Official UCF Sports Thread - Basketball: NIT Bid? Football: Spring Practice Underway

[drsd]

From the bubble watch:

The Knights are living dangerously for the moment, perched right on the dividing line between "in" and "out." That status, however, may be something of a placeholder for a 16-5 team that beat Alabama in Orlando but is yet to record a Quad 1 win. In fact, UCF's had only two chances to do so all season, that's the point. This is one uncommonly back-loaded schedule and, with a strong finish, Johnny Dawkins' team could make the field with plenty of room to spare. The Knights are still going to get two shots at Cincinnati, as well as road games at Houston and Temple.

The road win at SMU is nice (all road wins are tough). But the home stand for USF and then Memphis could be decisive for the Knights.

[UCFJayBird]

Yea we'll see but right now I don't think we're a tourney team, sadly.


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[drsd]

Yea we'll see but right now I don't think we're a tourney team, sadly.

Brutal schedule to follow. Not sure the Knights make the tourney as an at-large without a 5-3 record below. (and a couple conference tourney wins as a cherry)



Thu, 14 Feb
vs South Florida


Sat, 16 Feb
vs Memphis


Fri, 22 Feb
@Cincinnati


Sun, 24 Feb
vs SMU


Thu, 28 Feb
@South Florida


Sat, 2 Mar
@Houston


Fri, 8 Mar
vs Cincinnati


Sat, 9 Mar
@Temple

[Nemesis21]

Read on Twitter

[craig01]

Shannon was not retained before. Why would they or he want this?

[nymets1]

I went to the game vs USF, I been to the home games vs Temple, East Carolina, Houston and USF. We beat USF very easily. USF doesn't have a resume win but they are not a bad team, They only lost to Houston by 9.

If we could win 5 of the last 7 regular season games, That would put us at 23 wins and than if we can win 1 conference tournament to bring it up to 24 wins, We should be in the NCAA tournament. There's been so many NCAA tournament teams with 20 wins total and they were in the NCAA tournament.

[nymets1]

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/25988799/jay-bilas-1-68-college-basketball-rankings-tiers-valentine-day

36. UCF Knights

The Knights pass the eye test and are NCAA tournament-worthy, but the résumé still could use some padding. A key will be beating Houston to end the discussion. UCF is solid on the defensive end, and the Knights do a good job getting to the free throw line. They just need to hit more when they get there. B.J. Taylor and Aubrey Dawkins have combined for 88 3-point field goals. That is a good backcourt.

[drsd]

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/25988799/jay-bilas-1-68-college-basketball-rankings-tiers-valentine-day

36. UCF Knights

The Knights pass the eye test and are NCAA tournament-worthy, but the résumé still could use some padding. A key will be beating Houston to end the discussion. UCF is solid on the defensive end, and the Knights do a good job getting to the free throw line. They just need to hit more when they get there. B.J. Taylor and Aubrey Dawkins have combined for 88 3-point field goals. That is a good backcourt.

The Knights is #39 by NET, the only real poll to consider. That is clearly an at-large bid.

ESPN has UCF currently as an #11 seed. Could/should be a 10, but hard to quibble.


..

[nymets1]

Hmmm so I was at the UCF game vs Memphis and I believe Collin Smith got benched. He played a little at the beginning of the 2nd half and than never came back in. Unless he got a injury that I am not aware of which I don't think. I remember when Collin Smith took a dribble from the 3 point line to right behind the free throw line and missed it, perhaps that's why.

[drsd]

Key home stand and those two wins will really help the Knights at-large case.

I would guess UCF's NET rating will be 37 or 38 after this win.

[craig01]

Nice win against Memphis.

BJ and Tacko had productive first halves.

Pretty good crowd minus the non-existent student section that looked to be less than half full.

Where on earth were the students? Abysmal.

[craig01]

On a recruiting note: Tony Johnson, 6'3 205 PG, officially committed last night.

He's a scoring PG that had a nice offer list. The fact that Taylor is leaving I'm sure impacted his decision.

[nymets1]

I'm not familiar with Tony Johnson but just looking at him for the 1st time, he does remind me of BJ Taylor.

[UCFJayBird]

Dale Whittaker has offered his resignation to the BOT over the Colbourn Hall controversy.

Read on Twitter

[UCF]

It’s terrible what happened to Dr Whittaker. He was refreshing in his role as president compared to Hitt.

[nymets1]

UCF about to play at Cincinnati at 7pm, Stop Jarran Cumberland #34 1st.

Those ESPN announcers are ignorant, They brought up the loss to Florida Atlantic as a bad loss. It's an in-state opponent that beat us by 1 freakin point on a lucky game winning shot WOW.

[craig01]

As always, Ucf can't handle ball pressure, force dumb passes and have given up 13 straight points.

Last 8 minutes Ucf has taken 5 shots.

12 turnovers in 13 minutes.

Worse than pathetic.

Better fix this now or UC will blow this team out.

[UCFJayBird]

UCF about to play at Cincinnati at 7pm, Stop Jarran Cumberland #34 1st.

Those ESPN announcers are ignorant, They brought up the loss to Florida Atlantic as a bad loss. It's an in-state opponent that beat us by 1 freakin point on a lucky game winning shot WOW.

FAU was a bad loss. Their NET ranking is 147. They're in 7th place in CUSA.

We should've blown FAU out. Most teams will have a bad loss or two on their resume every year, but when we get to this time of year and every loss could keep you out of the tournament, that's when those bad losses become glaring.

We also don't have a single marquee win this season to offset the few bad losses. Beating Cinci would've done that. We'll have two more chances when we host Cincinnati and when we play at Houston.

The remaining schedule before the conference tournament is vs SMU, @USF, @Houston, vs Cincinnati, @ Temple. SMU, USF, and Temple are must-wins and we need a win vs Houston or Cincinnati to be safely in the NCAA Tournament in my opinion. If we only win 3 we'll need a strong showing in the conference tourney (unless we beat Houston, then that probably gets us in).

We're not a good road team though, so definitely concerned we could fall out of the tournament.

[nymets1]

Perhaps the Orlando Apollos have feeded off playing on UCF campus and the success of UCF. The Orlando Apollos should do practices with UCF players. Apollos have some guys who should make an nfl roster this year.

[nymets1]

LOL SMU SUCKS, Try blowing out a Cincy or Houston instead of beating up on sucky teams.