BY SCOTT MORGANROTH
I’ll never forget that when the FAU Owls named John Jakus as their new Men’s Basketball Coach on March 27, 2024 to replace Dusty May, who went to the Michigan Wolverines, that there was quite a turnout at his opening day press conference.
He was cheered mightily by the fans. Jakus only had about seven minutes to talk to the media and a reporter from a West Palm Beach TV Station asked the majority of the questions while others couldn’t get a word in. I was one of those.
But on Sunday, I finally had a chance to get to a Men’s Basketball Game which turned out to be Senior Day. The team honored KyKy Tandy, Ken Evans Jr. and Jack Johnson for their contributions to the program.
FAU went into the contest leading the all-time history 4-2. East Carolina entered the game with and 18-12 mark and 10-7 in the AAC. Meanwhile, FAU entered the contest with a 16-14, 9-8 mark in this key conference showdown.
As I looked at the press notes before and throughout the game, Jakus was mentored by two of the nations best head coaches in Scott Drew (Baylor) and Mark Few (Gonzaga) and is no stranger to working with mid major programs.
Jakus will be on a future edition of the Motor City Mad Mouth Show after the season.
The Owls responded with a performance that showed they’re on a mission to get to the post-season.
The game started off slow and at one point the game was tied 9-9.
But with 9:33 left in the first half, FAU led 18-11 going into a timeout.
By the 4:53 Mark in the half, FAU led 33-14 and at halftime the score was 41-23.
Why did a game that appeared to be a close matchup get out of hand so quickly?
FAU out rebounded ECU 25-14 and outscored the Pirates 7-0 on second chance points. The Owls held the lead for 13:50-2:06.
Even Florida Panthers Captain Aleksander Barkov, who was wearing his FAU t-shirt was impressed sitting in his court side seats and was signing autographs.
There was no let-up in the second half for FAU as the Owls out scored ECU 40-30. The time with the lead jumped to 33:50. ECU only led 2:06 the entire game.
FAU out rebounded ECU 47-33 their second chance points raised to 20-7. FAU outscored ECU 32-26 in the paint and led in bench scoring 30-8.
Baba Miller had 18 points, five assists and 12 rebounds, Maya’s Vokietaitis had 10 points, Tandy led all scorers with 19 points, while Tre Carroll had 17 points and 11 rebounds.
When the game was over, Jakus was really delighted with the way the team played all-season. I finally had a chance to ask the first year coach several questions as you’re going to see in the videos included in the story.
After the press conference, we finally had our formal introduction and took photos. When I was leaving the building, we took another photo and talked. I told him something he already knew, have a good conference tournament and the post-season awaits you. He appreciated this comments and we took another photo on the court.
I told him that he’s the fourth FAU Coach I’ve worked with. The others were Rex Walters, Mike Jarvis and May. He told me, “I hope that I’m the last.”
I hope so because Jakus can now settle into his surroundings and continue to build the program the way he wants to. For a guy that has worked at mid-major programs, there is no question that Athletic Director Brian White got this hire right.
I’ll be interested to see what goes on from here and you can be rest assured that it won’t take me until the last game of the season to see John Jakus and his Owls going forward. I was amazed by the energy at “The Burrow” on Sunday and it was a pretty decent crowd.
Now, the Owls begin AAC Tournament play on Thursday so we’ll see what’s in store with the squad in the next few days.
Meanwhile, he knows that our conversation is far from over as we mentioned him coming on the Motor City Mad Mouth Show so we’ll be able to promote the FAU Program nationally. He said he was looking forward to coming on.
Scott Morganroth can be reached at [email protected] and you can find him on Twitter/X @TribuneSouth.
To see all of his shows, you can subscribe to the South Florida Tribune You Tube Channel.
Finally, he wrote a book, “Lessons From The Microphone,” which can be purchased on Amazon/Kindle and Barnes & Noble.
