Florida Atlantic’s non conference schedule came to an unfortunate end on Saturday afternoon, as the Owls went into their Matchup with 20th ranked Michigan State playing some of their best basketball of the season but in this one they were no match for the Spartans. FAU battled in the early portion of this game, however over the final 32 minutes it was all MSU as they went on to win 86-69, using a strong defensive performance to limit FAU and an aggressive offensive effort to attack the basket in transition effectively.
Early on in this game the Owls were competing both in the score column and in overall physicality as through the first 12 minutes FAU held a lead as big as 3, were even in rebounds and turnovers and heading into the U8 timeout, FAU held a 20-19 lead. Things changed from there however, as MSU closed the final 28 minutes and 12 seconds by outsourcing FAU 67-49, and winning the overall rebound battle 48-36.
MSU seemed to be a completely different team over the final 28 minutes and change, as they were able to execute their transition offense and that helped them capitalize on numerous high flying dunks, many from Coen Carr which they used to ignite the crowd. John Jakus credits his squad for outworking the Spartans early on and explains he believes MSU didn’t make many adjustments, rather they got back to playing their brand of basketball following the early struggles.
“I don’t think the adjustments are from them. They played for time Izzo, and they go to the glass every time. And we outworked them for about four to seven minutes from the second media to the third, and then they probably got yelled at and came back and outworked us. And so much of that is not always what they do or don’t do. They consistently do their job at Michigan State, and for portions we did outwork them, which I was proud of, but we’re gonna have to do that for longer, especially against teams that rebound at their level,” Jakus said.
A big issue early on in this game for FAU was their fouls, as within the first 2 and a half minutes Matas Vokietaitis picked up 2 early ones and it forced him to the bench, but the foul trouble continued from there. FAU finished with 22 fouls on the game, 15 of them coming in the 1st half and 3 of their most impactful players had to play cautiously down the stretch with Kaleb Glenn and Tre Carroll finishing with 4 fouls a piece while Leland Walker ultimately fouled out.
Although the inability to defend without fouling plagued them in the 1st half, FAU was able to adjust in the second half to defend between the whistle, however it was to no avail as MSU was thriving in their transition offense and the Owls had no answers. MSU finished with 27 fastbreak points on the day, feeding off their defense and the energy of the crowd to ignite their offense and leave FAU in the dust.
Fouls plagued this team in the 1st half and although FAU was able to clean things up in the second half, it left them in an early hole and potentially left some of the Owls defenders having to play conservative late. According to Jakus, the fouls did indeed play a role in FAU’s struggles in the 1st half however, that wasn’t the ultimate factor that decided the loss but it is something to learn from moving forward.
“I think that some of the fouls were true, and some of them our guys got to learn to play without our hands, and then other ones are just in another category. So we’re going to process through that. I thought in the second half it was much better, much cleaner. The guys made adjustments, and clearly the free throw line mattered, they made 16, we made 11, minus five at Michigan State isn’t as bad as it could be. I wouldn’t say that’s where the game fell, but it certainly in the first half made a difference,” Jakus said.
The Owls were led once again tonight by Tre Carroll who finished with 24 points and 8 rebounds, tying his career high he achieved against FIU a few weeks ago. Outside of Carroll, Baba Miller was the only other Owl who finished in double figures, notching 12 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks.
It was now the 4th consecutive game where the Owls were able to solid production from their big men unit, however this time it wasn’t enough to get the victory as the Owls were only 4 of 22 from beyond the arc and with the offense being one dimensional they were unable to keep up with MSU. FAU did what they could, winning the turnover and offensive rebound battle and turning that into 20 points, but they were unable to make up for the lack of 3 point production like they were able to in their past 3 games.
A big part of FAU’s 3 game win streak coming into this matchup was their physicality, as they dominated teams on the glass on both ends and made a concerted effort to aggressively attack the basket on offense. Although that was there at times tonight, according to Tre Carroll the physicality they went up against was something that was a lot different than what they saw from Jacksonville, Texas State, and FIU.
“I honestly think the physicality, you know, Big 10, bigger, stronger guys, but honestly, it was just a toughness battle tonight. You know, Coach Isaiah has emphasized it this whole week. And you know, like coach said, four to seven minutes, we out-toughed them, but, you know, they were just tough for about 30 plus minutes. And you know, once they got on that run, we fell behind. We couldn’t really get back, but that’s just something to learn from. And you know, I know we’re gonna have a good four days off for Christmas, but once the 27th hits, we’re gonna get back in the gym, you know, work on all the flaws that we need to work on,” Carroll said.
The Owls finish their non-conference slate 7-6, with their biggest wins being over Liberty and Oklahoma State and their only analytically bad loss being the home loss to FGCU. Before running into a well-oiled machine in MSU, the Owls looked to find their mojo on both ends of the court, as they found a balance to their 3-point heavy offense and had much better communication defensively, which led to better rotations and switches. The key will be getting back to what led them to being successful and learning from their struggles against MSU, but not letting the loss plague them.
Today’s loss was an unfortunate one from the sense that the Owls showed through the first 8 minutes that they had the ability to compete in this one, but they were unable to keep that up throughout and the biggest thing moving forward will be finding a way to be consistent for longer stretches. Ultimately, 7-6 is not a bad first non-conference slate for the Jakus regime and the Owls will look to continue to be in a position to play their best basketball of the season during conference play, which begins January 2nd at home against Memphis.
Photos via: Izzy Rincon
Previous in game recap available here