After a bit of delay, on Monday it was announced by Jeff Goodman that John Jakus had made his first 4 additions to his 2024-2025 FAU staff, with more expected after the NBA playoffs.
Bringing an extremely diverse group together with both NBA, and college experience, was something that Jakus mentioned recently in an interview with Matt Mosley, on ESPN Central Texas, and that is exactly what he was able to do.
Todd Abernethy remains in paradise after 4 years on Dusty May’s staff and will take on the associate HC role which was most recently held by Kyle Church. Abernethy was a recruiting specialist on May’s staff, and was a major recruiter for Mantas Kocanas, who is currently the Owls only remaining recruit committed from Dusty May’s previous staff.
Keeping him allows for the Owls to keep some form of continuity, and possibly increases their chances at luring back some of the players in the portal including Johnell Davis, Alijah Martin, and Vlad Goldin. That isn’t promised, but what is a fact is that TA brings a lot to the table from a recruiting standpoint and game planning and keeping him on staff is an early win in the Jakus era.
Jordan Fee, a former Nova Southeastern assistant, returns to South Florida as an assistant on Jakus’ staff after 1 year as a HC at Gannon University, a D2 college in Erie, PA. Fee oversaw a Gannon team that went 32-3 after previously going 3-23 a year prior. Prior to that, he was an assistant on Jim Crutchfield’s staff at NSU, which over his final 4 seasons had a record of 122-11, 2 national championships, and an undefeated season.
Fee is a former player under Crutchfield at West Liberty and has always been a part of his high-octane offenses— which carried over to Gannon, as they carried on the Crutchfield offensive tradition of averaging 100 points per game.
Jakus mentioned scoring points in his opening press conferences, and Fee could play a big role in gameplanning that.
Isaiah Austin is the next Baylor connection to join the party, as the former 7 ‘1 Center for the Bears will also be joining team Jakus. Austin was a standout big man who was known for his resounding blocks as a Freshman at Baylor, and he declared for the Draft after just 1 year. Unfortunately, he was ruled medically ineligible for the 2014 NBA draft after he was diagnosed with Marfan Syndrome, which put an end to his basketball career, but set in motion the beginning of his coaching career.
Following his diagnosis, Austin worked for 2 years as a student assistant at Baylor finishing his degree, before in 2016 he was medically cleared to play basketball once again. He played 4 years overseas in Serbia, China, Lebanon, Puerto Rico, Mexico and India, following his dream of playing pro basketball.
Austin retired in 2021, and most recently he took a job he was promised in 2014 with the NBA, which was a fellowship to help players find opportunities off the court.
While his direct coaching experience is limited, he was a student assistant that worked under Scott Drew, Jerome Tang and Paul Mills and played for John Jakus. Where Austin makes up for his lack of coaching experience is with his life journey, as his insight into bouncing back from adversity could be invaluable.
Demond Parker, a former Graduate Assistant at Baylor and most recently the Director of Player development at Furman is the next addition to the staff. Parker started his coaching journey at D2 Ceaderville University, where he played his first 3 years of college ball before transferring to Appalachian State for his senior year.
Parker got his start on his former coach Pat Estepp’s staff, and luckily for him Estepp was a friend of John Jakus and after just a year on Estepp’s staff, it was off to Baylor for Parker.
Parker has worked in a player developmental role first for 2 years at Baylor and last year at Furman, and his college coach and former Boss at Ceaderville Pat Estepp spoke on why he believes Parker will succeed as a coach, mentioning he has the “it factor” in an interview with the Dayton Daily News.
“He’s always had a really high basketball IQ,” Estepp said. “That was one of the things I always appreciated about him. He could see the game. He knew what was going on. Even as a player, he had a good feeling for what play might work or what we might need to do defensively. He never got lost in the game. He was always aware of what was going on.”
More updates are expected after the NBA playoffs, but John Jakus’ first start at FAU is a diverse one already, with experience across multiple levels of basketball.