After a week without games, the Florida Atlantic University (FAU) men’s basketball team is set to play Rice in Houston on Wednesday, February 11. The game will start at 8 p.m. ET and be broadcast on ESPN+. FAU will then return home to face South Florida at Eleanor R. Baldwin Arena on Sunday, February 15. That matchup will air on ESPN2 at 2 p.m.
In their last game, FAU played Tulsa and narrowly lost with a final score of 78-76. Redshirt junior guard Niccolo Moretti led FAU by playing all 40 minutes and scoring a career-high 25 points, with 20 of those coming in the second half.
John Jakus is serving his second season as head coach for the Owls. In his first year during the 2024-25 season, he was named a finalist for the Joe B. Hall Award, which recognizes the nation’s top first-year head coach. Under Jakus’ leadership, FAU made its fourth consecutive postseason appearance by earning a spot in the 2025 National Invitational Tournament.
The team features eight international players from seven countries: United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Senegal, and France.
Redshirt sophomore guard Devin Vanterpool has received two American Conference weekly honorable mentions this season while leading FAU in points per game (15.5), rebounds per game (6.4), steals (35), and three-pointers made (48). His rebounding average ranks eighth nationally among guards who are six feet four inches or shorter. Vanterpool scored 30 points against Coastal Georgia earlier this season—the first time an FAU player reached that mark since January 2024—and has recorded two double-doubles so far.
Junior guard Kanaan Carlyle surpassed 500 collegiate career points on December 13 against UAlbany and leads active FAU players in this category. He averages 13.9 points per game and has hit at least one three-pointer in all but two games this season. Carlyle also leads the team with an average of 3.1 assists per game.
Guard Josiah Parker was named the American Conference’s Preseason Freshman of the Year and has earned four weekly freshman honors this season. He has posted double-doubles in two of his last three games; most notably, he tallied 21 points and grabbed 14 rebounds against Memphis on January 29.
As a unit, FAU ranks sixth nationally in total blocks with 137 this season. Redshirt sophomore forward Devin Williams is fourth nationwide with 64 blocks; he collected seven blocks against Memphis on January 11—one short of tying the program’s single-game record.
At home during the current season, FAU holds a record of nine wins and three losses at Eleanor R. Baldwin Arena (“the Elly”), averaging over ninety-three points per win with an average victory margin of nearly twenty-four points.
Rice enters Wednesday’s contest under Head Coach Rob Lanier’s direction for his second year with the program. Graduate guard Trae Broadnax leads Rice in scoring (15.6 points per game), rebounding (5.5 boards per game), and assists (3.2 assists per game), having picked up four conference honorable mentions this year. Senior guard Nick Anderson averages just under fifteen points per game for Rice as well.
Rice is ranked ninth nationally for offensive rebounds per game at fourteen point three.
The two teams have met twelve times previously; FAU leads the all-time series eight games to four.
South Florida is led by Bryan Hodgson in his first year as head coach and currently shares first place atop the conference standings with an eight-and-three record.
South Florida averages over ninety points per game—ranking ninth nationally—and leads Division I teams in free throws made each contest.
Senior forward Izaiyah Nelson has recorded sixteen double-doubles this season—the second-most nationally—and tops the conference by averaging nearly ten rebounds each outing.
Junior guard Wes Enis stands fourth nationwide with almost four made three-pointers per contest.
Historically, South Florida holds a sixteen-to-four advantage over FAU; they won their last meeting on January 25 by a score of eighty-nine to seventy-five.
Following these matchups, FAU will travel back to Texas for games against UTSA on February 18 and North Texas on February 22.
