Florida Atlantic University Men's Basketball

John Jakus was named men's basketball head coach in March 2024. Jakus enters his second year at the helm after finishing his first year at 18-16, the third c...

Aaron Smith joined the Florida Atlantic men’s basketball staff in September of 2025 as an assistant coach after spending one season with Longwood as an assistant. Smith arrives to Paradise after spending one year at Longwood University. He spent three years with Louisiana Tech in the same role, a team that recorded 20+ wins in back-to-back seasons. While at Longwood, he was a part of the staff to recruit the best class in program history. He oversaw the academic success of the student-athletes, and the team recorded a 3.26 GPA for the third-highest GPA in school history. Primarily worked with the guards and wings, worked with Colby Garland, Angelo Brizzi, and Kyrell Luc. At Louisiana Tech, among the players Smith helped coach were Isaiah Crawford, who was voted CUSA Player of the Year and CUSA Defensive Player of the Year, as well as Daniel Batcho, who was selected as the CUSA Newcomer of the Year Prior to Louisiana Tech, Smith spent seven seasons with head coaching stops at Jacksonville College and Panola College. During his stint, he won two Region XIV South Zone championships, coached two All-Americans, and had 10 First or Second Team All-Region performers. Smith spent three seasons at the helm at Panola College in Carthage, Texas, leading the Ponies in 2021-22 to a 22-10 overall record while advancing to the Region XIV semifinals. He coached Panola to a 14-7 record in the 2020-21 season and 19-12 in 2019-20, with several appearances in the national rankings. At Jacksonvil

Aditya Malhotra joined Florida Atlantic's staff in the summer of 2024 after the hiring of head coach John Jakus Malhotra joined the 2024-25 Owls' staff after two seasons in the NBA with the Phoenix Suns, first as Manager of Amateur Scouting from July 2022 to May 2023 before being named the Manager of Basketball Quality Control in May of '23. Jakus and Malhotra's coaching relationship dates back to 2017, when the two served on the Baylor staff. Joining the Bears as a graduate assistant for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons, he became special assistant to the head coach for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons. His next two seasons were as associate Director of Operations & Recruiting before being promoted to Director of Operations prior to the 2019-20 season. In his eight seasons with the program, Malhotra helped coach Baylor to the 2021 National Championship and Big 12 title, six NCAA Tournament berths, including three Sweet 16 appearances, and seven consecutive postseason appearances. BU posted a combined 192-77 record during his eight seasons on staff, averaging 24 wins per season. Over the course of his two years as director of basketball operations, Baylor won 90 percent of its games with a combined 54-6 record, including 29-4 in Big 12 play and 17-3 against ranked opponents. The Bears were expected to be a No. 1 seed in the 2020 NCAA Tournament before the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Baylor returned the following season and earned that top spot. BU the

In July of 2025, Demond Parker was promoted to assistant coach. Parker joined the Florida Atlantic men’s basketball staff in April of 2024 as the director of player development after spending one season with Furman as the director of player development. Previously, Parker was a graduate assistant for two seasons under Head Coach Scott Drew’s staff at Baylor, Parker helped the Bears post a 50-18 overall record, a 25-11 mark in Big 12 Conference play, capture the 2022 Big 12 Conference title, and advance twice to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Prior to arriving at Baylor, Parker served as a volunteer at his alma mater, Cedarville University, from 2020-21. A former standout guard and two-year team captain at Cedarville, he guided the Yellow Jackets to the 2018-19 National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCA) )national championship as a junior. Cedarville’s 21-12 record that season marked its first winning campaign in six years. Parker, a native of Huber Heights, Ohio, began his collegiate career at NAIA Division II Wilberforce University in 2016-17. As a prep star at Huber Heights’ Wayne High School, he guided his team to three Greater Western Ohio Conference Central Division titles and the 2015 Ohio Division I state championship while earning all-conference accolades. He played four seasons for Wayne High School and was a member of the 2015 Ohio Division I state championship team. He was a Dean’s List student at Cedarville University while earning an accounti

