FAU head coach John Jakus met with the media on Monday afternoon as the Owls work to get back in rhythm in preparation of facing off with Memphis this Thursday. FAU last played 9 days ago and lost in decisive fashion to Michigan State, however the slate is clean as the Owls start conference play and will look to make it 2 straight years with a win on their home court over Memphis.
The Owls have had over a week off in preparation for this matchup and 5 of those days were spent away from each other over the holiday break. Now with everyone back in Boca, Jakus said the first plan of attack was conditioning, then focusing on the team, before preparing for Memphis over the next couple of days.
“The first two days back, I think we’re conditioned. There’s a lot more running sprints and they realized some other people were playing games, but because of the way our schedule fell, we had this gap between Michigan State and League, so we spent two days playing a bunch and running, getting back in shape, and then focusing a lot on our defense and rebounding. And then today, I would say we’ve made a shift, and we’re really focusing on what is next, the conference is going to kind of take over. There’s not going to be as many days to work on ourselves, because you’re going to constantly be preparing for the next group. So Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and today was about us, and then we’re really turning the page with what’s next up starting tomorrow,” Jakus said.
Memphis heads into this matchup as the 21st ranked team in the country per the current AP Poll and it is only the second matchup all time where FAU is hosting a ranked opponent. Last year, against a Memphis squad which was going through turmoil, the Owls were able to handle business on their home court, using a raucous home court atmosphere to frustrate Penny Hardaway.
Despite the success Memphis has had this year, FAU is capable of pulling off the upset on their home court, however a big part of that will be the contributions of the fans that have made Eleanor R Baldwin arena the daunted atmosphere it has become. Jakus credits Penny for the scheduling that has led them to earn an early season ranking and is calling on the fans to bring the energy they brought for their matchup in Boca less than a year ago.
“They’ve had a great start. Penny has done a great job with his scheduling. And they put themselves in situations, both at home and on the road, but against high, major opponents. And then to go to Maui, you’re getting three good games there for sure. So because of that, the scheduling that back Corp, how good they’ve been, they’re clearly a top 25 team in the country. I think it’s great that they’re coming in here. It’s good for the fans. You know, the Elly, the last couple years had a real run of sellouts and a real high care factor, and we hope that our guys get the same. I know the students aren’t getting back till next week, but we’re hoping and praying for that whole stripe out. Let me see some red, see some joy. And it’s a great day, but we’re gonna have to play everybody. You know, we’re gonna play Memphis twice. The fact that it’s here first just happens to fall now back to their rank is something they’ve earned, and that’s all the credit to them,” Jakus said.
Memphis has been led this season by a dynamic guard trio of PJ Haggerty, Tyrese Hunter and Colby Rogers, all 3 of which have been able to get a bucket for this Tigers team when needed. The Owls haven’t faced an offensive barrage like this yet this season, however the Owls have been tested in a variety of ways and they will look to draw on their experiences to help slow down Memphis.
There is no exact answer on how to slow down the Tigers, however Jakus notes the Owls will look to take away different things from each of the guards in hopes of slowing Memphis down as a whole.
“The three guards for them have been pretty special. You can get 20 points from either one of them or any of the three of them on any given night. To be frank, you probably get two of three on certain nights, and they all have different strengths. They’re good at different things. You know, you can’t let Hunter make that pull up three out of his left hand. You got to keep Hagerty off the free throw line. You got to understand that if Rogers hits his first or second three, that he’s probably teed up for a day. And they’re a group, but they’re also individuals. So for us, it just comes down to breaking down each individual, strengthening us, knowing what it is they do well and doing our best to take that away from them. And then as far as them as a whole, they’re a little bit like us. When they’re in transition, I think they’re freer and they’re allowed to be more themselves. And then when they’re offensive rebounding, I think they go from really, really good to great, because you can’t give a team as good as them second chance points, and so we’re gonna have to keep them off the free throw line. We’re gonna have to take the three away, and then we’re gonna have to make it difficult for danger to catch those easy twos and the post touches,” Jakus said.
With the arrival of Memphis also comes the arrival of the conference portion of the Owls schedule, something FAU Coach John Jakus refers to as the 2nd portion of the schedule. The early part of the season saw the Owls work out kinks on both ends of the court and now heading into the grind of conference play they will look to play their best brand of basketball.
The hardest part of the Owls non-conference schedule was the time they spent away from home as the Owls embarked on a near 2 week road trip that gave them some early tests. Now heading into the second portion of their schedule, Jakus will enjoy having an equal amount of time at home and on the road compared to their opponents and they will head into those matchups battle tested.
“I’m excited to see nine home games. I would say that that’s probably something we’re really looking forward to. The second thing I would say is I think that because of the way our schedule was, because the amount of time we spent away from home, and because of the amount of close games we were in, you can look at it as a positive or negative, but I think the battle tested thing is real for us, and we’ve been in some close situations that allowed our guys to mature, and you know, getting 10 new guys and a new staff on the same page as you go through nine of your first 13 on the road is is unique. But now we’ve got this fair shot where everybody’s playing a certain amount at home, a certain amount of away, where we can be ourselves, and we can grow from the mistakes that we made, and then also learn from the successes that we’ve had. So I just think, in general, I think a lot of that’s going to pay some fruit, and I’m looking forward to our guys experience of fruit,” Jakus said.
The Owls could be heading into this matchup with Memphis on a bit of a down note having lost to Michigan State in blowout fashion, however that is not the mentality that they walked away from East Lansing with. Jakus has preached the ability to learn from mistakes since day 1 and his squad has learned from their loss at MSU, while also harping on the good that came from the game.
“We scored over two points, 2.3 points of possession and transition, but we couldn’t get out and transition enough. And I think that that’s probably something that we’re going to have to control. One of the ways we control that is actually get stops and turn people over. It’s really difficult to get stops when Michigan State scored 31 points in transition. You know, our turnover percentage is so, so low. We take care of the ball really well. But when we turn it over, for some reason, there’s this limbo in our guys where they pause and then Michigan State, it’s it’s a lay up or dunk at the other end. So I would say that our ability to control the tempo and then getting back and making sure that people are playing offense for longer than a couple seconds is 31 points in transition. I mean, we’re probably plus or minus 15 just in transition at their place. That’s a huge dictator in the game. And then rebounding has been a huge thing for us. You just go back through like you look at Jacksonville, which top 50 rebounding team we were plus 20 on a glass, when we can control that we are a significantly better basketball team. Michigan State, we lost a rebounding battle, I think the second media, we won a rebounding battle and took the lead in the game. We started off behind in the first media, second media, we took the lead because we were controlling the glass. Seems like when we control temple and glass, we’ve had we’ve had good moments, and certainly we can shoot the three, but I don’t want our season be dictated by whether that shot goes in or not. We’ve got to control some of the other things so that that becomes a bonus, not something we have to count on,” Jakus said.
With a brief off-stretch, the Owls looked to rest and regain energy for a very pivotal portion of their schedule, while also potentially working closer to bringing back guys like Max Langenfeld, Matas Kocanas and Jakel Powell. According to Jakus, there are no new updates on the 3 injured Owls, however on a positive note there are no new injuries to report.
“No, nothing new. And with the rest of the guys, we’ve been healthy as we’ve hit each other and tried to get better the last four days. So we’ll taper that hitting down as we go into into this game, because we’ve got to be fresh and not, you know, ruin our legs trying to get better, but we’re thankful that we got through the last three or four days of hitting without hurting ourselves, and that will we’ll get ready for this and make sure our bodies are fresh, but nothing new there,” Jakus said.
