The UCF Knights men’s basketball team is in a state of flux.
The team is not where it should be in order to compete at an elite level, and going into the season that was to be expected, but with no marquee win on its resume in 2016, the Knights are desperately trying to get a big win to get the ball rolling toward any possible run into a postseason tournament.
According to KenPom, UCF is ranked No. 162 in the country behind the likes of Louisiana-Monroe and East Tennessee St., and for a school of the magnitude and size of the University of Central Florida, expectations are higher and the results just have not been there in the past couple of seasons.
UCF has lost three consecutive home games to the Memphis Tigers, UConn Huskies and Temple Owls, which proves UCF is exactly what the team is: UCF is a mid-to-low-level basketball team in a mid-to-low-level conference. The Knights have won five games in the conference, but to the lesser teams such as the USF Bulls, East Carolina Pirates and Tulane Green Wave.
Its best player is arguably the sophomore point forward A.J. Davis, who is a good basketball player and is the first to dive on the floor for coveted 50-50 balls, but possesses some weaknesses that can be exploited. The Knights lack a consistent go-to scorer.
Davis does average just less than 13 points per game (12.9 points per game), but only shoots 25.5 percent from beyond the arc. As a team, UCF shoots 33.7 percent from the three, which is actually good for four in the conference, but bolstered especially by the talents of Matt Williams, who shoots just less than 40 percent from deep.
The not-so-secret weapon of late has been freshman Tacko Fall, but unfortunately he just does not play enough minutes to impact an entire game, just a portion of it.
Averaging 16.3 minutes per game, Fall is tallying 6.9 points per game, 5.1 rebounds and shoots a staggering 75 percent from the field.
The raw numbers might not jump out as elite, but at 7-foot-6 and when “playing mad”, Fall’s skill set is unique and valuable.
Head coach Donnie Jones pointed to that philosophy after the loss to Temple, reiterating the need for Fall to play aggressively, and with each game this season, his development has blossomed as he is genuinely learning to play the game at a level that UCF can use as a building block for his next two or three years.
UCF does not have any win on its resume that is up to any kind of relevant snuff — East Carolina has the highest KenPom ranking of any of UCF’s wins at a whopping No. 171 — and with a turnover margin at -4.8 and an assist-to-turnover ratio of 0.8, the Knights do not have the guard play without B.J. Taylor that can match up with others in the conference, or the conditioning with its big men to result in long runs of consistent play, thus resulting in a stretch of tough losses, whether they be blowouts against UConn (67-41) or two-point heartbreakers against Temple (62-60).
But there is a lot of basketball left and with a conference tournament having the power to get the Knights into the big dance, in steps the Cincinnati Bearcats.
With a win, UCF can garner some much needed confidence for a potential postseason run.
Led by Mick Cronin, the Bearcats have had sustained success in recent years in the American Conference and look to be one of the best teams in the conference in 2016.
Like many of the other upper-echelon teams in the American, Cincinnati features a deep roster with eight players averaging at least 5.9 points per contest and have played every game. Cincinnati has not beaten a ranked team yet this season, but possesses the ability to do so and that’s why they are a 10-point favorite against the UCF on Tuesday.
The game will be at CFE Arena at 7 p.m. with a promotion of Glow Knight, which will feature a free T-shirt giveaway.
With UCF third from the bottom in overall attendance, Knights fans will need to show up in droves to push the team toward the potential landmark victory it so desperately needs.
