UCF basketball has a young core and plenty of promising freshman to the roster. It will be a growing process, but the team is ready to take those steps.
It is hard to miss UCF when the team walks into a room. Mainly, it is hard to miss the biggest guy in the room — 7-foot-6 freshman Tacko Fall who wears Hakeem Olajuwon-esque goggles on the court.
Fall is going to get the most attention and he is not even officially eligible to play in games. He will undoubtedly play a big role for the Knights along their defensive back line, setting a defense that hopes some added length and athleticism will help the team improve on last year’s 12-18 mark.
As much as everyone wants to make the season about Fall — and there will be plenty written about the freshman — this season is not about him. It is not about four-star power forward Chad Brown or Tennessee transfer A.J. Davis (one of those rangy wings).
UCF last year relied heavily on two players freshmen B.J. Taylor and Adony Henriquez to generate offense. There were several supporting players around them, but they should remain the key offensive pieces. Senior forward Staphon Blair should remain a stalwart in the low post. But he should be the only senior in the starting lineup — Daiquan Walker and Shaheed Davis should get spot minutes off the bench.
The key players for UCF this year should remain young. That does not mean they are not ready to bring the team along.
“One of the things we really focused on was not just adding talent to this team, but growing our culture,” coach Donnie Jones said at the team’s media day. “This team last year, we were still down a few scholarships from the past situation. We have gotten all those back. This is the first full roster we’ve had in three years. So now we have depth. Now we have a chance to hopefully sustain a level of play for 40 minutes. Our culture off the floor is growing a lot with the kids we have. That’s a credit to them.”
The Knights appear to be emerging from the darkness of those NCAA sanctions and preparing to re-enter a full roster. The coaching staff planned for that knowing there would be difficult years in the wake of sanctions.
The question now is are they prepared to lead a full roster forward?
The young talent that comes to the team this year, including a few transfers finally eligible to play will play a big role in lifting UCF back up.
Ultimately, the Knights’ growth though depends on building that culture. Jones said it has to begin with buy in from the players and defining roles. Each player’s role is written down on a card handed to them at teh beginning of the season, Jones said. The expectations are clear.
UCF just has to grow into it.
“I definitely feel like my skill level has gotten better so I can improve on everything and make the jump my sophomore season,” Adonys Henriquez said. “I’ve been in this position before in my high school. I just embrace it. I learned I have to play for my team and play hard and let things fall where they fall.”
“It’s a responsibility that I expected,” B.J. Taylor added. “Coming as a freshman last year, where I was looking to prove myself and show what I could do to this year just trying to pass the lessons I learned last year to the younger guys and pass it onto the whole team and just trying to be a guy that guys can look to when things are not going our way that B.J. can lead us and B.J. has got this.
The leaders of that growth will be young guys this year in sophomores B.J. Taylor and Adonys Henriquez.
Jones said both Taylor and Henriquez made major physical improvements in the summer between their freshman and sophomore years. This is typical for players moving from their freshman year to their sophomore years.
Taylor averaged 12.8 points per game and 2.5 assists per game, shooting 45.3 percent effective field goal percentage. Henriquez averaged 10.8 points per game and a similar 2.1 assists per game while shooting a 55.8 percent effective field goal percentage.
Those numbers led the team in scoring and seem pedestrian in comparison to the difficult AAC. As freshmen though, they were surprising and became promises for what was to come this year and for the rest of their careers.
Growing as leaders would become the next step for the young Knights as the team brings in even more talent and potential behind them.
“You have different guys who can lead different ways,” Jones said. “B.J. Taylor the next challenge for him is to lead our team from that point guard spot. We asked him to score a lot for us last year, and now his role will now to not only score but he needs to involve other people as a distributor on our team because we’ve got more weapons.”
Senior forward Staphon Blair will still play a supporting role for sure. Jones said Blair will have to improve into a 10-rebound per night guy and become more vocal this year for the team.
For many of UCF’s younger stars there is familiarity now. And adding depth should make the path to success a little easier. But there will remain growing pains.
Blair is an established senior, but Taylor and Henriquez are still growing as players. Chad Brown will make mistakes as a rangy power forward. A.J. Davis has experience playing for Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament two years ago, he just has not played since.
And then, yes, there is Tacko Fall. The object of everyone’s affection and attention. He is the big mystery. The bundle of potential and the key to UCF becoming something different.
The Knights will have to grow up a lot to find success at all this season.
Growth will come in fits and starts, but it will come.
“I’m still leading by example first, for sure more than anything,” Taylor said. “But being a vocal leader as well. Telling guys and holding guys accountable for stuff they need to do on the floor and holding myself accountable as well will be big for us to have a chance.”
