FAU Coach John Jakus (pictured above, Izzy Rincone) met with the media on Wednesday afternoon, speaking on a variety of topics as the Owls are in the midst of a bye week before taking on UNT on Sunday. The Owls last won a thriller against Rice last Sunday and they head into the bye week and a future matchup with the Mean Green riding with momentum and look to capitalize on it.
UNT heads into this matchup at 13 and 4 and are currently 4 and 1 in conference play with their only loss coming against Memphis. The Mean Green have executed their prototypical attack, with the 360th fastest offense in the country and a defense which stymies opponents by forcing turnovers and limiting second chances.
The Owls have had their fair share of close battles with UNT over the years and this matchup figures to be no different with UNT trying to continue their ascent to the top of the AAC, while the Owls look to build a winning streak. Although the Mean Green may look to implement a game plan that is opposite of what FAU runs, the key to breaking that according to Jakus is continuing to run their offense without allowing the Mean Green to dictate momentum.
“Yeah, I think they’re 360th in tempo in the country, so they’re fine walking it up, and they want to control tempo and then make you play offense for long periods of time until you get frustrated and do a good job of it. Grant McCasland is one of my closest friends in the business. His wife is probably my best friend in the whole business, and Ross was with them, so I watched more UNT FAU games than maybe anybody in the country besides those two staffs over that run, and Ross has done a wonderful job as far as our coaching tree is concerned. He’s got a lot of tentacles, a lot of success in different people, but I think he may be the best defense coach in our coaching tree, and that’s a heck of a compliment. And last year, they took seventh, I believe, and he lost a couple of his best players to the portal. And I think they might be better because the team is built more in his identity, and that identity is certainly control and tempo and a defensive end. So he deserves a ton of credit. I would say he’s done a great job between year one and year two. And as far as scoring, we know it’s going to be difficult, so we’ll have to do it before they’re set, but then we’ll have to do it after they’ve gotten through our actions. Because one thing they’re going to be really good. Going to be really good at is guarding us and sets. So that offense before the action and after action is more important than ever, and the guys are going to have to play without us a little bit because that defense is so stifling,” Jakus said.
In terms of preparation, alongside the many drills they will go through to prepare for the Mean Green, Jakus mentions that the Owls are preparing for another close game noting that battles have been a theme across the board in the AAC this season and this game is expected to be no different.
“I think we worked a bunch on how to take the three way. On defense today, there was some hitting, but for us, it was more about getting our legs back underneath us and going up and down a little bit. We played a five minute game to close today, just because. And the end of game situations continue to be a theme in this league, not just for us, but for other people. There’s just been a lot of close games, and then from there, I think, some breakdown drills on how to handle their no middle defense. So the offense was more in breakdown drills, the defense was more five on five, and I think that’s where we rested most of our time today,” Jakus said.
North Texas has been led this season by a pair of transfers, as Drake transfer G Atin Wright averages 14.1 points per game, while former Owl Brennen Lorient is in the midst of a career year, averaging 12.1 points and 3.9 rebounds per game. Despite losing some of their top talent from a season ago in the transfer portal, the Mean Green have rebuilt and have done serious development work with the players they brought in via the transfer portal.
Lorient was someone that FAU Coach John Jakus envisioned being apart of the future of this team and although he is happy he found success at North Texas after it is all said and done, prior to the season the door was left open for Lorient to return to FAU.
“I can tell you that we practiced together for a week or two. You know, I was honest about my relationship with G when we played him at Charlotte. I love G, I beg him to stay. And I think that he’s a wonderful person, and he helped hang a banner here. I’m not ever going to change my mind on how I feel about a kid just because of circumstances of the portal B-lo, we met with his family and his uncle, and I spent a solid hour, if not more, begging him to stay. He went on a couple visits, and I think by the time he got back from those few visits, we were down the road with some other people, because at a certain point we had to make a choice. We waited two or three weeks for the kids, and I think at the end of the day, he ended up with a coach that has really helped him. I wish him nothing but the best. I mean, he’s a perfect fit in that defensive system. I think that defensive system has caused him to grow in his confidence offensively. I thought he was going to make a leap if he stayed, and I think that that’s been proven right by his time at North Texas. As far as the family’s core decision making process, that’s between them and you. You can ask them if you’d like, but he hung a banner here, and I wish him nothing but the best. And I can tell you that I begged him to stay. But apart from that, I just think the family made a decision that they felt like was best,” Jakus said.
As conference play wages on, the Owls look to be locked into their rotation, as lineups could potentially change as we saw with the addition of Tre Carroll as a starter, however outside of that there will be no re-additions from the injury list for the foreseeable future. Jakel Powell, Amar Diop, Max Langenfeld and Matas Kocanas have all been sidelined for the better part of the season and according to Jakus, the only one currently with a path to returning is Powell, however he is not currently ready to return to game action.
“Oh, I can tell you, Kel is in a process where he plays in practice and then does extra work before or after. I would call him in the medical group that’s allowed to recover in live play, we’ll go ones and twos and threes. Sometimes he plays against coaches, sometimes he plays against the team. But he’s getting closer. Max I don’t see a concrete end at this point, I’m going to leave that with the doctors and Koca’s, surgery (Mantas) was season ending, and that’s been pretty clear from the beginning. It was a pretty substantial foot injury that is outside the box. As far as the details of that, I can just tell you that for sure, he’s done for a while, and that was a major surgery, not a minor one. It’s not just a sprain, it’s more so Jakel would be the one to track Max. We have no clear picture of what is going to take for him to come back. And then we know that Kocanas, that’s going to be a while,” Jakus said.
The Owls will be on the road this Sunday against UNT before heading back to Boca for a 2 game home stand starting with UTSA on Wednesday and then USF on Sunday. The past 2 games have been raucous atmospheres, as even despite a semi-full crowd on Sunday against Rice, Jakus has been engaging the Crowd to give the team a jolt of energy when needed and that is something he plans on doing at all home games.
“We like to say that paradise isn’t just on the outside of this building. It should be on the inside, and that it’s a wonderful place to play. And I think that we have these runs we go on, you know, at the last 10 minutes of UAB, we made up an eight to 10 point deficit, against Rice we were down 16. So we won that last 10 minutes by 18 points, if you do the math there. And some of that’s our play, for sure, and some of that’s the ability to adjust. I thought the staff did a wonderful job down the stretch against rice, even down to Fee drawing up that last second Bov, I mean, it was a wonderful job by them. But along with that, I think when the fans pick it up, it makes a difference. And you can come to the game to watch, or you can come to the game to impact it, and when they impact it, it’s such a fun place to be, and I’ve done what I can to invite that a little more often when we need it, and I think Tre is trying to do that all the time with the way he plays. But we don’t want just paradise to be outside the Elly. We want to be inside the Elly. And I’m super thankful that they’ve responded to us and this whole league play, they have been really good, because in all three home games, we’ve been down, and all three times they’ve gotten louder as we got deeper into the game so we’re hoping for more of that, and we continue to want them to show up and impact the game, and not just watch,” Jakus said.