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

[Knightro]

UCF's brand isn't going to grow any faster than it already is by playing more P5 teams on the road. That is just a complete and utter fallacy.

Boise State has played about 15 "big" P5 games since they started getting good, including actually winning some of those games, and no one cares about them whatsoever. They are barely on TV and no one has ever legitimately talked about them in any respect when it comes to expansion.

The only way to actually grow a college brand as a school is to get access to more money. Period. Once you can spend money on a similar level to the rest of the elite programs in the country, you can become an elite program.

Until that happens, everything else is just word vomit.

UCF could play Florida and Florida State every single year for the next 10 years, beat them both every year, and it won't get them an invitation to a Power 5 conference if the conference won't make more money by having UCF included in the league.

The moment a conference feels the need to expand to make more money and UCF is one of the schools they deem can help them make more money, they'll get an invite.

How well UCF (or any other program looking to expand) does on the field before any conference needs to expand or realign will simply not be a factor.

[MagicFan101]

UCF's brand isn't going to grow any faster than it already is by playing more P5 teams on the road. That is just a complete and utter fallacy.

Boise State has played about 15 "big" P5 games since they started getting good, including actually winning some of those games, and no one cares about them whatsoever. They are barely on TV and no one has ever legitimately talked about them in any respect when it comes to expansion.

The only way to actually grow a college brand as a school is to get access to more money. Period. Once you can spend money on a similar level to the rest of the elite programs in the country, you can become an elite program.

Until that happens, everything else is just word vomit.

UCF could play Florida and Florida State every single year for the next 10 years, beat them both every year, and it won't get them an invitation to a Power 5 conference if the conference won't make more money by having UCF included in the league.

The moment a conference feels the need to expand to make more money and UCF is one of the schools they deem can help them make more money, they'll get an invite.

How well UCF (or any other program looking to expand) does on the field before any conference needs to expand or realign will simply not be a factor.

All I gather from this is that you have given up. The only thing to do in your eyes is wait for others to do it for you.

Complacency and low standards. These are what describe UCF and that is what upsets me as an alumni and fan.

[UCFJayBird]

Tough loss. The streak had to end at some point, can honestly say I'd rather it be to a team like LSU with our backup RS Freshman QB than someone like Tulane or ECU, lol. Silver lining I guess is that's a "quality loss"

The Game:

- The unsportsmanlike penalty in the 1st quarter was a huge shift in momentum. We were up 14-3 and were going to get the ball back. Instead a player who is understandably amped up doesn't hear the ref calling for the ball behind him and throws it down. The player should know to keep his emotions in check, but the ref has to look the other way there. He wasn't taunting, he wasn't doing it maliciously, he was simply celebrating a big play. Give a warning or something. There was no need for that ref on 4th down to award LSU a 1st down. They went on to score and the momentum shifted as they rattled off 3 straight TDs.

-LSU's first drive should've been a TD. Refs called the player down short but he clearly made it. UCF got lucky LSU was going quick and wound up false starting.

-Play calling for most of the game on offense was pretty poor. Too many gimmicks and going too fast for Mack IMO. A number of drives went run run pass and a quick 3 and out. I'm all for gunning it on a depleted defense, but we needed to slow down a little and give our defense a chance to rest.

-Time of possession was a disaster. Credit to LSU for running a smart game strategy and eating up clock as much as possible. UCF's defense needed to step up and get more stops, but the offense wasn't doing them favors by having 50 second 3-and-out possessions.

-Offensive line was beat badly. They've been solid most of the year, but LSU exposed some big flaws. We kept using Killins and he was getting lit up when blocking. Should've been more McCrae and McGowan.

-Lack of protection meant Mack was constantly under pressure very quickly. He had some bad throws sure, and he made some bad scrambles. But he had no time to really survey the field. When he did he usually hit the receiver and made a good throw. I think some of that is also inexperience, he should've been hitting guys in the slant all night. I think we're fine at QB though. People forget he's a RS Freshman and how poorly Milton played at times his freshman year. Give Mack a full spring and summer as QB1 and working with the coaches and I think he's going to ball out next year.

-I'm not sure why we weren't trying to run it more with McCrae early on. He's been beasting all season and we tried too many sweeps and outside runs when we should've been letting McCrae go vertical. He seemed to do well with the ball but it was little too late.

