Freshman Fever

BOCA RATON — Between settling into a new school, a heavy workload, and the dreaded ‘Freshman 15,’ first-year college players will often get to use their initial season as an adjustment period.

But as he’s shown in the season’s first month, Jailyn Ingram isn’t your typical freshman.

Months after graduating from Georgia’s Madison County High School and choosing FAU basketball over several Power 5 football offers – including one from Florida State – Ingram has become one of the conference’s most dynamic freshman.

Named the Conference-USA freshman of the week on November 28, Ingram is currently third on the team with 10.4 points per game on .514 shooting.

Despite a 3-6 start to the season where the team has lost three games by four or fewer points, the former Georgia football star hasn’t let some early struggles make him regret picking basketball over football.

“I have to keep pushing,” Ingram said. “We’re definitely better than what the final score says and we have to bring more energy. We’re not playing to what we can live up to so we need to keep on playing and keep having faith.”

The emergence of Ingram, who scored double-digits in the team’s first five games after the Hawaii trip, has led to more opportunities in the rotation. Ingram is currently tied for third on the Owls with 26.8 minutes per game.

“With Jailyn, his versatility – all of these guys who have the most versatility – it becomes difficult to take him off the court,” coach Michael Curry said. “He can guard so many different guys so when other teams make subs, you don’t necessarily have to take him off. He can play inside, handle the basketball – be our secondary ball handler – and he has the ability to score.”

The good that Ingram does on the court, however, has led to him getting a heavy share of the workload. During a three-game stretch against UT-Martin, Hofstra, and Ohio State, Ingram played 100 of 125 possible minutes and made 64 percent of his shots.

Ingram played 40 minutes in the team’s overtime win against Ohio State in Columbus and was still feeling the aftereffects days later.

“There’s definitely times I’ve felt like I’m going to break down, but I also know that the big reality of it is that I would rather have the win,” Ingram said.

Both college and professional coaches have tried putting ‘minutes limits’ on their younger players, with Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid one such notable current case. Voluntarily putting those inexperienced, but succeeding, players who may still be getting adjusted to a new league on the bench can often lead to struggles for the rest of the team.

On Friday night against Miami, Ingram played a season-low 16 minutes and went 2-6 from the field. FAU suffered their worst loss of the season as the Hurricanes dominated them by a 76-56 final in Miami Gardens.

Curry seemed to brushed off the idea of a potential minute limit for Ingram in the few games before Conference-USA play began,

“You don’t want his minutes to be so high night in and night out, but sometimes – especially when we gotta break – he’ll play as much as needed,” Curry said.

Trending Topics:

• Nine games into the season, FAU’s bench continues to be a bright spot. Friday night against Miami, the Owls’ bench outscored both the Canes’ bench and their own starters by a 30-26 margin. With two games left before conference play begins, Curry may give some bench players – namely William Pfister, Devorious Brown, and Jesse Hill – extra minutes against Webber and Florida Gulf Coast to see what they can bring to the table against their Conference-USA opponents.
• Justin Massey made his season debut against Miami and went scoreless in 12 minutes of play. Massey figures to be another player who should benefit from the two remaining non-conference games, though that’s more so he can shake off the rust and properly prepare for an increased role.
• Because so many FAU students live within the Palm Beach area and are off for winter break, keep an eye on attendance during this lengthy homestand. While crowds for the first few home games were nothing fancy by Power 5 standards (the average attendance was over 1,000 fans a game), enough fans were flocking to The Burrow to make a difference and make some major noise. Despite the Owls’ loss to Miami, there seems to be a level of student interest developing for Michael Curry’s team – and one that the players likely seriously appreciate.

Game of the Week: For the final time this season, the Owls will play only one game in a single week as they host Webber International on Wednesday night. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. from The Burrow.

Working Women: The Florida Atlantic women’s basketball team currently sits at 4-7 on the eve of Conference play. Rice leads C-USA with an 8-2 record at this moment.

Conference Counterparts: Middle Tennessee still holds the best record in Conference-USA at 10-2, though Louisiana Tech is riding hot at 7-4 thanks to a 6-0 home record.