Basketball in paradise was back in full force Saturday afternoon, as the first preseason game of the Jakus era against Saint Leo finished in a dominating 104-53 victory. Albeit a scrimmage against a D2 team, the Owls displayed a lot of traits that emulate a winning program and although there are things to be ironed out prior to the season, this was an encouraging start to the preseason slate.

The Owls found a way to win by 50, despite shooting only 4 of 20 from downtown, dominating in the paint against an undersized Saint Leo squad, finishing with 84 of their 104 points from either in the paint or at the charity stripe. Although the Owls struggled from deep, the conversation in the FAU huddle was to trust their shooting, which even though the Owls found a way to win tonight FAU Coach John Jakus says will still be their mantra going forward.

“I'd be lying if I said that's what we said, (shifting the approach from shooting to paint centric) we probably said the opposite. Isaiah at one point, said we got to trust our three, we're going to have to play defenses hard and make threes and we're going to have to be in good enough shape for that to happen. So, we'd probably look at the stat sheet and say we wanted at least 30 threes put up today, so we're 10 behind that. We've shot good all summer, I expect we're going to do that coming around the corner, but we want to shoot the three, we’re not going to back down from that,” Jakus said.



Matas Vokietaitis had his way down low, finishing with 23 points on 8/10 shooting, while veteran Owl Tre Carroll (pictured above via Dylan Vo) put up 21 points on 9 of 12 shooting, which if it happened in a regular season game it would have surpassed his previous career high of 11. For Vokietaitis it was a dominating display, albeit against undersized competition, as he showed an ability to be mobile in the paint with a solid handle on the basketball.

Tre Carroll put on his best performance ever in an Owl uniform, contributing in ways that he has in the past, however in this one he took it to a different level. Carroll at times was the primary ball handler on a possession, even going coast to coast and using a spin move to attack the basket and drawing a foul, while he also hit a step back triple off of a screen, finding a way to contribute in and outside of the paint.

Jakus was overjoyed with Carroll’s decision to stick with the program during the transition this summer and he said his performance today was a result of the Owls executing positionless basketball, and in turn finding Carroll mismatches which he capitalized on.

“Tre has done a great job, and the first thing that Tre did is he said yes to us, and he stayed, and then a couple other people in Dev and Jakel followed, and Jack obviously did the same. So I'm really thankful for that. Then we got to player development, and I think from the time Tre’s been in high school, he's been a mismatch guy. He's not a position guy, and that's where basketball is going. It's a positionless game. And so for Tre, whether it was at the four or five, I just think he always got a mismatch. So if it's a smaller guy, he can drive and bump, spin at the hoop, like, turn it into a little post up. Against a bigger guy, he can just cut and move in space, and big guys can't keep up with him. So we're thankful for that. We're just going to keep trying to find good mismatches for him,” Jakus said.

It wasn’t just the Carroll and Vokietaitis show, as the Owls finished with 5 scorers in double figures and 10 total players in the score column. On the other end, FAU was able to come away with 12 steals and at times executed a press that at times suffocated the Saint Leo offense.

The Owls tested a lot of different things defensively, switching between zone and man, however the press was something Jakus noted succeeded in part due to the length that the Owls have, which is something that could cause problems for opposition this season. In their first game as a team which featured a lot of players making their Owl debut, FAU assisted on 18 of 38 field goals which checks in at 48 % and that may seem high, however John Jakus believes they can get that higher moving forward along with the amount of steals they had on the other end.

“I thought besides, the threes, the steals, was the other thing we thought was low. So if you look at our field goal attempts, the assist percentage was down, but we should have taken the ball away from them more often, especially on the rotation steals. We're a half second behind on those. So can we do it against anybody? We're going to find out, but we're not going to back off. We're going to definitely try to get those and keep trying to rotate and steal the basketball,” Jakus said.



This was the first time that this version of FAU played together in live action and it went about as well as it could possibly go in terms of the outcome, winning in dominating fashion in front of the home fans. From a coaches perspective however, there are always things which can be improved upon and against higher levels of resistance, little things like spacing will help improve the offense as a whole.

