Knights 8-2 but pledge not to overlook Stetson
UCF point guard B.J.
The UCF men's basketball team is still discovering itself at this early stage of the season. Individual skill sets are continuing to develop and rotations are being ironed out fewer than three weeks away from the start of American Athletic Conference play.
The Knights did discover something about themselves this week that will be beneficial when they face AAC foes such as Memphis and Connecticut later this winter: When those teams want to play fast, UCF knows it can keep up with them.
The Knights (8-2) figured that out Tuesday night when they won a 95-88 shootout against Georgia Southern, which runs its offense at one of the fastest tempos in the nation.
“It's good to we can play know that different styles of offense now,” coach Johnny Dawkins said Friday. “... I think it showed the other night in a game which was a heck of a game offensively that we were able to keep pace, and that's something that we haven't always been able to do. It was exciting to see.”
Don't expect the Knights to suddenly employ the college version of the Los Angeles Lakers' “Showtime” offense of the '80s and '90s. UCF prefers to play more methodically and win with its defense. So after allowing 88 points on 54.4 percent shooting to the Eagles, the Knights have spent significant time this week shoring up their work on that end of the floor.
"Our transition defense was pretty poor in the last game,” senior guard B.J. Taylor said. “We've got to stop teams from getting out and running on us because that's going to be teams' game plan. They don't want to play against our half-court defense, so we've got to get back and set our defense up.”
That transition defense shouldn't be stressed too often Sunday versus Stetson. The game will tip off at 3 p.m. at CFE Arena and it will be streamed on ESPN3.com.
The Hatters (2-9) have scored just 87 fast-break points during 11 games this season. Twenty-six of those points came during Stetson's season-opening triumph over Division II Johnson University.
The Hatters' lone other victory was on Dec. 5 versus Western Illinois. Otherwise, this season has not been kind as they work to replace all five starters from a year ago and carry just one senior on their roster. Even when not including Stetson's 64-point loss at Duke earlier this month, the Hatters have lost by double-digit margins during eight defeats.
Even though UCF has won the past 18 meetings in this series, don't expect the Knights to overlook their neighbor 40 miles to the north. The players may not be fully aware of the heated rivalry that existed between these two programs while they shared residence in the Atlantic Sun Conference from 1992 through 2005, but they do know that a game against another Florida team always carries a little extra meaning.
“Any time you play an in-state team, there's always a bit of a rivalry there,” Taylor said. “Usually you're a little bit more familiar with their guys, and the guys you play against are usually a little more familiar with you.
“They're not going to come in here with any fear and we've just got to be locked in and ready to go.” their other