And that’s something that I personally take pride in, that we were able to build that type of relationship. I’m happy to be his player.”

Even though Goldin makes it clear that he believes underdogs do not exist within the confines of March Madness, it’s hard to argue that his and May’s stories aren’t about the little guys turning into the top dogs.

Goldin started at Texas Tech, where he played in just 10 games. He then transferred to a mid-major, where he hoped to get more of an opportunity. May spent 14 seasons as an assistant coach all over the country before finally getting his shot at FAU, a program that hadn’t had a winning conference record in eight seasons.

That’s why when FAU reached the NCAA Tournament, it was the darling. The Palm Beach Post, the school’s hometown paper, dubbed them “America’s Team” amid their historic run.

Now, Goldin is a first-team All-Big Ten player, and May is a household name among college basketball fans. They’re no longer the underdogs and might have more hometown support. But May himself has been forced to plead with other fans to have his team’s back.

Even if their success doesn’t elicit the same reaction, he’s proven that what they accomplished at FAU was no fluke.

“Coming here knowing the success that he had, inspiring us to better our games and expand on our individual games, then being team players, locking into winning,” said Michigan guard Nimari Burnett, the lone returning starter from last season. “He definitely put a great group together around us to turn the page this year.”

Before the game against Texas A&M, May was asked what he views as the future of the Cinderella run. This NCAA Tournament is devoid of one; all 16 teams that remain come from one of the four power conferences.

There is no FAU. There is no America’s team. There are only varying degrees of favorites and blue bloods. In the NIL era, where top mid-major players and coaches get poached, it could become more challenging for smaller schools to have significant success.

And May is the perfect person to answer that question, as someone who understands Cinderella runs and is learning what life is like afterward.

There’s still a place for a Cinderella in this sport, he said. And in a one-game, winner-take-all, there will always be a chance for the shocking upset that brings fans together. But, he noted, it’s changed. And it might never go back.

“There’s not going to be as many Cinderella stories,” May said. “There’s always going to be a group of underdogs that are able to play with anybody because they’re overlooked, and maybe because they’re not as tall or muscular; they don’t jump as high. I don’t think there’s going to be as many of them.”