T-minus four days until Florida Atlantic plays their first college basketball game of the season. Although it’s an exhibition match against the Division II Saint Leo University Lions, it’s still college hoops against another program. 

It’s been 214 days since we last saw the Owls’ on the hardwood. Fast forward to today and there’s a new coaching staff, a new roster and new expectations. 

The FAU fanbase got a taste of what their new team looks like playing together at “Paradise Madness,” a pep-rally-esque event to get the student body hype for the upcoming season. The event ended with a 20-minute scrimmage between different players on the team, with some shining brighter than others. 

After the exhibition match against the Lions this Saturday at 2 p.m., the Owls have one more exhibition match before regular season play begins against the Associated Press preseason number 11 team in the country, the Auburn University Tigers. 

The match is a charity exhibition, where all proceeds of ticket sales will go to Auburn University’s Melton Scholars program, launched in 2023 to help increase access for underrepresented students and support them throughout their Auburn experience, according to the press release on the school’s website.

With a new basketball season also comes new weekly press conferences from the head coach and possibly some players, courtesy of FAU Athletics. 

Here are some of the main points and takeaways from head coach John Jakus’ first weekly press conference of the season:

Takeaways from the “Paradise Madness” scrimmage

Jakus started off the press conference with an opening statement thanking the media for their support in covering the team, as well as stating that the “Blue and White scrimmage was really beneficial” for the team. 

“I think the main thing is you just never know what you had till you play in public,” said Jakus.

Being there for the scrimmage, the turnout was solid, but nowhere near sold-out. To start the scrimmage, the team pumped in game sounds, like fans cheering and “defense” chants, to emulate the sold-out crowd that the program got used to the last two seasons.

Jakus’ said that he had eyes on Mantas Kocanas and Matas Vokietaitis, two freshman centers recruited from Lithuania, and how they’d react to their first live-action play in the Eleanor R. Baldwin Arena.

“Those two are the ones we were least certain about what would happen when the lights came on,” said Jakus. 

Vokietaitis ended up the star of the scrimmage, posting a game-high 16 points and seven rebounds thanks to some athletic scores through contact and defensive contests at the rim. Kocanas ended the game with seven points and a made 3-pointer over Vokietaitis. 

In regards to the on-court play, Jakus was encouraged by the White team’s offensive output of 60 points in one 20-minute half. The White team’s lineup consisted of guards Niccolo Moretti, Devin Vanterpool, Ken Evans Jr., forward Baba Miller and Vokietaitis.

However, the high score also raised concerns about the defensive effort of both the White and Blue teams. 

“At the same time, you can flip that on the other side of the coin and you can say giving up that many isn’t that encouraging,” said Jakus. “You’re early on, the guys meant to have fun and grow from the experience, but we immediately went to the film to see how we could get better.”

Jakus said he was “thankful and humbled” by the whole experience and he is looking forward to the attendance of the fans in their games this season and the foreseen future.

“Now that people know what’s going to happen…my expectation, at least from what I’ve heard, that next year’s attendance will be even better,” said Jakus. “I imagine this Saturday there will be even more and I think by the time we get going full time this thing will be sold out.”

Player rotations and possible starting lineups

Although fans and reporters alike would like to speculate what the starting lineup and rotations will look like for this Saturday’s exhibition, Jakus said he and the coaching staff are not making their “big decisions” based on the performances from the “Paradise Madness” scrimmage. 

“My guess is that we’re going to start two different lineups on Saturday and so you shouldn’t overreact to the one that gets their name called at the beginning, there will be a different one in the second half,” said Jakus. “I don’t even think we’re looking ahead to Auburn at this point as far as who’s going to start.”

Jakus did state that we will see their “real lineup” when the Owls play Indiana State University for their first game of the regular season at John Wooden Family Fieldhouse in Xenia, Ohio. Jakus went further to say that he and the coaches spoke briefly before the press conference about who might start against the Lions, but that their priority is lineup combinations over starters. 

At the scrimmage, everyone got to see a two-big lineup with Miller at the power forward position next to Vokietaitis, as well as forward Kaleb Glenn at the small forward position next to forward Tre Carroll and Kocanas. 

“I am really proud of KG; Kaleb’s done a good job playing the three. Baba coming off the [NBA] combine played a lot of five there and I think we really doubled down on the fact that he can be a long-term wing, not just for us, but for the people in that league,” said Jakus. 

Jakus said that lineup combinations will come down to how the five on the floor play defense and the size matchups of their opponents. 

“I think it just comes down to how can we play defense when we go small and then what are we going to do when we go big,” said Jakus. “…We’re probably going to make some of those decisions also by who we play. You play a big lineup, you’re going to see a big lineup from us. If we can get away with going small and spacing out, running more…and so we can go small and get out and around you’re going to see that.”

Health of the team

Jakus stated that there will be “two or three” players who are still recovering from undisclosed injuries, citing that some players at the scrimmage were noticeably still nursing injuries. He stated that one of these players may be back by the Auburn scrimmage, but he doesn’t want to “over promise and under deliver.” 

The inactive players from the scrimmage were guards Amar Amkou, Liam Dayco-Green, Jakel Powell, Jack Johnson and forward Max Langenfeld. 

JD Delcastillo is the Managing Editor for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email him at jd.delcastillo954@gmail.com, DM on Instagram @jd.delcastillo or on X (Twitter) @jd_delcastillo.