Western Kentucky Awaits FAU in Bowling Green

Feb. 24, 2009

FLORIDA ATLANTIC (6-23) @ WESTERN KENTUCKY (19-8)
Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009 - 8:00 p.m. ET
Diddle Arena (7,236) - Bowling Green, KY

FLORIDA ATLANTIC @ FIU (11-18)
Saturday, Feb. 28, 2009 - 7:00 p.m. ET
FIU Arena (5,000) - Miami, FL

GAMES #30/31: Florida Atlantic takes on reigning Sun Belt Conference Champion Western Kentucky Thursday night in Bowling Green before wrapping up its regular season schedule Saturday night in Miami against rival FIU. FAU is 5-7 at home this season but has yet to win on the road in 15 tries. WKU is in first-pace in the SBC East division and is vying for the league's No. 1 seed in the upcoming conference tournament.

TV/RADIO/INTERNET: Fox College Sports (FCS) - available via Comcast Digital Cable channel 723 and/or DirectTV channel 617 - will televise Thursday's game at WKU live. Additionally all of FAU's regular-season games (home and away) will air on live commercial radio WFTL - 640 AM with audio links available via FAUSPORTS.com. Steve Bishop (play-by-play) will call the game for WFTL on Thursday and with Ken LaVicka (p-x-p) describing the action on Saturday versus FIU.

GAME NOTES:
# Mike Jarvis (369-225 all-time) is in his first year as FAU head coach
# Jarvis got the Owls off to the best start in its Division I history (3-1) before injuries and eligibility issues decimated the team
# Florida Atlantic has lost 15-straight on the road
# The Owls will be the No. 13 seed in the upcoming league tournament, which begins Wednesday, March 4
# South Alabama, North Texas, Middle Tennessee St. and Denver are possible first round opponents for FAU
# WKU (13-3) is the SBC's top team, FAU (2-14) is in last place in the SBC East
# The Owls have lost to both WKU (78-57) and FIU (58-53) earlier this season at the FAU Arena in Boca Raton
# FAU ranks 27th nationally in limiting its turnovers (12.1 pg), helping the Owls stay competitive night-in and night-out
# 13 of FAU's 23 losses have been by 7 points or less
# FAU senior G Paul Graham III is scoring 20.6 points per night in league play
# F Carlos Monroe - the preseason SBC Player of the Year - has returned from injury after missing 21 of 27 games
# Monroe had 12 rebounds in FAU's narrow 74-68 loss to Middle Tennessee St. Saturday
# FAU boasts the league's top scorer in G Paul Graham III (20.6 ppg), shot-blocker F/C Brett Royster (2.6 bpg), assist-man Alex Tucker (5.4 apg) and highest freshman scorer G Shavar Richardson (12.1 ppg) during league play
# NEXT UP: The Sun Belt Conference post-season tournament begins Wednesday, March 4. FAU - assured of the No. 13 seed - will be playing on the road, hoping to advance to Hot Springs, Arkansas the site of Quarterfinals through Final round play March 8-10

FLORIDA ATLANTIC: The Owls (6-23; 2-14 SBC) lost another close Sun Belt game Saturday night, 74-68 to Middle Tennessee State. It marks the eighth league game FAU has lost by nine points or fewer. First-year head coach Mike Jarvis had been operating with eight available scholarship players and using a seven-man rotation before senior forward Carlos Monroe returned to the floor last week. Monroe played seven minutes against Savannah State last Wednesday and 27 minutes Saturday versus MTSU. ""Anytime you miss a significant amount of time, you come back and no matter how much you practice, you can't simulate what happens in a game," Monroe said after the game with Middle Tennessee. "I still have a lot of rust but that is not an excuse. I just have to put in extra work before practice and after practice and it will come." Despite its lack of depth, the team is competitive each night thanks largely to Paul Graham III's league-best 18.5 points per game. Graham - a 6-foot-5 senior guard from Philadelphia - has scored 33, 25 and 27, 21 and 18 in Florida Atlantic's last five games. He set the FAU record for career free throws made Saturday night. The future seems to be in the hands of the incoming class Jarvis has signed for 2009-10 and the young nucleus of G Shavar Richardson (12.0 points p/g) - the Sun Belt's top freshmen scorer - freshman G Alex Tucker (5.0 assists p/g) and sophomore F/C Brett Royster (2.4 blocks p/g). The Owls - 0-15 on the road - will play in the No. 13 vs. No. 4 game in the Sun Belt Conference postseason tournament. "I can deal with this, probably because I have had an incredibly blessed and productive career," Jarvis said about this season's results. "I am very grateful that I have been on all sides of the spectrum. It gives me the belief that this isn't going to be permanent, this is just temporary."

