FAUJU

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Back on the scene for a little college basketball action

Jacksonville nearly beat South Florida the last time out only to fall in the end. FAU after routing Webber on Friday, were upset by Kennesaw State.

Talking with Coach Dugan, FAU will be missing their top returning player, Lyrell Barfield 5-8 G SR for an extended period of time. This is FAU’s real play maker in the back court and from the looks of the game will really hurt them as long as she is out. That being said their freshman will need to keep stepping up, freshman Kim Smith (Minneola, Fl), Latavia Dempsey (St. Petersburg, Fl), and Chaquera Kent (Titusville, Fl) are averaging 24.5 points per game more then 25% of the teams offense and averaging nearly 50 minutes per game collectively.

FAU I predicted to be one of the better teams in the Sun Belt this year, I still believe that to some extent but a lot will depend on their trip to Jacksonville, nothing more then 3-1 would really make me think that. While I am a little more optimistic then most, FAU has lots of new players.

JU had a down year by their standards last year but looks strong with a route of the University of Tampa in the pre-season and playing USF close in the first part of the year.

I told Coach Dunn earlier in practice whoever signed Crystal Bell 5-8 JR should get a bonus because the kid is just making plays all over the court and while she doesn’t have a ton of skill scoring the ball she is big on both the offensive end (rebounding) and on defense where she’s a freak athletically.

Kim Smith 5-8 G from Minneola, Fl makes her first start tonight as a freshman for FAU tonight, Smith led FAU with 23 points in their first game and has been first or second in minutes played their first two games as well.

The story of the first half was the ability for Jacksonville to take 17 more shots then Florida Atlantic and while JU Just shot 33% from the field they had four more makes then Florida Atlantic who shot only 39%. Florida Atlantic turned the ball over 13 times and allowed 14 offensive rebounds in the first half alone.

Ashanti Williams busted out with a big first half for the Dolphins with 12 points hitting 2 3’s and four freethrows while going 3 for 5 from the field. FAU was more spread out with their point distribution and had had 9 different players score in the first half. Jacksonville lead Florida Atlantic 40-34 at the break .

Florida Atlantic was somewhat handcuffed by the scouting report and played Jacksonville a lot of 2-3 zone but the reality is that you probably should pressure JU they really lack point guard play with only having a freshman in Ronisha Mitchell and Jennifer George a junior who isn’t particularly athletic. Also in the book was stopping GiGi Thomas and FAU did a pretty effective job of that limiting her to just 2 freethrows on 0-2 shooting from the field in the first half.

FAU isn’t really dominant in the paint or at point and really you have to have one or the other, their freshman are a little passive right now you can tell there is a lot of indecision on who’s job it is to carry the team.

FAU struggled to handle the ball and get rebounds which really cost them the game. Defensively they’re so new and havnt really got a lot of team defense going yet and have a lot of new kids who don’t really understand the need for intensity on defense they couldn’t really come back and force turnovers when they got down at the end. They made a few plays on defense before just falling apart with 3 turnovers and 2 offensive rebounds in the last minute of the game only trailing 6. The final score ended up being 78-66.

Terri Stamps led FAU in scoring but they really needed her more on defense and to attack to get others involved for the team’s success.

Enough about FAU….JU is much improved from last year super athletic and playing really hard. It’d be hard for me to imagine they’d finish worse then 4th in the ASUN and have a chance to knock off Wake Forest in a few weeks when the roll into town. Some of the stats for JU where pretty impressive . Ashanti Williams finished with 22 points on 7 of 12 from the field. Both Taneskei Richardson and Lynsey Paschal finished with double doubles …. Paschall 13 & 10 and Richardson 11 and 17. Fau committed 22 turnovers and gave up 24 offensive rebounds and everyone knows as long as that happens you cant win.