Year two of the John Jakus era is around the corner and Florida Atlantic Men’s basketball will be looking to build on their NIT appearance from a year ago.
The Owls finished 18-16 in 2024, turning a roster which returned only three players into a postseason appearance. This offseason, the staff faced similar challenges, losing nine players, but returning five.
A year ago, Jakus and his staff were thrown into the fire, building a roster and schedule, in a less than ideal amount of time.
In year two, Jakus believes a complete offseason has benefited his staff in terms of building the roster, the schedule and overall morale.
“Something little like, I didn’t live with my wife for four or five months. I didn’t see my kids for the same period of time, I went home to either a dorm or a hotel bed. This year, I’m going home to my own house,” Jakus said.
Although the Owls lost 9 players from a year ago, including their six top scorers, Jakus is happy with the group he was able to bring in to replace them.
“I think we were surprised by a couple transfers, but for the most part, the number of people we had at each position earlier, and the way we were able to manage that was much better. We ended up having 13 guys on campus. One told us no three, we told no two, and I think we said yes to everybody else. So our batting percentage was great, but it’s because the fit and the role all lined up,” Jakus said.
As for the schedule, as a mid-major, scheduling is never easy. This time around however, Jakus believes he has balanced the schedule in a way that can set the team up for success.
“Scheduling isn’t an exact science, especially nowadays, because people don’t want to play us. We’re in the odd middle where you can’t analytically, beat us by 40, you know, and buy us. They don’t want to do that, and you don’t want to play us in a home and home, because they want to go run and hide and play each other. And then we were left a mess with the 21 days away from home last year, two Charleston tournaments. So I don’t know if you noticed we’re only leaving Florida once in November and once in December. And our home schedule, I think, is significantly more balanced,” Jakus said.
“So when it comes to making our own choices with the schedule, deeper choices with our roster, and then us just being with our families, I think the whole thing was much healthier.”
Not a large group of returners, but an important leader is back
Although the Owls did lose their six top scorers from a year ago, they were able to bring back five total players. Point guard Nico Moretti, guard Devin Vanterpool, guard Max Langenfeld, guard Liam Dayco Green and forward Amar Amkou all return to Boca Raton.
Moretti and Vanterpool are the most impactful returners, with both set to have a chance to build on their roles in 2025. Moretti played in 34 games last season, averaging 6.4 points per game, 3.4 assists per game and 2.6 rebounds per game, while shooting 42.8% from the field and 34.8% from three. Vanterpool averaged 2.2 points per game across 30 appearances, however in the American conference tournament matchup against Tulane, he scored 12 points with 5 rebounds to give him momentum heading into this season.
“A lot of people say we lost nine. I say we keep five, and Devin Max, Amar Nico, by the way, who’s been a maestro, and Liam knows what we want. So even Tre (Carroll), who we were deprogramming and reprogramming, like Tre didn’t play any minutes for Dusty in the NCAA tournament, but he still played their style or the way they thought. And obviously he’s an amazing coach, but you’re reprogramming now that new guys are coming in, and there is no reprogramming. They can watch those five, and they know what we want. And so we’re deeper and better off in that regard, for sure,” Jakus said.
Losing more than half of your roster can make things difficult; however, Jakus notes that it’s a similar struggle for other teams in the league, which creates a challenge of who can prepare their team better in a short amount of time.
“And so the retention, I think, is good. If you look at our league, I think over half the league, nine of their top 10 players are from another team. So we can all call this a weakness, but it’s a weakness that everybody’s going through, and so you can’t complain about it, you just have to get better at it. So I think we got better at the concept. How can we teach in four months instead of four years? You just have to put your system in faster. And then the last thing I would say is you’ll see it with Nico this year. I’ll warn you all ahead of time, but when you get your point guard back, and your point guard thinks like the head coach, you’d be amazed at how much faster the culture settles on the court now off the court, we’ve always been good,” Jakus said.
Last year, FAU was able to get contributions right away from a variety of new players and by the end of the year many had experienced an improvement in their overall game. This year, Jakus believes he has a chance to help a new group of players improve and be in a position to have success.
“If you look at our player development, Tre was the most improved player of the year, Baba was up in points, rebounds and assists, Matas left for seven figures. When it comes to making basketball players better, we can do that. The question is, just, how does that fall together? And you know, I think we’re right where we want to be, but you don’t know until you play somebody else,” Jakus said.
Jakus believes with Moretti running the point, the offense will have a rhythm that it lacked at times last year. Moretti made just one start a year ago, however he was extremely impactful off the bench, with 8 double figure scoring performances. He was also efficient with the ball, averaging 3.4 assists to 1.3 turnovers per game.
Between his high basketball IQ and ability to score when needed, Moretti could see his role in the offense expand in 2025, something he is excited for.
“It feels good to embrace the pressure that comes with being a leader, but I’m just excited,” Moretti said.