WESTERN KENTUCKY: The Hilltoppers (19-8) are a perfect 12-0 at home this season. First-year head coach Ken McDonald, who was an assistant coach at the University of Texas in each of the last four seasons, has the Hilltoppers controlling its own destiny as it hopes to claim the Sun Belt Conference regular-season title. Wins over FIU (79-66) and UALR (78-69) last week were fueled by sophomore forward Sergio Kerusch who posted back-to-back double-doubles, averaging 22.0 points and 11.5 rebounds. For his efforts, Kerusch was named the Sun Belt Conference "Player of the Week" - the third WKU player to win the award this season. The well-balanced Toppers have been the best rebounding team in the Sun Belt this season (+6.4). They have scored 74.6 points per night en route to a 13-3 record against SBC teams this season. WKU made national news earlier in the year, beating No. 3 Louisville 68-54 on a neutral floor in Nashville and following that win up with a 67-63 home victory over Georgia. WKU advanced into the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 a year ago.

SERIES WITH WKU: An Orlando Mendez-Valdez triple put the Hilltoppers up 46-39 with 12:56 left en route to WKU's 78-57 win over FAU earlier this season in Boca Raton. WKU led by as many as 22 late in the second half in that game. The Owls are in their third Sun Belt season and have played a home-and-home series with Western Kentucky in each of the last two years. A Sun Belt Conference tournament game in 2007 and the home loss this season brings the series up to six games, which WKU leads 5-1. FAU defeated WKU 78-73 on February 14, 2007 in Bowling Green and are 1-1 all-time at Diddle Arena.

FIU: The Golden Panthers (11-18) are among five teams vying for a No. 8 seed and a first round home game in the upcoming SBC Tournament. FIU hosts Middle Tennessee State Thursday night before welcoming the Owls for both schools' regular-season finale. Fifth-year head coach Sergio Rouco - one of only two foreign-born Hispanic head coaches in Division I - has guided FIU to a 9-6 home record (4-3 vs. SBC). Impressive home wins included an upset of WKU (81-79) on Jan. 8 and more recently ending Troy's 10-game winning streak last Thursday (87-86). Rouco has benefited from the return of Alex Galindo who missed time earlier this season but has come on to average 15.4 ppg in conference play. Galindo hit a 3 with 3.4 seconds left to help FIU beat Troy Thursday. Injuries have been a problem for FIU, with junior Nikola Gaseca missing both games last week with an ankle sprain. The Golden Panthers are one of the lower-scoring teams in the league, averaging 62.3 points per night.

THE SERIES WITH FIU: The Golden Panthers lead the all-time series 13-9. FIU won a close game, 58-53, against FAU in Boca Raton earlier this year. The lead change hands 10 times and FIU led by four at the half before the Panthers made a series of timely 3s in the second half to escape with the win. Shavar Richardson scored 16 and Paul Graham III had 13 in the loss for FAU. FAU has knocked the Golden Panthers out of the Sun Belt Conference tournament in each of the last two seasons on the Owls' home floor at the FAU Arena in Boca Raton. FIU won both regular season games a year ago, including a 69-58 victory in the last meeting at FIU Arena Jan. 5, 2008.

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Players Mentioned

Paul Graham III

Carlos Monroe

Shavar Richardson

Brett Royster

Alex Tucker

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Charleston on November 8, 2025 at 6 p.m.

Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball at Liberty on November 9, 2025 at 6 p.m.

Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Coastal Georgia on November 17, 2025 at 7 p.m.

Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Pacific on November 20, 2025 at 7 p.m.

Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus LMU on November 24, 2025 at 8:30 p.m.

Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus George Mason or Ohio on November 25, 2025 at 5:30 p.m./7:30 p.m.

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