Adonys Henriquez’s return to the lineup after his injury against Connecticut three weeks ago was supposed to provide a bit of a boost to the offense. Henriquez is not the most assertive player for UCF, but his shooting spreads the floor and provides Daiquan Walker and A.J. Davis space, not to mention time for Justin McBride and Tacko Fall to work in the post.
Anything that could boost this UCF offense seemed absolutely necessary with the way it has played in conference season and particular of late.
The Knights have an offensive rating of 96.7 points per 100 possessions in conference play, according to KenPom, good for ninth in the 11-team American Athletic Conference.
The Knights did post a 109.7 offensive rating in the four games Henriquez missed, but that is somewhat skewed by a 70-point effort against Tulane. Taking that win out, the Knights posted an 87.1 offensive rating in the following three losses to Temple, Cincinnati and Houston.
Even with Henriquez back in, the Knights struggled to score in a 73-56 loss to Memphis. The Tigers hounded the Knights as the Knights missed shot after shot in the first half particularly, digging too deep a hole to climb out of.
UCF has struggled on offense. The team has scored more than 60 points just twice in the last eight games, the point of the season when things have really begun to fall apart for the team.
What is more puzzling is in conference season, at least, is that UCF is shooting it surprisingly well. The Knights are fourth in the conference with a 49.1 percent effective field goal percentage. They turn the ball over too much — on 21.6 percent of all possessions — but seem capable of making shots.
UCF’s problems are not new. There is just inconsistency on where points are going to come from with B.J. Taylor out for the year.
On some nights it has been McBride, others A.J. Davis, others Walker. But even they have their off and slow nights. And often they will have those nights at the same time. It is just unclear where offense is going to come from on a consistent basis for the Knights.
And UCF’s over-reliance on 3-pointers without any great 3-point shooters outside of Henriquez is concerning too. The Knights lead the conference in 3-point rate, taking 40.7 3-point attempts for every 100 field goal attempts in conference play.
That can lead to higher effective field goal percentage numbers, but not necessarily better offense.
UCF’s defense is not great either, but it is not bad. The Knights just have not been able to put everything together at any point this season. Not since conference season began or not since the easy stretch to begin it ceased.
Tulsa is no pushover. The Golden Hurricane are eyeing a NCAA Tournament bid and need every win they can get. The Knights struggled to put together much offense against them in the first meeting in Oklahoma — 75-60 rout in late January.
For UCF to salvage anything from this season, the team will have to muster some offense and straighten the ship on that end.
