What: FAU vs Tulane
When: Friday, March 14th, 3:00 PM EST
Where: Dickies Arena, Fort Worth TX
Series: Tulane Leads 6-2
TV: ESPN 2
Radio: Fox 640
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Line: FAU -3.5
Ken Pom Prediction: FAU 77 Tulane 74
Owls at a Glance
Offense – 78.8 PPG, 46.6% FG, 35.4% 3PT
Defense – 75.0 PPGA, 42.9% FGA, 36.5% 3PTA
Rebounding – 36.9 RPG Owls, 36.1 RPG Opponents
FAU Notes
After a win in Round 2 of the AAC tournament, Florida Atlantic Men’s basketball survives and advances to face Tulane in the quarterfinal round Friday afternoon. This will be the second matchup of the season between these two squads, as Tulane defeated FAU 80-65 back on January 15th, however a lot has changed since then.
The Owls battled through a tough shooting performance in round 2 of the AAC tournament, overcoming 16 of 30 shooting from the charity stripe and 2 of 10 shooting from 3 to defeat Charlotte 64-59. On the offensive side of things, the Owls used a paint centric approach to overcome their poor shooting, outscoring Charlotte 42-18 in the paint, while on the defensive side of things they held Charlotte to 35% from the field and 25% from 3.
The inconsistencies from the charity stripe have been a unfortunate normality for FAU this season, as they’re currently 254th in the nation averaging 70.1% from the line, however the Owls are a top 100 3 point shooting team, averaging 35.3 percent which is 96th but they found a way to overcome 20% mark they achieved today. The Owls only turned it over 7 times against Charlotte, aligned with their 16.6% turnover rate which is 136th and the key was their interior scoring, which matches up with their season average of 54.1% on 2’s which is 68th.
On the defensive side of things, FAU made things difficult for Charlotte, holding them to only 18 in the paint which coincides with their seasonal average of 46.5% allowed on 2’s, good for 29th in the nation. FAU held Charlotte to 25% from 3 and because of it their allowed 3 point percentage which has been the biggest struggle this season is up to 332nd in the nation at 36.7% allowed.
Because of the Owls paint centric approach, they capitalized on their size and were led by Matas Vokietaitis (17), Baba Miller (13) and Tre Carroll (12) against Charlotte. In the quarterfinals against Tulane, the Owls need to find their stroke from beyond the arc and expect KyKy Tandy, Leland Walker and Kaleb Glenn all to get going early against the Green Wave.
In the Owls last matchup against Tulane, they were hurt by a second half surge from the Green Wave where they attacked the paint and got to the line 27 times, fending off a second half comeback from the Owls with that and a 25 point performance from Kaleb Banks. The Owls hit only 6 of their 26 triples against Tulane in that one and they weren’t able to counteract the Green Wave’s aggressive approach offensively and in this one the Owls will need to find a way to bounce back from 3.
This is a winnable matchup for FAU, however they need to find their shot from beyond the arc and at the line, while also limiting Kaleb Banks and Rowan Brumbaugh for Tulane.
Green Wave at a Glance
Offense – 74.6 PPG, 45.4% FG, 34.0% 3PT
Defense – 69.4 PPGA, 40.7% FGA, 31.8% 3PTA
Rebounding – 34.8 RPG Owls, 35.3 RPG Opponents
Tulane Notes
The 4th seeded Green Wave head into this matchup winners of 3 of their last 4 to close the regular season and Ron Hunter’s squad are looking to turn their 4th seed into a deep run in the AAC tournament. Overall on the year the Green Wave finished 18-13 and they found a way to overcome a non-conference slate with 5 losses outside of the Ken Pom top 100.
To close out the year Tulane dominated UAB, winning 85-68 behind a ridiculous 58% shooting percentage from the field and 48% from behind the arc. What made the Green Wave dangerous in that one was they didn’t even need a big scoring day from Kaleb Banks who finished with 13 or Rowan Brumbaugh who had 11, as they got a 24 point performance from Kam Williams and 20 from Asher Woods
Overall on the year, the Green Wave are a fairly efficient team, currently in the 100’s in both 3 point (33.8, 179th) and 2 point shooting (52.9, 112th), getting good looks through solid ball movement and an assist rate of 56.2% which is 75th in the nation. The one spot Tulane struggles with fairly consistently is their lack of offensive rebounds, as they’re 260th in the nation grabbing an offensive board 27.1% of the time.
Defensively, Tulane has been fairly solid as well, holding teams to 32.8% from 3 which is 117th in the nation and 48.5% from 2, good for 83rd in the nation, while also forcing a turnover 17.8% of the time which is 134th. Rebounding defensively can be an issue as well, as they allow an offensive rebound 31.4% of the time which is 262nd and with the Owls recent success down-low, they will need to crash the glass hard.
Tulane gets scoring across the board, as on the year they’re led by Rowan Brumbaugh who is averaging 15.5 points and 4.8 assists a game, however right behind him is Kaleb Banks who’s averaging 15 points and 6.9 rebounds and also averaging double figures is Asher Woods (10.9 PPG) and Greg Glenn III (10.4 PPG). When this squad is dangerous is when everyone gets going, as they did against UAB and the Owls will have to limit open looks to prevent that from happening.
This game is going to come down to which side finds their shooting stroke on a neutral court, as FAU struggled against Charlotte and Tulane comes in cold, but whoever gets going could run away with this one if the other side fails to catch up. For Tulane, if they get Banks and Brumbaugh going, this is a game they should win, however they will also need to prevent FAU’s scorers from catching fire, if they can do both of those things, they’ll be in a good spot.