Dusty May’s story begins underground. It starts in the mines of southwestern Indiana, where the coal boom of the late 1800s and early 1900s attracted laborers from surrounding states. More than a century ago, Dusty’s great-grandfather moved from Ohio, pitched a tent in a field in Jasonville, Ind., and went to work as a miner.

Generations of May men followed in that line of work, including Dusty’s dad. Donald “Duck” May worked 27 years in a Greene County coal mine—some of it below ground, some doing surface strip-mining—before retiring. Most of the mines in the area are closed now, but they are the reason the basketball coach of the Final Four–bound Florida Atlantic Owls was born a Hoosier.

There is a lot beneath the surface of 46-year-old Dusty May. Poised, polished and professional in his public life, Dusty doesn’t project the image of a coal miner’s son. Truth be told, he is more of a mama’s boy—Sandy Garrett’s child—in terms of parental influence.

Dusty is the May man who is different. The first one in the family to graduate from a four-year college. The one who blazed his own trail, taking him far away from the hardscrabble limestone hills where he grew up and where most of his relatives still live. The one who is proud of his Hoosier roots, but also aware of the twists those roots have taken underground.

Even now, having this surreal and celebratory moment as the hero coach of a school with no prior history of basketball success, complicated family dynamics are at work on the subterranean level. His parents’ messy divorce when he was a child created fissures that were not easily closed. Being a rising star in his profession doesn’t make Dusty immune to something millions of people can relate to.

Like weddings, graduations, births and funerals, a surprise Final Four is the kind of major life event that can bring submerged situations back to the surface. There is pride but estrangement for some in Greene County. Opportunism could be in play. The inner circle starts to expand during exciting times like this, and that can become awkward.

Everyone back home is rooting for Dusty, and he’s grateful for that. There are just differing layers of loyalty and connection.