Florida Atlantic Head Coach John Jakus met with the media earlier this week, discussing a variety of topics as the Owls look to bounce back from their 2 game losing streak. Jakus gave input on what was lacking during the losing streak, also giving his thoughts on the team’s practice approach, as the Owls look to finish the season strong headed into the AAC tournament.
During the 2 game losing streak, the Owls struggled in a few different areas, assisting and rebounding being 2 areas which they have performed well in as of late and in both games it looked like an early season version of FAU, rather than the team that rattled off 5 wins in a row during AAC play. According to Jakus, the Owls practiced at a really high level heading into the game, but it didn’t translate into in-game decisions that led to victory and that is something the team will work on during practice this week.
“Before our Memphis game, those were two of the best practices that we had. And there’s, there’s a context for that. What we do against each other has been really elite lately, and I think that was shown in the five straight wins. But then there comes this tipping point where sometimes you get comfortable and you think that’s enough. And there’s this, there’s this moment in game where you get challenged and your will is pressed, and you can either break at that moment or you can build up stronger. And that’s a skill, that’s a basketball skill. It doesn’t have anything to do, maybe with shooting, dribbling or passing, not with defense, but yet, it’s such a huge part of the college basketball game. And you know, in that moment you’ve got to pass more, we’ve passed less. In that moment, you’ve got to rebound more. And for two games, we’ve rebounded less. There’s got to be a 5050, ball or deflection that we’re the toughest team or the toughest player makes a play that has nothing to do with talent. And so that’s the skill we continue to work on with these guys. Sometimes experience teaches it, and sometimes coaches teach it. I think the assistants are doing a great job every day trying to breathe that into our guys’ lives as they watch film with them. So we’re hoping for growth to continue in that skill,” Jakus said.
The assist and rebound struggles were truly surprising as they assisted on more than 50% of their made field goals in 4 out of their 5 wins heading into that game, while winning the rebound battle in 9 out of their last 10. It is safe to say that all of a sudden that the Owls haven’t become a selfish team or bad at rebounding, as Tre Carroll, Baba Miller, Kaleb Glenn and Matas Vokietaitis are still a formidable force down low and Nico Moretti comes off the bench with one of the best assist to turnover ratios in the AAC.
The Owls haven’t collapsed in just 2 games, that is why Jakus notes that they can’t let matchups that didn’t favor the Owls define them and they will have to remain unified as they look to bounce back in their next game.
“Coaches always blame players for their shortcomings, but coaches have shortcomings too, and one of the worst mistakes coaches make is we assume a lot of things about our kids, and sometimes we assume in a way where it tends towards negativity. So they stop passing. We say they’re selfish, you know, they stop rebounding. We say they’re soft. I don’t think that’s always the case. I think sometimes there’s match ups, there’s decisions that the other team made scouting wise. And then I think times when people press the thing that they believe in the most is maybe themselves to pull something off, but in those moments, you’ve got to conquer things together. And so I don’t want to blame individuals or come down on something, the key thing is we’ve got to keep them unified, and believe that in those moments, we need five to rebound. We need four or five to pass. It’s not one guy where we’re attacking him for being sucked or selfish. It’s all of us, and it’s part of our identity. And we found an identity for a while, and then, and then we lost it. So I’d be guessing to know exactly what it is, but what we’re not going to do is just play the blame game and not take some responsibility ourselves as coaches. And we’ve got to find a middle ground where we all can we’re going to keep fighting for that. But certainly the assist and the rebounding are two things we probably want to work on quickest this week with North Texas coming up,” Jakus said.
Next up for FAU will be North Texas as the Owls look to bounce back from not only their 2 game losing streak, but also their loss to the Mean Green less than a month ago. Outside of their recent losing skid, the Owls have looked much improved since their loss to UNT, however a lack of assists and struggle down low is something that will play right into the Mean Green’s gameplan.
In their last matchup, Brenen Lorient came off the bench with 16 points and gave the Mean Green a dose of physicality in the second half that they lacked in the first half which they lost by 7, while the Owls finished under 50% from the field and assisted on under half of their made baskets. FAU has given plenty of practice time to stopping the Mean Green defensively and according to Jakus, the Owls will have a new defensive idea or two to throw at Lorient and UNT.
“We have two new ideas, and we practiced both of them. I would say a good solid 40% of the practice was based on our two exceptions. It’s easier to do that in the first game of the week because you’re getting a day off to plan, then you’re getting Tuesday, Wednesday. You play Thursday. It’s harder on that Sunday game because of the travel day. You know, for us. We can’t practice and hop on a private plane and be there. We’ve got to adjust a little bit. So we really only got a day for that Memphis game. But this one, we feel like we had a day to eye wrinkles or exceptions. So I’m not going to tell you what those are, but I will tell you that we tried today,” Jakus said.
Following North Texas will be USF, as the Owls will head to Tampa for a Sunday afternoon matchup at the Yuengling Center, a place they have never won. FAU handled USF fairly well in their matchup at home, winning 94-72 and limiting their big man Jamille Reynolds to 3 of 13 from the field, as the Owls dominated the paint.
According to Jakus, Reynolds has bounced back from an injury he only came back from in that February 2nd matchup and since then he looks to have been playing at a much higher level. He also notes that despite his productive play, their identity is what it is and the Owls will head into Tampa looking to get a road win, something that is never easy.
“Their big kid just came back against us. He had been out. So, you know, sometimes like Temple is going through that with Mashburn, different teams have that moment where their guy comes back and then you wonder, even Wichita State, last week, the guard was back healthy for three minutes, but they chose to stick with the lineup they had been winning with, instead of just inserting them right back in a starting lineup. So USF was having to make that decision with their big kid. I don’t think they have to make that decision this time. So we’ll have to be more ready for him than we were. And then from there, I think there’s some defensive adjustments. They’ve made some pressure that we’ll have to adjust to. But for the most part, their identity is their identity,” Jakus said.
FAU will take on North Texas Thursday at 7 pm on ESPN 2, while they head to USF on Sunday for a Noon matchup with the Bulls, also airing on ESPN 2.