What: FAU vs Charlotte
When: Thursday, March 23th, 2:30 PM EST
Where: Dickies Arena, Fort Worth TX
Series: FAU Leads 10-7
TV: ESPN U
Radio: Fox 640
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Line: FAU -9.5
Ken Pom Prediction: FAU 80 Charlotte 71
Owls at a Glance
Offense – 79.3 PPG, 46.5% FG, 35.6% 3PT
Defense – 75.5 PPGA, 43.1% FGA, 37.0% 3PTA
Rebounding – 37.0 RPG Owls, 36.2 RPG Opponents
FAU Notes
Florida Atlantic Men’s basketball’s postseason will begin Thursday afternoon at 2:30 PM as the Owls head to Fort Worth for a battle with Charlotte in the second round of the AAC tournament. The 5th seeded Owls have defeated the 13th seeded 49ers twice already this season, however Charlotte will head into this game with a momentum boost following their round one victory over Rice.
FAU heads into this match up with a bit of momentum in their own right, as they closed out the regular season with a dominating victory over East Carolina and they will look to bring some of that success with them to Fort Worth. Finding their groove early will be key, as although FAU has shown resilience this season and overcame struggles, avoiding those struggles has been an issue at times.
On the offensive side of things, the Owls lived up to a lot of the hype that was built around the offense during the offseason, as they’re currently top 100 in the country in effective field goal percentage (53.7%, 64th), 3-point percentage (35.5%, 85th), 2-point percentage (54%, 74th) and assist rate (56.4%, 74th). At times the offense has struggled with streaky shooting performances and on paper their weak spots are turnover percentage (16.7%, 149th) and offensive rebound percentage (30.5%, 164th).
Defensively, the Owls main issue this year has been their perimeter defense, but as of late that has been on the rise, as they are currently at 342nd in the nation allowing 37.1%, which is up from the 360s that they were in for a majority of AAC play and if the perimeter defense continues improving, that will make them a tough unit to score against, as they currently have the 29th ranked 2-point defense, allowing teams only 46.6% on 2’s. Outside of perimeter defense, the Owls have struggled with forcing turnovers and limiting offensive rebounds, as they currently have a turnover percentage of 16.3% which is 239th and an offensive rebound allowed percentage of 31.7% which is 278th.
On the year, the Owls are led by Kaleb Glenn, who is averaging 12.8 points and 4.9 rebounds a game and he is joined in double figures by Tre Carroll (12.2 PPG 5.5 RPG) and Baba Miller (11.2 PPG 7.0 RPG, 2.7 assists). Against ECU, the Owls had 4 scorers in double figures and in FAU’s 2 previous matchups against Charlotte they have had at least 5 players score 7 or more points in both games.
The Owls ball movement was flawless in their last game against ECU, leading to an offense that looked as high powered as it has all year, while on the defensive side of things they held the Pirates to under 30% from the field and under 20% from 3, locking them up for a majority of the game. If FAU gets an offensive performance like it did against ECU, Charlotte is going to struggle to keep up, however if the Owls really want to seal the deal they will have to contain Nik Graves as much as possible as if he has an off day that limits the 49er offense as a whole.
John Jakus media availability quotables:
On Leland Walker:
“He’s healthy. You’ll see him. That was a one game thing,” Jakus said.
On preparing for both Rice and Charlotte:
“For us, our assistant AD (Aditya Malhotra) has got rice. Demond (Parker) has Charlotte. Second thing is, we spent a little bit on both. We did a mini scout for both teams in the middle section of our practice. We did better development breakdowns, mini scout for both rice and Charlotte, and then we moved on to playing. So we’re ahead of schedule, and then we’ll can scout in a hotel room or a ballroom, which is what everybody has to do this time of year anyway, but we scouted both today,” Jakus said.
49ers at a Glance
Offense – 70.9 PPG, 42.3% FG, 31.2% 3PT
Defense – 74.9 PPGA, 48.1% FGA, 33.2% 3PTA
Rebounding – 31.3 RPG Owls, 34.7 RPG Opponents
Charlotte Notes
Charlotte heads into this game fighting to stay alive, as after a 10-21 regular season which had them dead last going into the AAC tournament, the 49ers will match-up with FAU after a round one victory over Rice. It was a ferocious comeback victory for Charlotte, as they were trailing by double figures at halftime before storming back to knock off the Texas Owls in Fort Worth.
This is a very gritty Charlotte squad, as although they don’t have many overbearing strengths, they do a lot of the little things correctly and it leads to them being in close games, as against Rice despite a poor shooting night, they assisted on over 50% of their shots and forced 10 Rice turnovers on the other end. The 49ers do have an x-factor in their senior G Nik Graves and he will be someone to keep an eye on in the round 2 matchup against FAU.
Offensively, it has been a rough go of it in many areas for Charlotte this season, as they are currently outside the top 200 in numerous statistics such as, effective FG % (48.5%, 288th), offensive rebound percentage (25.3%, 315th), 3-point percentage (31.2%, 311th) and 2-point percentage (49.8%, 237th). The strengths for Charlotte have been not turning it over and their ability to get to the line, which reflects their scrappiness, as they currently have a turnover percentage of 15.1% which is 42nd in the country and a FT Rate of 43% which is 12th in the nation.
On the defensive side of things, it hasn’t been much better as they’re also outside the top 200 in many areas such as, EFG% allowed (54.3%, 326th), turnover percentage forced (14.7%, 327th), 2-point percentage allowed (56.4%, 348th), and allowed FT Rate (36.2%, 269th). There hasn’t been many strengths for the 49ers defense, however they do limit teams from assisting the ball, currently 35th in the nation with a A/FGM of 45.8%.
Overall on the year, Charlotte is led by G Nik Graves, who is averaging 17.6 points and 4.1 rebounds a game and he is joined in double figures by Giancarlo Rosado (11.4 PPG 5.9 RPG) and Robert Braswell (11 PPG 2.5 RPG). Graves is a special player for the 49ers and he possesses the ability to take over a game and if he’s hit against FAU, Charlotte will have a chance.
This is going to be an uphill battle for the 49ers, as they’ve already lost to FAU twice this season, lacking the defense to slow the Owls down and the offense to keep up. If Charlotte is going to pull off the upset in this one they will have to get a big game from Graves and Rosado, while on the other end finding ways to limit FAU’s open 3 point looks, if they do both of those things they will have a shot, but they will need to execute down the stretch.