Bryan Greenlee reflects on transfer from Minnesota to Florida Atlantic

In 2019, Bryan Greenlee was a freshman at Minnesota and appeared in 19 games. He then entered the transfer portal and wound up at Florida Atlantic, nearly 300 miles from his hometown of Gainesville, and he’s spent the last three years with the Owls.

Suffice to say, that move worked out pretty well.

Greenlee has played a key role for Florida Atlantic over the last three years, starting 87 of the 94 games in which he appeared since transferring. This year, he’s averaging 7.4 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game — helping FAU to a 35-3 overall record and, of course, an impressive run to the Final Four to captivate the nation.

It’s a far cry from his 19 appearances and 0.3 point per game average at Minnesota. Now playing such a big role at Florida Atlantic, Greenlee said it was all about fit. Add in his familiarity with coach Dusty May, and it was a perfect match.

“You’re asking how the transferring opened opportunity? Honestly, I just think it was in God’s hands,” Greenlee said. “I played at Minnesota my freshman year. And it just wasn’t the right fit. I learned from it. And when I came to Florida Atlantic, I’m from Florida, so it just seemed to be the perfect fit.

“I had a previous relationship with Coach [Dusty] May from high school. And I just stuck with it, honestly. I was somewhere where I could play, somewhere where I had a good group of teammates. We just had to start from somewhere and continue to trust each other and build.”

But he almost ended up somewhere else after leaving Minnesota. During his transfer process, Greenlee committed to San Diego. However, at some point shortly thereafter, Florida Atlantic made him an offer and he ended up committing.

“When I entered the transfer portal, I obviously was weighing out all of my options,” Greenlee said. “And when I committed to San Diego, I didn’t have the FAU offer yet. So I guess the situation happened before I got here, maybe like in the summertime at FAU, and it opened up a spot. And I got a call. And I just talked it over with my parents and it was the right fit.”

Now, Greenlee and the Owls are preparing to play on college basketball’s biggest stage. They’ll take on No. 5 seed San Diego State in the Final Four Saturday at 6:09 p.m. ET on CBS.