Moretti has the most returning points from anyone on the FAU roster and although a mass exodus of players could scare some, he saw it as an opportunity.
“Yeah, I feel like I kind of went back to what my principles are. I mean, I found FAU, gave me a very solid foundation, and Coach Jakus gave me a chance after two years of not playing. So with all these guys transferring, I kind of went to my room and said, Should I stay right now? I feel like I made the right decision to stay,” Moretti said.
A diverse group of newcomers
In similar fashion to last year, Jakus searched far and wide en route to filling out his roster in 2025.
What differentiates from last year, is that multiple freshmen will have a chance to make an impact right away. Josiah Parker and Yohann Sissoko head into their freshman year with the Owls, both having impressed staff during their time in paradise so far.
Parker, a 6’7 225 pound guard, is the brother of assistant coach Demon Parker and played his high school ball with overtime elite, averaging 21.9 points, 9.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists during his senior season. Even as a freshman, Jakus believes Parker will give the Owls a skill set which will be able to impact the game in a variety of ways.
“Josiah is the highest ranked American recruiting history of the school. His brother, being on staff, helped that. But he’s a good fit, somebody I believe in. He’s what modern basketball is trending towards. You know, people like Rick Pitino are saying things like, the point guard is dead. I don’t think that’ll be true for us, one because of Nico’s return, but Johan is a point guard. But Jo dribble, passes, shoot, between 6 ‘5 and 6’11, is where the game is headed, and he can do all three of those things. And then I think he was the best rebounder in the ote League, especially as a wing. So all those things set up for him to have a real chance to make an impact. He’s going through some freshman ups and downs. He was unguardable, and the summer when things were free flowing, and now that the defense is tightened up, he’s got to figure out how to play at this level, but he can really get there,” Jakus said.
Sissoko, a 6’5 205-pound guard, comes to the Owls from France. Last season he played for ASVEL’s development team in the French Espoirs Elite league, averaging 20.6 PPG, 7.2 APG and 6.0 RPG. In similar fashion to Parker, Jakus believes Sissoko has a skill set that can impact the game all over the court and his experience in Pro Basketball overseas will give him an instant edge.
“Johann would have been every bit a top 50 kid if he was in the States. He’s a 6’6 point guard. Played at ASVEL for Tony Parker’s Euro league team. Unbelievable scorer. Really special passer, just a motor that does not stop, people talk about power forwards with motors. He’s a point guard with a motor, which is really hard to find. Just can’t kick him out of the gym fast enough, he won’t leave. We’re thrilled with both of them, and we think this year is great. But long term, I would love to keep people like that here for more than one year, and I hope people fall in love with them, and we can get to the place where that’s true, because by year two, those guys will be special,” Jakus said.
While Parker and Sissoko will make an impact at guard, newcomers Devin Williams, Vincent Neugebauer, Xander Pintelon and Maxim Logue are all expected to contribute in the front court.
Logue and Williams both head to FAU as transfers, while Neugebauer and Pinetlon come to Boca from overseas. All 4 are 6’9 or taller with diverse skillsets, which will give the Owls options in the post like they had in 2024.
The 6’10 Williams came to FAU following 2 years at UCLA where he was unable to receive consistent playing time, however the talent he possessed as a versatile big man was never in question. According to Williams, the front court at FAU will feature a lot of different skillsets that will be able to play off of each other.
“We have a bunch of different types of bigs, that will be a bunch of different places on the court. We are very high IQ basketball guys, so it’s gonna be very fun to be able to just play off each other, just off natural instincts that we all have with high basketball IQ to feed off each other and just do a bunch of little things, whatever it takes,” Williams said.
Two bounceback opportunities present themselves in guards Isaiah Elohim and Kaanan Carlyle. Elohim, a 6 ‘5 guard and former top 100 recruit spent his freshman season at USC, where he played in 18 games and averaged 2.1 points per game. Carlyle, a rising junior, spent last season at Indiana where he averaged 4.0 points per game, down from 11.5 PPG during his freshman season at Stanford.
Both players are looking to get back to the best version of themselves and according to Carlyle, he believes Jakus helps get the best out of the players he coaches by holding them accountable, but in a respectful way.
“Coach Jakus being Coach Jakus holding players accountable, holding me accountable. He always leads with religion. I’m a Christian man. I believe in God. I read my word, and I believe in it, and I believe in everything that God is doing for me, my life. So him being able to talk to me about religion, talking about my faith, and also being a basketball coach and a player’s coach. He understands players, he’s always there, that’s why I respected Coach Jakus, is that he is more than just a basketball coach. He’s a father figure as well,” Carlyle said.
What’s Next?
FAU will open the season on November 3rd, at home, against Boston College, which is only the second power program to play the Owls in Eleanor R Baldwin arena.
Prior to that, FAU will have the annual blue and white scrimmage on Wednesday, October 15th, as well as a live exhibition against Florida Tech at home on Thursday, October 30th.