Florida AtlanticSaturday, November 19, 6:00 p.m.
Eleanor Baldwin Arena, Rat's Mouth, Florida
Radio: You can listen on FAU's network via web here:
thevarsitynetwork.com/feed/source/oas-1488?audioPlayer=fau%3Aallaccess-Live-2142 or here:
conferenceusa.com/watch/default.aspx?Live=19403&path=fauTV: For a day pass:
conferenceusa.com/watch/purchase.aspx#register or
conferenceusa.com/watch/default.aspx?Live=19603&path=fauFlorida Atlantic University was founded in 1961 and began playing D-1 hoops back in the fall of 1993, in the old Trans-America Athletic Conference. In their first 12 years, they had 10 losing seasons, nine of those with just single-digit wins. And to this day they've not had much success, with just one 20-win season (21-11 in 2011) in 29 seasons. They had just five winning seasons in their first 25 years of play. But with a nice location in a rapidly growing state, and a bundle of state money (FAU was the first public university in the Miami area), FAU soon became a desirable expansion target for collegiate athletic conferences. They joined the Sunbelt in 2006 and Conference USA in 2013, and today are frequently mentioned as a candidate for the American or other higher ranking conferences. The school has almost 31,000 students, almost 25,000 of them undergrads, and employs more administrators than U of D has undergrad students.
The Owls' minimal hoops history does include a year of Matt Doherty as coach, who used it as a 1-year way station between the North Carolina and SMU jobs. Doherty led the Owls to their third winning season (15-13) in 2006. But under Coach Dusty May, who played at Indiana during the tenure of Hoosiers Assistant Coach Mike Davis, FAU has turned in 4 consecutive winning seasons--although just barely, as the Owls are only 9 games over .500 in that time. The Owls were picked for 5th in the 11-team CUSA pre-season poll.
More importantly and impressively, the Owls have started well this year, including a big 76-74 road win over Florida. In that one, the Owls broke open a tense game with a 17-2 run starting with just under 10 minutes to play. But suddenly finding themselves up by 14 with under 5 minutes to play, the Owls fell apart. As the Gators rapidly closed the gap, FAU committed turnovers, got hit with a technical for calling an illegal timeout, and missed the front end of a one and one that could have sealed the win--but the clock ran out before Florida could get off a shot. So in the end, they held on, and that's what counts. Earlier the Owls had beaten up D-2 Lynn and lost by 13 at Ole Miss. Then on Thursday, in the first game of the Paradise Invitational, they beat Bryant soundly, 85-74. Bryant--whom we'll see on Monday--is no slouch: The Bulldogs went to the NCAA last year and were picked to finish 2d in the America East. A win over FAU on the road will be a very good marker for the Titans.
The Owls' star is 6-2 junior guard Alijah Martin, an 3rd team All-CUSA selection last year when he averaged 13.9 points, knocked down an impressive 40% of his three-point attempts, and, despite his lack of height, was 7th in the league in rebounding during conference play.
Besides Martin, Coach May starts three other guards, the tallest of whom, in this era of big guards, is just 6-4, and 7-1 junior center Vlad Goldin. The other guards are 6-4 junior Johnell Davis, 6-3 red-shirt soph Nick Boyd, and 6-0 senior Brian Greenlee. All four guards are serious three-point threats, although Boyd won't take the shot unless left open with time to set his feet, and Greenlee, a career 40% bomber at the start of the year, has struggled to find his shot through FAU's first 4 games. Although it's early in the year, FAU currently ranks 16th in the nation in three pointers made, and 79th in percentage. Pair those guards with Goldin, who is averaging almost 11 points per game and shooting 69% from the floor, and that's a pretty effective offense. Any one of the guards can and will bring the ball up court.
And then you can add to them 6th man Michael Forest, a graduate senior who averaged over 13 points while starting all 34 games a year ago. Forrest missed the season's first two games with an unspecified injury, but came back with 20 points against Florida and 14 against Bryant. He may move back into the starting lineup on Saturday. Beyond Forrest, Coach May uses his bench, with senior guard Jalen Gaffney, a Connecticut transfer, averaging over 23 minutes, and 6-8 junior forward Giancarlo Rosado averaging over 19. Senior guard Brandon Weatherspoon also averages double-digit minutes, and forwards Isaiah Gaines and Trey Carroll get Buoy Koka minutes.
Overall, FAU is deep and experienced. They play a generally up-tempo game, and are a good passing team. Expect to see a high-scoring game that could turn into competing hailstorms of three point shots.
The Titans lead the all-time series 2-0, winning 77-44 in the fall of 2013, in a game Sam discusses above in the thread, and winning 83-73 in the fall of 1993. If the Titans shoot as we did against Ohio, this will be, at a minimum, a very competitive game for Detroit. It would be nice to see Gerald Liddell take the floor.
FAU StartersG - #15 Alijah Martin, 6-2 Jr. (12.8 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 1.8 apg, .381 3PtFG)
G - #1 Johnell Davis, 6-4 Jr. (11.5 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 2.3 apg, .563 (!) 3PtFG)
G - #4 Brian Greenlee, 6-0 Sr. (6.5 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 2.0 apg, .294 3PtFG)
G - #2 Nick Boyd, 6-3 RS Soph. (4.5 ppg, 3.3. rpg, 2.8 apg, .308 3PtFG)
C - #50, Vladislav Goldin, 7-1 Jr. (10.8 ppg, 5.3 rpg, .690 FG)
BenchG - #11 Michael Forrest, 6-0 Gr. (17.0 ppg, 3.0 apg, .455 3PtFG)
G - #12 Jalen Gaffney, 6-3 Sr. (6.8 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 3.0 apg, .333 3PtFG)
G - #23 Brandon Weatherspoon, 6-4 Sr. (4.3 ppg)
PF - #3 Giancarlo Rosado, 6-8 Sr. (5.8 ppg, 5.5 rpg)
F - #25 Tre Carroll, 6-7 Fr. (5.0 ppg, 2.3 rpg)
F - #5 Isaiah Gaines, 6-8 Soph. (1.5 ppg)
Go Titans!