------------

Ok, let's talk about the espn coverage for a second. Can we acknowledge just how one sided it was? I mean I'm not one to usually get overly frustrated with it but the way espn covered the game you would've thought this was on the SEC Network or was an LSU home game.

All night they continued to show the LSU band and cheerleaders, like every 3 minutes. I don't think I recall them showing our band/cheerleaders ONCE. And that's despite on TV you can clearly hear our band more than LSU. I only recall them showing our fans a handful of times, but LSU constantly. I saw Orgeron a bunch, but Heupel very little. Now I'll understand if the main cameras are on one side of the stadium, that is usually the case. But I doubt that for a big bowl game. And this was happening with the commentary as well, though not as blatant. But the most blatant one I saw was when they were discussing Impact Players, and they talked for 90 seconds about LSU's RBs, and then literally had one line about UCF that was, paraphrasing, "And on UCF's defensive side it's their linebackers, one of which is Nate Evans."

It was quite frustrating. Not sure why I never turned it off and put on the radio. On the plus side my buffalo chicken dip was fire.

[tiderulz]

Tough loss. The streak had to end at some point, can honestly say I'd rather it be to a team like LSU with our backup RS Freshman QB than someone like Tulane or ECU, lol. Silver lining I guess is that's a "quality loss"

The Game:

- The unsportsmanlike penalty in the 1st quarter was a huge shift in momentum. We were up 14-3 and were going to get the ball back. Instead a player who is understandably amped up doesn't hear the ref calling for the ball behind him and throws it down. The player should know to keep his emotions in check, but the ref has to look the other way there. He wasn't taunting, he wasn't doing it maliciously, he was simply celebrating a big play. Give a warning or something. There was no need for that ref on 4th down to award LSU a 1st down. They went on to score and the momentum shifted as they rattled off 3 straight TDs.

-LSU's first drive should've been a TD. Refs called the player down short but he clearly made it. UCF got lucky LSU was going quick and wound up false starting.

-Play calling for most of the game on offense was pretty poor. Too many gimmicks and going too fast for Mack IMO. A number of drives went run run pass and a quick 3 and out. I'm all for gunning it on a depleted defense, but we needed to slow down a little and give our defense a chance to rest.

-Time of possession was a disaster. Credit to LSU for running a smart game strategy and eating up clock as much as possible. UCF's defense needed to step up and get more stops, but the offense wasn't doing them favors by having 50 second 3-and-out possessions.

-Offensive line was beat badly. They've been solid most of the year, but LSU exposed some big flaws. We kept using Killins and he was getting lit up when blocking. Should've been more McCrae and McGowan.

-Lack of protection meant Mack was constantly under pressure very quickly. He had some bad throws sure, and he made some bad scrambles. But he had no time to really survey the field. When he did he usually hit the receiver and made a good throw. I think some of that is also inexperience, he should've been hitting guys in the slant all night. I think we're fine at QB though. People forget he's a RS Freshman and how poorly Milton played at times his freshman year. Give Mack a full spring and summer as QB1 and working with the coaches and I think he's going to ball out next year.

-I'm not sure why we weren't trying to run it more with McCrae early on. He's been beasting all season and we tried too many sweeps and outside runs when we should've been letting McCrae go vertical. He seemed to do well with the ball but it was little too late.

------------

Ok, let's talk about the espn coverage for a second. Can we acknowledge just how one sided it was? I mean I'm not one to usually get overly frustrated with it but the way espn covered the game you would've thought this was on the SEC Network or was an LSU home game.

All night they continued to show the LSU band and cheerleaders, like every 3 minutes. I don't think I recall them showing our band/cheerleaders ONCE. And that's despite on TV you can clearly hear our band more than LSU. I only recall them showing our fans a handful of times, but LSU constantly. I saw Orgeron a bunch, but Heupel very little. Now I'll understand if the main cameras are on one side of the stadium, that is usually the case. But I doubt that for a big bowl game. And this was happening with the commentary as well, though not as blatant. But the most blatant one I saw was when they were discussing Impact Players, and they talked for 90 seconds about LSU's RBs, and then literally had one line about UCF that was, paraphrasing, "And on UCF's defensive side it's their linebackers, one of which is Nate Evans."