The Owls were able to dominate late in this game, out scoring Saint Leo 49-24 in the second half, but the final few minutes of this game is where Jakus believes his team looked their best, getting out in transition and finding a rhythm.

“When you're trying to play 10 guys and there’s constant subbing, there's gonna be times where there's a lack of rhythm. And I thought our spacing is something that we can work on. Sometimes guys are running into each other. If we can get to proper spacing, I think the Assists will follow. And if you just look at like the last four to five minutes you finally saw a rhythm, Nico had some pitch-a-heads, we had some ball screen reads that led to open threes. I was hoping for Jack Johnson to make that one, but on the whole I think that's something we can work on. We've been good in practice at passing, but that's something we can improve after today,” Jakus said.

Today was the first live action of this new version of FAU hoops and although it wasn’t a total sellout, the student section was at least 50% full, which in turn brought a ton of energy that the Owls were able to feed off of.

The late game swag surf was in effect, the flamingos were out in full force, and outside of the Student section, the Boca community including a ton of families showed out, and because of it Jakus had a moment where he realized he was happy to be here and once the regular season comes around Jakus hopes FAU can continue their home sellout streak.

“I think I'm just finally thankful to be here. You guys don't see what our staff had to do, the six months, first three or four without our lives living in a frat house somewhere in the area, recruiting constantly, having 15 visits back to back to back, no days off. You do all that so you can play. And we chose to come here because we believe that in the regular season, there's a 21 game sellout streak. And I know the season tickets are sold out, and we want that to stay. And I hope today we showed enough that the fans will come in the regular season and give us the same thing they've done the last 21 games,” Jakus said.



Now with only 1 game remaining until the Owls start their regular season in Xenia Ohio against Indiana State, attention turns to what FAU has to do to replicate and improve upon their performance from today. Although there is still film that has to be watched, 3 point shooting has to be improved upon and Jakus believes that can come from working on other things in practice such as defensive rotations.

“Offensively, our fundamentals were great. I mean, Six turnovers in a 40 minute game, that's excellent. Defensively, I think we made some mistakes in our rotations. And I would say if we really want to win the way we want to, we're going to have to defensive rebound and turn people over more. So that's probably still going to be the focus. We'll just do it in a way where they get their legs back underneath them, and we'll shoot some threeS this week,” Jakus said.

FAU will have 5 days off before taking on Auburn on the road in a charity scrimmage on November 1st, which will be the final tune up game before the regular season starts on November 4th where the Owls will take on Indiana State from the John Wooden Family Fieldhouse, which is a neutral site in Xenia Ohio.


(Photo Via Dylan Vo)

Previous In-game updates

16 Minute timeout

The Owls made their presence known early, specifically Matas Vokietaitis who bullied his way to the first 7 points of the game for the Owls, all in the paint. He tried to make it 9, however missed a chip shot near the rim, however Baba Miller was right their to clean it up. A few possessions later Ken Evans Jr snapped the bully ball streak with the first 3 pointer of the John Jakus Era, which put the Owls up 12-5 with 16:52 to play. The Owls made their first subs of the game shortly after, subbing in Kaleb Glenn for Baba Miller and Nico Moretti for Kyky Tandy and Glenn rewarded them, getting fouled on a tip in near the rim and he converted on both free throws, giving the Owls a 14-5 with 16:23 remaining.

Saint Leo was able to convert on a layup and they were fouled, making the score 14-7 at the 16 minute timeout.

12 minute timeout

The Owls upped the defensive pressure coming out of the 16 minute timeout, forcing 3 steals and scoring on 2 of them as Devin Vanterpool and Nico Morretti went coast to coast of steal attempts. The defensive intensity was forcing problems for Saint Leo and it helped the Owls open up a 9 point lead on the other end, as Tre Carroll scored down low to extend the Owls lead to 20-11 with 13:22 remaining which was the score heading into the 12 minute timeout.

8 Minute timeout

FAU began to open this one up in between the 12 and 8 minute timeouts, as the Owls went on an 11-0 run that spanned over 3 minutes which grew the Owls lead to 29-11 with 10:42 remaining. 7 of those 11 points for the Owls came off a fast break and here early the Owls have been extremely active defensively and its helped them immensely. Through the first 12 minutes of play the Owls had 5 steals and scored off 3 of them and they also had 5 offensive rebounds. FAU was also getting whatever they wanted down low, scoring 22 of their first 31 points from the painted area and giving Saint Leo a really tough time.

