Paws Up Preview – FIU Men’s Basketball vs Jacksonville State

Following a rough 5-10 non-conference record to begin the season, FIU looks to turn the page and begin the conference slate, knowing that these are the games that matter the most.

At the moment, through another overall record, the Panthers find themselves at the bottom of the Conference USA standings, but stringing a couple of wins will change things for them.

Their first opponent, the Jacksonville State Gamecocks, is one of the four newcomers to C-USA and are off to an 8-7 start with their most notable win coming against the UTSA Roadrunners.

This season, the Gamecocks find themselves as the third-best rebounding team in the conference, fourth-best three-point percentage, and second in field goal percentage. They’ve shown early on that they can shoot the lights out of the ball.

This season, Andres Burney is leading the way with the highest FG% at .667 5.5 points per game, 3.5 total rebounds, and 0.3 assists per game. The Gamecocks leading scorer is grad student KyKy Tandy who is averaging 18.4 points per game, 2.3 total rebounds, 1.5 assists, and has a 45.1 FG% this season.

Although the Gamecocks have height, it feels like the Panthers continue to have the height advantage over plenty of teams in the conference, and that begins with Jax State.

For the Panthers, guard Javaunte Hawkins has now started in back-to-back games, and in the loss against Utah Tech, he notched a career-high 27 points. That included two three-pointers that either gave FIU the lead or tied it up late in the game.

Arturo Dean certainly saw some flaws against the Trailblazers on Saturday, as he fouled out late into the game, but after a quiet first half, Dean led the way and ended the night with 21 points, five rebounds, three assists, and six steals.

Dean continues to lead the country in steals, as he is averaging 4.1 per game.

The Panthers are set to tip off against the Gamecocks on Saturday at 5pm. This will mark the first meeting between both schools since 2021, where the Gamecocks beat the Panthers by a score of 66-59.