It was quite frustrating. Not sure why I never turned it off and put on the radio. On the plus side my buffalo chicken dip was fire.

might have been leftover from when 91 blindsided Burrow (a semi clean hit, i thought he hit him in the head, but wouldnt complain too much about it) but then stood over him and was flexing.

and i didnt think the coverage was one-sided. You saw the LSU band, because they were behind the LSU girls in scantily clad outfits. Alabama has them too, right in front of the band. big magnet to the camera men. And i think we saw Orgeron because he was throwing stuff, especially in that 1st quarter. and the camera was on Milton quite a bit on the sideline. as someone with no dog in the fight, i thought the TV coverage was fair.

[nymets1]

So basically because of Mack's little playing time on the College level, He was fine for the conference championship because we are at home but because we had to travel to the Fiesta Bowl the stage was too big.

I just came back home from the UCF basketball game. I been to there basketball games a number of times, is it just me or does their basketball court seem smaller than the college schools? I'm watching Kansas home vs Oklahoma and Kansas home court sure does look bigger than UCF'S court. Every time I recall watching a college basketball game on TV, Their court seems bigger than UCF'S.

[drsd]

So basically because of Mack's little playing time on the College level, He was fine for the conference championship because we are at home but because we had to travel to the Fiesta Bowl the stage was too big.

I just came back home from the UCF basketball game. I been to there basketball games a number of times, is it just me or does their basketball court seem smaller than the college schools? I'm watching Kansas home vs Oklahoma and Kansas home court sure does look bigger than UCF'S court. Every time I recall watching a college basketball game on TV, Their court seems bigger than UCF'S.

From 1:40 - 2:10 is were this gets relevant:

Watch on YouTube

[UCFJayBird]

Tough loss. The streak had to end at some point, can honestly say I'd rather it be to a team like LSU with our backup RS Freshman QB than someone like Tulane or ECU, lol. Silver lining I guess is that's a "quality loss"

The Game:

- The unsportsmanlike penalty in the 1st quarter was a huge shift in momentum. We were up 14-3 and were going to get the ball back. Instead a player who is understandably amped up doesn't hear the ref calling for the ball behind him and throws it down. The player should know to keep his emotions in check, but the ref has to look the other way there. He wasn't taunting, he wasn't doing it maliciously, he was simply celebrating a big play. Give a warning or something. There was no need for that ref on 4th down to award LSU a 1st down. They went on to score and the momentum shifted as they rattled off 3 straight TDs.

-LSU's first drive should've been a TD. Refs called the player down short but he clearly made it. UCF got lucky LSU was going quick and wound up false starting.

-Play calling for most of the game on offense was pretty poor. Too many gimmicks and going too fast for Mack IMO. A number of drives went run run pass and a quick 3 and out. I'm all for gunning it on a depleted defense, but we needed to slow down a little and give our defense a chance to rest.

-Time of possession was a disaster. Credit to LSU for running a smart game strategy and eating up clock as much as possible. UCF's defense needed to step up and get more stops, but the offense wasn't doing them favors by having 50 second 3-and-out possessions.

-Offensive line was beat badly. They've been solid most of the year, but LSU exposed some big flaws. We kept using Killins and he was getting lit up when blocking. Should've been more McCrae and McGowan.

-Lack of protection meant Mack was constantly under pressure very quickly. He had some bad throws sure, and he made some bad scrambles. But he had no time to really survey the field. When he did he usually hit the receiver and made a good throw. I think some of that is also inexperience, he should've been hitting guys in the slant all night. I think we're fine at QB though. People forget he's a RS Freshman and how poorly Milton played at times his freshman year. Give Mack a full spring and summer as QB1 and working with the coaches and I think he's going to ball out next year.

-I'm not sure why we weren't trying to run it more with McCrae early on. He's been beasting all season and we tried too many sweeps and outside runs when we should've been letting McCrae go vertical. He seemed to do well with the ball but it was little too late.

------------

Ok, let's talk about the espn coverage for a second. Can we acknowledge just how one sided it was? I mean I'm not one to usually get overly frustrated with it but the way espn covered the game you would've thought this was on the SEC Network or was an LSU home game.