4 minute timeout

The game began to get away from Saint Leo in between the 8 and 4 minute timeouts, as the Lions went on a drought which started with 6:45 remaining and was still ongoing as the teams went to a timeout with 3:27 to play in the first half. That sparked an 8-0 run for the Owls, 6 of which came in the paint and the other 2 came on a Vokietaitis pair of free throws which he converted. The Owls were finding Baba Miller and Matas Vokieaitis down low and they were getting whatever they want. At the u-4 timeout, Miller was 3 of 3 with 6 points and 4 rebounds, while Matas had 15 points on 6/7 shooting with 6 rebounds.

Halftime

The Owls went into the break with a 55-29 lead and that was largely in part to their paint domination, as they scored 48 of their 55 points off of buckets in the paint and free throws. Despite a 1 of 9 mark from downtown, FAU was executing their fast paced offense and getting to the rim with ease, specifically Matas Vokietaitis who had 17 points on 7 of 8 shooting.

The hustle points were also a big factor in the first half as FAU had 6 steals and 6 offensive boards which resulted in a Saint Leo squad which was lacking energy on both ends of the court.



 Second half 16 minute timeout

FAU looked to continue their paint domination to start the second half, and using different players to get down low. Tre Carroll had 2 buckets down low in the first 4 minutes of the second half, while Kaleb Glenn attacked the rim and drew a foul, splitting a pair of free throws. A few possessions later, Ken Evans Jr snapped a cold streak from 3 for the Owls, hitting a 3 from the left corner and extending the owls lead to 63-34 with 15:50 to play. Saint Leo was able to get a bucket down low from Shunta Wilson on the ensuing possession, which made the score 63-36 and that was the score heading into the timeout.

Second Half 12 minute timeout

Matas Vokietaits subbed back in after the media timeout and immediately made his impact, getting to the line and converting on a pair of free throws, extending the Owls lead to 65-36 with 15:27 to play. Baba Miller followed him up a few possessions later with a drive to the basket, which he scored on and grew the Owls lead to 67-36 with 14:43 to play.

It was an attacking mindset as on the next 3 possessions the Owls drew fouls, converting on 4 out of 6 free throws and the last pair from Vokietaitis extended the lead to 71-38, which was the score headed into the U-12 Media timeout with 11:40 remaining.

Second half 8 minute timeout

It was all Owls in the second half and specifically out of the U-12 timeout, as FAU was mixing in a full court press at times which was seriously frustrating Saint Leo. Offensively, Tre Carroll scored the first 5 points out of the 12 minute timeout, including a step-back triple which extended the lead to 74-38 with 11:20 to play.

The Owls were running in transition, and with 8:00 remaining Kaleb Glenn stole a Saint Leo pass and took it coast to coast for a ferocious jam, which put FAU up 83-46 and that was our score headed into the U-8 timeout.

Second half 4 minute timeout

The FAU defense came out of the 8 minute timeout and forced 2 turnovers, which Miller and Glenn converted on going coast to coast in transition. From there, they kept attacking the paint, with Tandy and Carroll drawing fouls on drives to the paint, and Vokietaitis winning a battle down low and throwing down a jam. Carroll's drive and ensuing conversion on 2 free throws gave the Owls a 92-49 lead with 4:21 remaining, which was the score heading into the final media timeout of the day.

 Final 4 minutes

The Owls closed the game looking as dominant as they have all game, getting a Ken Evans triple out of the break. After a Devin Vanterpool second chance bucket, Tre Carroll attacked the basket and converted an and-1 which put the Owls at the century mark, leading 100-49 with 2 minutes to go.

Vanterpool and Carroll each had one more bucket down the stretch however despite the Owls best efforts they were unable to get fan favorite Jack Johnson into the score column. He missed his lone 3 point attempt of the day with 11 seconds remaining, which was the final attempted shot of the game and capped off a 104-53 Owls victory.