The men’s basketball team will play the University of North Florida Ospreys on Thursday night in Jacksonville.
The Rattlers (1-5) are looking to right the ship against UNF.
FAMU has struggled to make head basketball coach Clemon Johnson’s new system work. The offense that has been implemented is improving, but it still needs work.
The team is 286th in the NCAA in field goal percentage at 39 percent. The Rattlers are 140th in the nation in points per game, averaging 70.7 ppg.
Junior guard Jamie Adams, a third-year agribusiness student from Chicago, has flourished in Johnson’s system, despite the team’s struggles.
He is scoring 17.7 ppg and leads the Rattlers in assists and steals as well. Adams is a product of Johnson’s latest recruiting class.
Adams said the team winning its first game this past weekend felt like a weight was lifted from his chest. Adams was a highly-recruited guard coming out of Chicago. His brother Jerome Randle earned first-team All-Pacific-10 Conference and Pac-10 Player of the Year in 2010.
FAMU is in a rebuilding phase but has a lot of talent. Junior guard Muhammad Abdul-Aleem has provided a surge of scoring off the bench. However, he was recently inserted into the starting lineup.
In a previous interview, Abdul-Aleem said that the team chemistry was very high. Abdul-Aleem is a new addition to the team and he has made his presence felt.
Johnson is optimistic about the prospects of his team. In his second year as head coach, Johnson has benefited from being able to recruit his own athletes.
“We have a collection of individuals and the new plays we brought in to run this style I wanted to run,” Johnson said earlier in the season.
The Rattlers are looking for their second win of the season. The game starts at 7 p.m.