All night they continued to show the LSU band and cheerleaders, like every 3 minutes. I don't think I recall them showing our band/cheerleaders ONCE. And that's despite on TV you can clearly hear our band more than LSU. I only recall them showing our fans a handful of times, but LSU constantly. I saw Orgeron a bunch, but Heupel very little. Now I'll understand if the main cameras are on one side of the stadium, that is usually the case. But I doubt that for a big bowl game. And this was happening with the commentary as well, though not as blatant. But the most blatant one I saw was when they were discussing Impact Players, and they talked for 90 seconds about LSU's RBs, and then literally had one line about UCF that was, paraphrasing, "And on UCF's defensive side it's their linebackers, one of which is Nate Evans."

It was quite frustrating. Not sure why I never turned it off and put on the radio. On the plus side my buffalo chicken dip was fire.

might have been leftover from when 91 blindsided Burrow (a semi clean hit, i thought he hit him in the head, but wouldnt complain too much about it) but then stood over him and was flexing.

and i didnt think the coverage was one-sided. You saw the LSU band, because they were behind the LSU girls in scantily clad outfits. Alabama has them too, right in front of the band. big magnet to the camera men. And i think we saw Orgeron because he was throwing stuff, especially in that 1st quarter. and the camera was on Milton quite a bit on the sideline. as someone with no dog in the fight, i thought the TV coverage was fair.

Fair point about Milton being shown plenty, I actually thought they brought him up too much when they did discuss UCF.

I actually thought the hit from Connors (blindside on Burrow) was over the top. Was it legal? perhaps. Seemed pretty close to block in the back, though i'm unsure if the rule applies on interceptions like that. But in my mind a hit like that needs to be taken out of the game. We saw two guys ejected for targeting that technically fit the rules but weren't that excessive, and then you had Burrow get laid out in the nastiest hit i've seen all year and it's fine? Not sure how he passed concussion protocol, lol. Kid came back though and from that moment played like a boss.

[tiderulz]

Tough loss. The streak had to end at some point, can honestly say I'd rather it be to a team like LSU with our backup RS Freshman QB than someone like Tulane or ECU, lol. Silver lining I guess is that's a "quality loss"

The Game:

- The unsportsmanlike penalty in the 1st quarter was a huge shift in momentum. We were up 14-3 and were going to get the ball back. Instead a player who is understandably amped up doesn't hear the ref calling for the ball behind him and throws it down. The player should know to keep his emotions in check, but the ref has to look the other way there. He wasn't taunting, he wasn't doing it maliciously, he was simply celebrating a big play. Give a warning or something. There was no need for that ref on 4th down to award LSU a 1st down. They went on to score and the momentum shifted as they rattled off 3 straight TDs.

-LSU's first drive should've been a TD. Refs called the player down short but he clearly made it. UCF got lucky LSU was going quick and wound up false starting.

-Play calling for most of the game on offense was pretty poor. Too many gimmicks and going too fast for Mack IMO. A number of drives went run run pass and a quick 3 and out. I'm all for gunning it on a depleted defense, but we needed to slow down a little and give our defense a chance to rest.

-Time of possession was a disaster. Credit to LSU for running a smart game strategy and eating up clock as much as possible. UCF's defense needed to step up and get more stops, but the offense wasn't doing them favors by having 50 second 3-and-out possessions.

-Offensive line was beat badly. They've been solid most of the year, but LSU exposed some big flaws. We kept using Killins and he was getting lit up when blocking. Should've been more McCrae and McGowan.

-Lack of protection meant Mack was constantly under pressure very quickly. He had some bad throws sure, and he made some bad scrambles. But he had no time to really survey the field. When he did he usually hit the receiver and made a good throw. I think some of that is also inexperience, he should've been hitting guys in the slant all night. I think we're fine at QB though. People forget he's a RS Freshman and how poorly Milton played at times his freshman year. Give Mack a full spring and summer as QB1 and working with the coaches and I think he's going to ball out next year.

-I'm not sure why we weren't trying to run it more with McCrae early on. He's been beasting all season and we tried too many sweeps and outside runs when we should've been letting McCrae go vertical. He seemed to do well with the ball but it was little too late.

------------

Ok, let's talk about the espn coverage for a second. Can we acknowledge just how one sided it was? I mean I'm not one to usually get overly frustrated with it but the way espn covered the game you would've thought this was on the SEC Network or was an LSU home game.

