Book It

BOCA RATON — During FAU’s media day luncheon in early November, shooting guard and Oklahoma transfer Frank Booker admitted that he’d spent plenty of time watching highlights of NBA All-Stars Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.

After a season that’s seen the highs of 15 points in the win over Ohio State and the lows of being relegated to the bench, Booker finally managed to do his best impression of the Splash Brothers.

Playing his most minutes since the team’s upset of the Buckeyes in early December, Booker scored 22 points on 7-14 shooting (5-11 from three-point range) in 25 minutes in Saturday’s 86-57 loss to the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders.

Nine days prior, Booker had played only five minutes in the close loss to the University of San Antonio Roadrunners. If the junior guard was still feeling any frustration about the demotion, however, he didn’t let it show after his huge night.

“It’s part of the game – everybody goes through those ups and downs,” Booker said. “I was struggling shooting the ball and defensively, I wasn’t locked in. Coach sat me down, talked to me about it, and I played my role.”

At first moving into the sixth man role and switching places with Adonis Filer, Booker played a combined 19 minutes in the team’s first four Conference USA games. But on a night in which the majority of the ‘new’ starting lineup was a non-factor, it was Booker that had The Burrow shaking after every made shot.

In the nine games between a December 16 loss in Miami and Thursday’s heartbreaker against the UAB Blazers, Booker had scored 25 points total. In one night alone, he nearly matched that with 22.

Saturday’s performance was the type of game coach Michael Curry and the Owls were expecting when Booker arrived as a transfer from Oklahoma prior to last season. Missing the 2015-16 campaign in compliance with transfer regulations and having undergone back surgery, Booker made his official Owls debut as a starter on the season-opening trip to Hawaii and averaged 8.5 points a night in the first eight games.

To Curry, however, this type of game for Booker was going to come eventually – and, it’s the type of game the Owls will certainly need if they’re going to turn things around in Conference USA play.

“Frank’s started 10 games for us so this was good to get this kind of game. We need it,” Curry said. “We just have to keep the grind. I’ve said all along that when a guy has to sit out a year, it ain’t happening right away.”

Booker’s career night wasn’t the only thing on his mind, though, as the junior made it clear that the team’s performance against the Blue Raiders was unacceptable.

“I thought the first group came out flat, but the bench – everybody had their moments and we have a great bench, a great group of guys,” Booker said. “But defensively, we couldn’t get any stops. That’s what messed us up.”

Trending Topics:

• Those getting tired of the results that have led to the Owls going 2-8 across their past 10 games can rejoice, as Curry announced in his postgame press conference Saturday night that changes are coming to the Owls. Two names that could be making a move to the bench? Point guard Nick Rutherford and power forward Jailyn Ingram.
• Booker’s sharp performance was one to remember, but the loss to Middle Tennessee will likely be more remembered by fans for the power outage that led to a delayed tip-off. Interestingly, Booker and some of the players who remained on the court and shot in the dark thought that the outage had to do with ‘testing out the video board.’ That’s certainly an interesting theory, but probably not what caused the delay. FAU did not provide an official explanation for the darkness that delayed the game by more than 15 minutes.
• After Saturday’s loss to Middle Tennessee, the Owls now have lost three Conference USA games in Boca Raton by 15 or more points. No one will dispute that Middle Tennessee is a good team – one that is headed for the NCAA Tournament yet again – but these blowout losses at home are starting to pile up. A 1-6 start in Conference USA is unacceptable on its face, but three of the four home losses being blowouts of that magnitude is hard to believe.
• In last week’s midterm grades, forward William Pfister received the lowest grade in large part because of his constant foul trouble. The past two games, Pfister has not managed to stay on the court, but has also started to fix some of his offensive woes as well. Saturday’s loss against Middle Tennessee saw the French big man have his best game of the season with 11 points and seven rebounds.

Conference Counterparts: Middle Tennessee remains the only perfect team in Conference USA with a 7-0 record, but Louisiana Tech isn’t far behind at 6-1. If the season ended today, FAU and their lone conference win would make the Conference USA tournament, but only because of a tiebreaker they hold against FIU. At 0-7, North Texas is the only winless team in conference play, a surprise given their 6-6 start in non-conference.

Working Women: The women’s team (4-14, 0-7 C-USA) fell to UAB, 66-55, and Middle Tennessee, 87-69, on the road this past week. Still looking for their first win in Conference USA, FAU will try to break its losing streak when FIU (4-14, 2-5 C-USA) comes to The Burrow on Thursday night. Fans coming out to the Burrow will want to keep an eye on freshman Katelyn O’Reilly, who broke her career high with 13 points on 50 percent shooting against the Lady Raiders. O’Reilly also added five boards, one assist, and a steal in the loss.

Game of the Week: Rarely will anyone care about two one-win teams this late in conference play, but FAU and FIU always makes for fun times. The Owls will travel to Miami Thursday night for a 7 p.m. throwdown with the Panthers in a game that at least a few FAU students plan on attending. That aforementioned tiebreaker between the two is very important, as a sweep of FIU could be the determining factor should the Owls qualify for the C-USA tournament.