Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Searching for a signature victory
The UCF Knights are 19-5 this season, the program’s best 24-game start since the 2003-04 campaign.
Despite the sparkling record, however, not all wins are created equal in college basketball, where teams try to impress the NCAA tournament selection committee with their complete body of work.
The Knights have a few nice feathers in their cap, including wins over Alabama, Temple and at UConn. But they are missing a true marquee victory over one of the nation’s best.
Fortunately, the Knights’ schedule is back-loaded with formidable foes and will present them with three chances in their final six regular-season games to knock off the American Athletic Conference’s two best teams: No. 8 Houston and No. 25 Cincinnati. The first of those tests comes Thursday with a visit to the Bearcats, who are 21-4 overall and 10-2 in the conference.
Tipoff from Cincinnati is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Thursday. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
The Knights know a win over that type of squad will carry a little more weight than most of their previous 19 victories.
“Going on the road and getting a win like this will really help us in terms of building our resume going toward March,” UCF guard B.J. Taylor said. “That’s the only thing we’re focused on: trying to go 1-0 up there. [We] just keep trying to get these quality wins.”
Better on the boards:
Taylor said Wednesday that rebounding is where UCF has made the most improvement during its current three-game winning streak.
The stats may not show it immediately — the Knights are minus-14 in offensive rebounds since giving up 21 to Memphis last month — but there is some data to back up Taylor’s statement.
Looking at their five opponents since that debacle against the Tigers — Connecticut, SMU, Houston, South Florida and Memphis again — the Knights held four of those teams below their per-game average in offensive rebounds. In Saturday’s rematch versus Memphis, the Tigers had eight offensive boards.
“We really emphasized making sure we boxed out better, and I think our guys have done a better job of that,” coach Johnny Dawkins said.
Those principles will probably be stressed even more in preparation for the Bearcats.
Cincinnati gathers 36.4 percent of its rebounds on the offensive end, which is the 12th-best rate in the country, and in a game between two teams that play at a patient pace, each possession takes on greater importance. Preventing the Bearcats from getting those higher-percentage second looks at the basket will be imperative for UCF.
“We’ve got to come in there bringing a certain amount of focus,” center Tacko Fall said. “We’re bigger than them, so we’ve just got to impose our will.”
POY battle: This game will pit the guard who was the AAC’s Preseason Player of the Year against the guard who is looking like one of the favorites to win the honor when all is said and done.
Taylor has returned the coaches’ faith in him prior to the year by scoring 16.9 points per game and shooting 38.1 percent from 3-point range. His game versus Memphis on Saturday, with 25 points, five rebounds and five assists, may have been his premier performance as a senior.
But Cincinnati guard Jarron Cumberland is having an especially strong season.
The junior leads the AAC with 19.4 points per game, and his 43.5 3-point percentage is bested only by teammate Justin Jenifer (44.6 percent).
Cumberland, with 359 shots, has taken the thirdmost field-goal attempts of any player in the AAC. The Knights understand that a defense is not going to completely shut down a scorer with such a heavy workload.
“It’s not so much about trying to limit him to a certain amount of points because when you shoot that many shots, you’re going to score some,” Taylor said of Cumberland. “It’s just about trying to make him inefficient, make him shoot shots he doesn’t want to shoot.”