All night they continued to show the LSU band and cheerleaders, like every 3 minutes. I don't think I recall them showing our band/cheerleaders ONCE. And that's despite on TV you can clearly hear our band more than LSU. I only recall them showing our fans a handful of times, but LSU constantly. I saw Orgeron a bunch, but Heupel very little. Now I'll understand if the main cameras are on one side of the stadium, that is usually the case. But I doubt that for a big bowl game. And this was happening with the commentary as well, though not as blatant. But the most blatant one I saw was when they were discussing Impact Players, and they talked for 90 seconds about LSU's RBs, and then literally had one line about UCF that was, paraphrasing, "And on UCF's defensive side it's their linebackers, one of which is Nate Evans."

It was quite frustrating. Not sure why I never turned it off and put on the radio. On the plus side my buffalo chicken dip was fire.

might have been leftover from when 91 blindsided Burrow (a semi clean hit, i thought he hit him in the head, but wouldnt complain too much about it) but then stood over him and was flexing.

and i didnt think the coverage was one-sided. You saw the LSU band, because they were behind the LSU girls in scantily clad outfits. Alabama has them too, right in front of the band. big magnet to the camera men. And i think we saw Orgeron because he was throwing stuff, especially in that 1st quarter. and the camera was on Milton quite a bit on the sideline. as someone with no dog in the fight, i thought the TV coverage was fair.

Fair point about Milton being shown plenty, I actually thought they brought him up too much when they did discuss UCF.

I actually thought the hit from Connors (blindside on Burrow) was over the top. Was it legal? perhaps. Seemed pretty close to block in the back, though i'm unsure if the rule applies on interceptions like that. But in my mind a hit like that needs to be taken out of the game. We saw two guys ejected for targeting that technically fit the rules but weren't that excessive, and then you had Burrow get laid out in the nastiest hit i've seen all year and it's fine? Not sure how he passed concussion protocol, lol. Kid came back though and from that moment played like a boss.

yeah, the NFL took that hit out completely. Like i said, i thought he hit Burrows in the head, but it was close and i could see the argument either way depending on which team i rooted for. and yeah, he did take a nasty hit later on. i too was surprised he passed protocol.

[drsd]

Interesting Knights win over Temple.

Terrible FT shooting was off-set by dominant rebounding.

[UCF]

Should be good interesting to see how we play in league play this year. Next year I don’t expect us to be very good in basketball with Memphis taking a huge leap forward in talent.

[nymets1]

Another UCF football signing from December that was withheld until he announced his decision in the under armour game.

https://ucf.rivals.com/news/tre-mon-morris-brash-commits-to-ucf-during-ua-all-america-game

The website is now listed us as having 23 commitments.

[UCF]

Another UCF football signing from December that was withheld until he announced his decision in the under armour game.

https://ucf.rivals.com/news/tre-mon-morris-brash-commits-to-ucf-during-ua-all-america-game

The website is now listed us as having 23 commitments.

First freshman all American signee for the program.

[UCF]

First win ever at UConn today for our team.

[nymets1]

If we keep winning, I wonder if we can get College game day to come to our campus for our basketball team. It be Rece Davis, Jay Bilas and Jay Williams if it can happen.

[craig01]

First win ever at UConn today for our team.

Dawkins really stepped up and had a terrific game.

He has all of the tools needed for the next level.

Here is hoping he stays one more year.

[drsd]

First win ever at UConn today for our team.

All road wins are great, but to start conference play with wins over Temple and @Uconn is quite incredible.

In the UConn game from the 16:42 - 8:24 mark (8 1/2 minutes of ball), the Knights only allowed 7 points. That is stellar.

The Knights is currently 38 in NET and 30 in RPI. If the season ended today, the Knights would be assured an at-large bid.

[drsd]

The Knights has votes in the Coaches poll and is effectively ranked #34 in the Nation. Win is the coming games: ECU and @Wich, the Knight could be a ranked team next week.

[UCFJayBird]

Knights need to capitalize this month. Looking ahead at the schedule and it gets considerably tougher as the season gets into February. Our toughest game in January (@Memphis) is arguably our easiest in February (vs Memphis).

[UCF]

Read on Twitter

[UCF]

Alabama beating UK helps our SOS.