How Florida Atlantic men's basketball became 'big brother' to the team at St. John Paul II High

The St. John Paul II boys basketball team boarded the charter bus for the ride back to Boca Raton.

Celebrations were in order, indeed. St. John Paul II knocked the King's Academy Lions to 15-6 on the season with a 78-69 defeat and reestablished a winning record for itself, now 10-9, picking up a win on the road that gives the squad confidence that it'll achieve its goal of clinching the district.

Junior shooting guard Rowan Linder, who split a team-high 19 points with junior point guard Cristian Rosado against the Lions, said the win was "personal." Linder said the Eagles never quite forgot their visit from King's last year — or that the Lions "were taking pictures" on the ''SJP" painted on at midcourt after nailing a 55-42 win.

"Playing a good team like them helped us get over adversity," Linder said. "When adversity hit us during the game, that caused us to realize how good we can really be when we play together and keep our composure."

After starting the year 1-5, Tuesday was a hard-earned milestone and showed signs that the Eagles are learning who they are without longtime face of the program Kyle Edison, who graduated in May.

"It was a big loss for us," Linder said. "That meant my role had to be bigger and I had to step up a lot, especially, because he was our leading scorer. Without him being on the court, our team took a little bit to adjust with it. We brought in some new players so we had to get used to that also, but I feel like now we're playing to our potential and are a very good and tough team to beat."

Head coach Seydou Koné said the Eagles let similar games earlier in the season "slip away."

That would not be the case at King's, where Rosado dropped three to give the Eagles a 20-point lead with two minutes to go in a third period that saw the Lions net just 12 points. A 23-point fourth-quarter rally wasn't going to be enough for King's to come back, either.

"Seeing them be able to finish the game after getting the lead, it was great. It's great confidence for them, too," Koné said, happy to watch his players transition from those who looked on from the bench as Edison shouldered the work to doing it themselves.

"It showed tonight. The five starters being in double digits, being able to replace what one guy was bringing as a group," he said. In addition to Linder and Rosado, juniors Ian Astiazarain, Dior Johnson and Bryan Jean contributed 15, 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Even without Edison on the floor, St. John Paul still faces a tough schedule for 2024, from the second game of the season against Lake Worth to last Saturday's trip to North Broward Prep. Those experiences simply left them the more battle-tested crew at King's. As for the Lions, highlight-reel-worthy talent remains in such players as top-scoring point guard Javian Jones and 6-foot-6 senior forward Ransom Soles, but the team doesn't seem to have found the mesh and flow it had for last year's run to the 3A region championship without Jermaine Council on the floor, who's playing his senior year at Cardinal Newman.

However, the Eagles are receiving some special help along the way to what it hopes will become a dark-horse playoff run from another team that knows how to do it best.

Florida Atlantic Owls take Eagles of St. John Paul II under wing

And they're in the Eagles' backyard. Only the No. 22-ranked men's college basketball program in the nation.

That's right. Florida Atlantic University.

In this scenario, the Owls are "big brother" to the Eagles. That's how Koné described his team's relationship with the staff and players at Florida Atlantic.

"One of my former teammates, Sean Alarcon, is the player development coach at FAU, so I always ask him if we can come to practices because some of our guys want to be able to play at the next level," Koné said. "I feel like the best way for them to do that is to go observe what the next level looks like as opposed to me telling them, 'When I was in college... . ' "

"I can just see them trying to emulate and then coming in here and trying to apply it in the game, which helps them."

It'd be an understatement to call having exclusive access to a college program fresh off of a historic Final Four run a perk of the first-year hire.

There's more value in the fact that Koné comes with the experience that built those connections.

In 2006, Koné, a native of the Ermont suburb of Paris, transferred from the now-defunct basketball team at Broward Community College to embark on his junior season at FAU.

Yet, Koné's website for his elite training program based in Boca Raton, SK Basketball, states that its founder is best known for his accomplishments while in Europe. 2003 was the year that Koné completed his youth career with French basketball club Cholet Basket, noted as "one of the top high schools and junior teams," where he played in the company of ex-NBA players Mickael Gelabale and Nando de Colo.

"Since coach Seydou was a player at FAU, it gives us a chance to watch FAU practice and see what it's like to play at the next level and what we have to do to get there," Linder said.

"You kind of feel like a celebrity because the coaches and players come in before practice and introduce themselves to us and then at the end, they come and thank you for coming to their practice and watching them play," Koné said. "For my players, I always tell them when you have a guy that plays your position, ask him questions — the guys out there are very welcoming and don't mind answering all their questions."

"It's great for them to know they have a big brother figure to go to," Koné said.

Linder noted the best advice he's received from FAU coaches and players was to always work hard, and never take a day off, "because there's always someone who's working while you're taking days off."

It's an approach that's paying off for the Eagles, who have just three regular-season games remaining before district tournaments tip off on Feb. 6.

"We just want to be ready for when it really matters for us, going into districts, who is something that they have in mind that they want to win," Koné said.

"As long as we jell at the right time, everything will be great for us."

Emilee Smarr is a sports reporter for The Palm Beach Post. She can be reached via email at esmarr@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida Atlantic men's basketball taking alum's local high school team under wing