Florida Atlantic Men’s Basketball head coach John Jakus is going to be VERY busy over the next few weeks to come with the NCAA Transfer Portal officially open for business. With roughly half of the Owls’ roster in the portal, Jakus will have his recruiting cap tight on his head, scouring the entire country as he tries to fill in holes left by ever-flowing player departures.
The former Baylor assistant has had a knack for bringing in young, overlooked, uber-talented players, mainly from power programs, and re-vitalizing their careers in Boca Raton through some terrific player development (ex. Baba Miller, Kaleb Glenn, Kanaan Carlyle, Isaiah Elohim).
Whether its from a power program or a fellow mid-major like FAU, we will look at some intriguing players who are currently in the transfer portal that the Owls could very well target and what these players would bring to the table in an FAU uniform.
Kevair Kennedy – 6’2″ Guard – Merrimack College
The first entry on this list is a player who became the FIRST freshman to win the MAAC Player of the Year this past season, averaging 18.4 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 1.9 steals for Merrimack College. Kennedy, a three-star recruit and Philadelphia native, is a shifty combo guard who is lightning quick, loves to score downhill, and knows how to get his hands dirty on defense. He played and started in all 34 games for the Warriors this past season, scoring In double-figures in every game except one, with SIXTEEN 20+ point performances as well.
While the 6-foot-2 guard is getting a handful of high-major looks, there is reported interest between Florida Atlantic and Kennedy, with Dushawn London of 247sports reporting that the Merrimack transfer took a zoom meeting with the Owls on Thursday, April 9th. FAU head coach John Jakus is going to have a good amount of competition and it could be a battle to bring the talented scoring guard to Boca Raton. However, if he can pull it off, this would be a home-run of an acquisition; not to mention a backcourt pairing of Kennedy along with guard Kanaan Carlyle would be a very, very fun watch and could definitely catapult FAU into being a favorite in the American Conference next season.
Noam Dovrat – 6’5″ Guard – Miami (FL)
The second player we will take a look at is, at least statistically speaking, one of the best 3-point shooters, if not THE best in the entire transfer portal. Despite only averaging 3.8 points in 9.4 minutes a night for the Miami Hurricanes this season, Dovrat shot an absurd 46% from beyond the arc while proving to be a steady, sharpshooting point-forward off the bench, appearing in 27 games. If you want a bigger sample size, the 6-foot-5 guard shot around 38% from 3-point range on an average of 4.0 attempts in a stretch of 18 games played in the Israeli Basketball Premier League during the 2024-25 season.
Florida Atlantic hasn’t been a team that shies away from shooting the long ball, averaging a little over 24 3-point attempts per game over the last two seasons. Combine this with what is now a backcourt hole left by a few FAU players entering the portal as well as head coach John Jakus and his strong international ties, Dovrat makes a ton of sense. He will be a rising senior and could easily flourish as a locker room leader, floor general, and sharpshooter in impactful minutes if he joins the Owls.
Jason Asemota – 6’8″ Forward – Boston College
The next name on this list is somebody who FAU head coach John Jakus is VERY familiar with already. Asemota is a former four-star recruit coming out of Hillcrest Prep who started his collegiate career off at Baylor, committing to the Bears back in August of 2022, the same year John Jakus was appointed as Baylor’s associate head coach under Scott Drew. Along with the mutual ties to Baylor, Jakus got a good look at the 6-foot-8 forward back in early November, when Florida Atlantic hosted Boston College for their ’25-’26 season opener at Eleanor R. Baldwin Arena. Asemota played 11 minutes, scoring 2 points and grabbing 4 rebounds in a double-overtime loss to the Owls. During his recruitment in 2022, Asemota had high praise for Jakus, saying “He’s a really good dude..he really likes my game and how I can improve his program.”
Asemota, a Boston native, has yet to see his collegiate career pan out, averaging 2.3 points and 1.8 rebounds in 7.0 minutes through 45 career games. Despite these numbers, he has shown glimpses of being an ultra-athletic, two-way wing who has also made big strides with his 3-point shooting, hitting them at a 38% clip this past season. That is about as good of an archetype as a wing player can have these days and Asemota going down to the mid-major level with a much bigger role would do wonders for him and FAU. This is definitely a player worth picking up the phone for if you’re John Jakus and the two already having a relationship with each other, along with a likely big role in Boca, would go a very long way.
Naas Cunningham – 6’7″ Forward – UNLV
The last player we will take a look at is a former four-star recruit out of SoCal Academy who started his collegiate career at Alabama where he redshirted before transferring to the UNLV Rebels in 2025. Cunningham averaged 5.0 points per game in 13.3 minutes this past season, playing in 21 games. The West Orange, New Jersey native scored a career-high 25 points back on November 8th vs Chattanooga, where he shot 8-for-14 from the field and 3-for-7 from beyond the arc.
Coming out of high school, the 6-foot-7 Cunningham was known for his ability as an athletic scoring wing who does a lot of his damage inside the arc and around the basket. He has struggled, however to shoot the basketball efficiently so far in college, as he shot a less-than-desirable 33% from the field and 23% from 3-point range this past season. The good news is, if there is any coaching staff at the mid-major level that can iron out Cunningham’s shooting and overall feel for the game, it’s John Jakus and his staff at FAU that have excelled with player development. You can simply look at someone like current FAU guard Kanaan Carlyle, who the Owls brought in last summer through the portal. The 6-foot-3 guard had shot an abysmal 29% from the floor in his Sophomore year at Indiana, a number that jumped to around 41% this past season in Boca Raton.
We have seen John Jakus bring in low risk, high reward players before that have panned out playing in paradise, and adding a former four-star in Naas Cunningham could easily be a similar story for a Florida Atlantic squad left with a massive hole in their wing depth.