In September of 2025, Eric McClellan was named director of player development in addition to being a graduate assistant. McClellan joined the Florida Atlantic men's basketball staff in June of 2024 as the graduate assistant after concluding his professional career overseas. In 2025-26, the Owls had their second American Most Improved Player in Devin Vanterpool in program history. Vanterpool also earned third-team All-Conference and led FAU with 15.8 points per game. McClellan a native of Austin, Texas, began his collegiate career at Tulsa University. He then transferred to Vanderbilt where he earned a starting role his first season there, McClellan led the Commodores his sophomore year with 14.3 points per game. McClellan later transferred to Gonzaga to complete the last two seasons of his collegiate career. In his time with the Zags, he went on to two NCAA postseasons appearances (Elite 8 and Sweet 16) and he was named the 2016 WCC Defensive Player of the Year. To kick off his professional career in 2016, he went to play for Limburg United where he had a great start to his career. McClellan played in eight different countries (Mexico, Germany, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Lithuania, Belgium, and Austria) throughout his career. While in Cyprus, he was named Rookie of the Year. During his time in Mexico, he was named Guard of the Year, First-team All-League, and All-Imports Team. He later ended up in Austria with Kapfenberg Bulls to win his first professional title in 2019. He is

Isaiah Austin arrived the Owls to join Jakus' inaugural staff after two years working in the NBA front office with a focus on player development. Prior to working in the league front office, Austin was a professional basketball player overseas. From 2017-2021 he spent his time playing for 11 countries. In June of 2021, he was the first overall draft pick in the Big3 for the Enemies. Before his overseas career, Austin declared for the NBA draft in 2014, forgoing his two years of NCAA eligibility. Shortly before the draft, he was diagnosed with Marfan's Syndrome. Despite this, on draft night between the 15th and 16th picks, he was named a ceremonial pick by the NBA. Austin was a two-year starter with the Baylor Bears from 2012-2014 during Jakus' two seasons as a graduate assistant. As a freshman, Austin earned third-team All-Big 12 and Big 12 All-Rookie Team honors. In the 2013 NIT Championship, he recorded 15 points, nine rebounds, five blocks, four assists, and two steals to lead Baylor's victory over Iowa by a score of 74–54. Austin started in all 35 games, averaging 13.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 1.7 blocks in 29.9 minutes per game. In his sophomore season, Austin appeared in 38 games, averaging 11.2 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and 3.1 blocks in 28.0 minutes per game. Austin was named to the Big 12 Championship All-Tournament Team, All-Big 12 Honorable Mention, and All-Big 12 Defensive Team. Austin also had a distinguished high school career at Grace Pre

Michael Graffin joined Florida Atlantic University as associate director of athletics for development in July of 2018. He was elevated to senior associate AD in the spring of 2020. He was elevated in the fall of 2022 to deputy athletics director, revenue generation. Along with his development (Paradise Club) oversight, Graffin also oversees the ticket sales/operations as well as all external relations and serves on the executive staff. As an associate AD, Graffin helped the fundraising efforts which saw a 630% increase in the 2019 fiscal year as well as a 275% increase in annual fund efforts. Graffin came to FAU after six years with the Army West Point Athletics Department, where he served the last four as part of the Army A Club. He was been an integral part of the A Club team that saw over 25 percent growth the last two seasons. In his first two seasons, Graffin served as a sales consultant for the Aspire Group at West Point, coordinating and selling group experiences, season- and single-game tickets for Army. Graffin was a key component in launching Army gameday experiences for youth football and lacrosse programs, which brought in over $100,000 in new revenue. Before joining the Army staff in 2012, Graffin spent a year as the assistant director of athletic operations at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, overseeing the day-to-day operations for 15 athletic teams. Graffin earned a master's degree in sport administration from Belmont University in 2011. The Bowling

At FAU Joined the Florida Atlantic staff as the Director of Strength and Conditioning for the Owls’ Olympic Sports in the summer of 2022 Elevated to Assistan...