Knights eager for AAC play
UCF forward Collin Smith had a sour taste in his mouth as he returned home to see family and friends last week. That was washed away by some of his mother’s banana cream pie.
The Knights entered their holiday break on the heels of a frustrating 53-52 defeat at Oklahoma on Dec. 21. That left Smith in a foul mood, but his attitude changed quickly.
“I was definitely kind of upset going back home,” he said. “But as soon as I saw my mom, she makes me smile and I felt a lot better.”
Smith took advantage of the time to rest his body and mind, but the Knights have returned to practice in anticipation for the start of a new season of sorts on the eve of a new year.
UCF will begin American Athletic Conference play by hosting the Temple Owls (8-3) on Tuesday at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU.
The Knights wrapped up their nonconference slate with a 9-3 record, which included one-point losses to both those Sooners and Penn.
“To be honest, I think we should be undefeated,” Smith said.
UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said his team had a good “preseason,” but those narrow defeats kept it from being a great.
One of his top takeaways from the first 12 games is that he knows these Knights can play stellar defense. He complimented them Monday for their work against Oklahoma, saying his players did “a yeoman’s job” on that end of the floor. However, UCF’s offense remains a work in progress.
“I think we can still get better offensively,” Dawkins said. “I think we have the personnel to do that. It’s just a function of guys getting comfortable with one another. … As that starts to take form, I think we’ll see an improved performance there as well.”
The same can be said for the Owls, who rank 159th in scoring offense but ninth in field-goal percentage defense and 23rd in adjusted defensive efficiency, per Kenpom.com. Temple has kept nine of its 11 opponents to 66 points or fewer.
Junior guards Quinton Rose and Nate Pierre-Louis are the Owls’ leaders in almost every category and are averaging a combined 26 points and 14 rebounds per game. When these two programs met up in Orlando to open the 2018-2019 conference season, Rose and Pierre-Louis contributed 38 points, including six 3-pointers.
The Knights still prevailed in that contest, 78-73, and say they are ready for a challenge versus the best defense they have faced to date.
“It’s definitely going to be a battle tomorrow,” Smith said. “I expect them to come bring their hardest because they are a good team. We’re also not going to back down either.”
No Bol: The Knights spent months looking forward to the debut of Yuat Alok, a 6-foot-11 center with perimeter shooting ability. That time was supposed to come right around now, but Dawkins announcedDec. 18 that Alok was ineligible, and the TCU transfer is now off the team.
That leaves the Knights pretty thin in their frontcourt, with only the 6-11 Smith and 6-11 Avery Diggs as UCF’s lone true big men. There is another option on Dawkins’ bench, but in the case of 7-1 Moses Bol, it sounds as if he won’t see the floor this season unless something awful befalls Smith or Diggs.
Bol, a cousin of former NBA player Manute Bol, left his native Sudan for America just a couple of years ago to pursue a future in basketball. He spent two seasons at Colby Community College in Kansas before transferring to UCF this past spring.