CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – There was a consistent theme sounded after Florida Atlantic’s 63-51 loss at Harvard on Thursday night. The message: this team is not there yet, and mental toughness is the big key to getting there.
“We’re close, but we’re not there,” said head coach Mike Jarvis. “We were in a position win, like we’ve been many, many nights this year, but we just haven’t had the mental toughness to finish off. We’re not finishing what we start.”
Florida Atlantic stayed right with Harvard for most of the night, leading on several occasions. Harvard led by nine late in the first half, thanks to cutting down on turnovers, but the Owls rallied to take the lead in the second half. As was the case in the first half, Harvard cut down on turnovers in the latter part of the second half, and the Owls couldn’t stop them once they were unable to get the ball away from the Crimson. They allowed Harvard to shoot over 55 percent from the field on the evening, and were out-rebounded 34-20.
Last season, a relatively young Owls team won 21 games and went 13-3 in Sun Belt play. That undoubtedly raised expectations for this season, with a lot of players returning, although there was little doubt they would miss departed senior Brett Royster. Royster was an enforcer inside, a presence that they don’t quite have now, and without him this is a smaller team.
The Owls have to play differently since they’re smaller. They started four guards on Thursday night, including two who are shorter than 6′ in the diminutive Ray Taylor (who stands all of 5’6″) and Alex Tucker. Players 6’6″ or taller played 36 minutes out of a possible 200 on the evening. Right now, they haven’t adapted to playing how they need to.
“We dribble the ball too much, and guys get tired and they go back to what most kids today like to do – dribble the ball,” said Jarvis. “We have to get these guys to realize that if we pass it first and dribble last, we’re going to be pretty good. It’s that simple, but it’s really not that simple, because in order to play the way that we’re going to have to play with this small team, we have to be in incredible condition, and we have to be able to sustain it for 40 minutes, and we don’t. We haven’t found that yet.”
Jarvis says this team is really a year away from reaching its peak. They have seven-foot Croatia native Dragan Sekelja sitting out as he has transferred from Baylor, and he should impact them right away next season. But that’s far away and they can’t do anything about that right now, and Jarvis reminded us that next year isn’t promised to any of us. Right now, they have to play with who they have, and that’s a team full of guards that doesn’t include leading scorer Greg Gantt, who missed his second straight game due to injury. The good thing is that the guards have an array of skills,with Taylor and Tucker able to run the show and penetrate while Gantt and freshman Omari Greer give them a couple of shooters that opposing defenses have to watch.
One thing Jarvis’ career has shown is that he is a good coach, so this team will have a chance. He won a Big East title in 2000 with a St. John’s team that lacked depth, but he might have gotten more out of that team than anyone else could have. This challenge is decidedly different, as depth isn’t a problem for the Owls with ten players averaging double-digit minutes and no one averaging more than 27 a game. The Owls aren’t lacking talent, either, and that solves part of the problem.
“Most of our problems are from the neck up, so the hardest part is out of the way, which is the physical part,” said junior forward Jordan McCoy. “Once we take care of that, we should be good to go and start winning some games.”
McCoy added that without Royster, the team has a lot of quickness and mainly needs to use that advantage. He echoed Jarvis’ comments about mental mistakes late in the game being a concern for this team.
After Thursday’s loss, the Owls are 4-8, with only a home date with Siena remaining before they start Sun Belt Conference play. It will start off with a challenge, as three of the first four and five of the first seven are on the road. One of the two home games is at Middle Tennessee, which along with Denver has had the best non-conference showing of any Sun Belt school.
Florida Atlantic isn’t lacking the talent to have a run like last season’s 13-3 showing. They’re also a more experienced team than last year, but now other Sun Belt teams will have a closer eye on them. If they adapt to the way they have to play before long, this is a team that has a chance to turn some of those close calls into wins. From there, they might be able to string together a couple of wins and let the confidence they gain boost them further.
