UCF has had to turn to different guys at different moments to replace the production and leadership from point guard B.J. Taylor early this season.
UCF’s start to the season has been a somewhat inconsistent affair. It certainly was not the start the team expected at the beginning of the season.
The Knights surely expected to ease Tacko Fall into games, letting him get used to the college game and physicality and using his size to the team’s advantage. The Knights expected that to change a few things in the way they run their offense.
But they also expected something to keep things normal. Sophomore point guard B.J. Taylor.
The team’s young team leader was supposed to stabilize the offense some, providing some experience to a team with several new pieces playing games for Donnie Jones and UCF for the first time.
Taylor’s impact goes beyond his team-leading 12.8 points per game and 2.5 assists per game. Already a team without any major returning scorers and losing their starting point guard in Brandon Goodwin to a transfer to Florida Gulf Coast.
There was a lot riding on the local sophomore recruit. Especially with Fall coming to the fold and Chance McSpadden and A.J. Davis and Tanksley Efiayani. Jones is still settling on a rotation and still settling on how to make all the pieces fit.
Missing a major puzzle piece in Taylor has led to more adjustments on the fly.
“I think the biggest thing is right now is we have six new players who didn’t play last year and the quarterback of our team has been injured,” coach Donnie Jones said. “We have had different guys playing in different roles and different places. We are trying as a coaching staff, we played a pretty intense schedule early on with teams who were experienced and been in the NCAA Tournament, we didn’t have very much room for error.
“I think we’ve learned from it the right way. We’ve practiced well. We’ve took coaching. These guys have been very coachable and wanting to learn. Wer’re not a finished product by any means. There is still a huge ceiling for this team. But we are very proud of how guys are starting to find their roles.”
Initially, Jones started Daiquan Walker and A.J. Davis as the backcourt with Adonys Henriquez. Davis spent much of the time on the ball, but it took away a lot of his slashing ability and play off the ball. Against Stetson and UIC, Jones went with Chance McSpadden at point guard instead and experimented more with Shaheed Davis at power forward.
McSpadden came to UCF more as a prolific scorer rather than a distributor. But Jones felt he needed a player to get them into their offense better. Walker, another guard who fits more of a scoring model, was not quite getting there and running things through A.J. Davis hurt the team’s offensive efficiency.
Jones said everyone has stepped up in their roles so far. Walker has played well — 7.3 points per game and 4.3 assists per game along with a team-best 29.1 percent assist rate. McSpadden has found his footing as a freshman already and has helped bolster UCF’s starting unit with Fall in the game and push the pace better when he is out.
“Right now we were looking for someone just to kind of run our team,” Jones said. “Chance right now came in as a prolific scorer out of high school. The biggest thing for him was to give us a solid foundation of a guy who can get us into the offense, execute. He’s got the ability obviously to score and he’s a good defender. And now we bring experience off the bench in Daiquan. Daiquan is very vital to us. Him being at the point, he’s got such a scorer’s mentality, it’s tough for him to run our club at the level that we want to.”
Everyone has a role to play for sure, but none of it seems ideal. McSpadden and Walker also get a little antsy trying to go for steals. The two have 15 of the Knights’ 25 steals six games into the season.
The pressure is generally good and something Jones wants to have with some shot blockers behind them, but when the game gets into the half court, there are still some bugs to work out offensively. The Knights are posting a 102.9 adjusted offensive rating, according to KenPom.com, so things are working on that end largely.
It is clear though as the competition gets set to increase — beginning Tuesday night against UMass at CFE Arena — the Knights need their point guard back.
The team has given no timetable for Taylor’s return. The bone bruise he suffered during preseason training has not healed and he has not returned to practice yet. It is unclear how long he will be back.
Center Justin McBride noted after Saturday’s win over UIC, Taylor is working as hard as anyone he has seen to come back from injury. He jokingly said Taylor is trying to do things the doctors probably do not want him to do to illustrate his point.
It is hard to say exactly what kind of impact returning Taylor could have to the lineup. The scoring for the team has been up and the team generally needs to buckle down on defense. Perhaps returning players to their envisioned roles will create more consistency or unlock Adonys Henriquez more.
This is still a group largely learning each other still and learning how to play with a 7-foot-6 center on offense more particularly.
The versatility early on this season though has proven to be an asset as the team tries to find its way.
“That’s one of the strong points of our team, just to have so many people to go to this year,” McBride said. “We have 10 guys who could start anywhere in the country. It’s a beautiful thing. B.J. went down and everybody was kind of disappointed because it’s B.J. But you can’t cry over spilled milk. You got to keep grinding.”
