Defense kills: held them to 34.7%, 22.2% on their 3's

[UCFProf]

And Tank-Nick were secret weapons: combined 4-5 from 3-pt 11/17 overall, 5 of our 11 assists.
Tacko 16 rebounds, and perfect from the floor again 3-3, 2 crucial free throws near the end
Despite giving up 15 steals (20 turnovers) and taking 30 fewer shots from the floor, we won!
And despite UCF's two leading scorers stopped cold against tough, quick guards.
How'd we win?
Just as with Villanova, the opposition''s talent too good to play our walk-ons or Brown.
But this time Banyard and Tank really stepped up their games. Against 'Nova, those two were ciphers on the scoreboard! Today, they came to play and played within themselves.

 

[pittstoner74]

Tank played best all around game. Barnyard with clutch shot and Tacko with good rebounding. Hoping we don't face full court press a lot this year. We couldn't beat it with pass or dribble.

 

[UCFProf]

Tank played best all around game. Barnyard with clutch shot and Tacko with good rebounding. Hoping we don't face full court press a lot this year. We couldn't beat it with pass or dribble.

Tacko must have lost 10 rebounds off his hands. Almost all his rebounds were in the first half. It took 3 UCF rebounds in the last minute to finally catch UMass in rebounding stats. It was the same against an even better team, Villanova, which outrebounded us and kept Tank and Banyard totally off the boards. Quickness neutralizes height!

 

[pittstoner74]

Tacko must have lost 10 rebounds off his hands. Almost all his rebounds were in the first half. It took 3 UCF rebounds in the last minute to finally catch UMass in rebounding stats. It was the same against an even better team, Villanova, which outrebounded us and kept Tank and Banyard totally off the boards. Quickness neutralizes height!

Tacko brings the ball down to waist a lot

 

[G-Knight]

And Tank-Nick were secret weapons: combined 4-5 from 3-pt 11/17 overall, 5 of our 11 assists.
Tacko 16 rebounds, and perfect from the floor again 3-3, 2 crucial free throws near the end
Despite giving up 15 steals (20 turnovers) and taking 30 fewer shots from the floor, we won!
And despite UCF's two leading scorers stopped cold against tough, quick guards.
How'd we win?
Just as with Villanova, the opposition''s talent too good to play our walk-ons or Brown.
But this time Banyard and Tank really stepped up their games. Against 'Nova, those two were ciphers on the scoreboard! Today, they came to play and played within themselves.

Do you think our D is that good or are teams just having bad nights shooting against us? UMASS missed a bunch of wide open shots that were not defended at all.

 

[UCFProf]

They'd won 5 in a row, had lots of talented frosh, and they'd scouted us well so knew how to get into our heads. Dawkins was glad to come away with a win. We have decent chance to win the rest of our OOC games (Penn may be tough because Temple had a lot of trouble with them today). Remember we missed all our 3's, too -- and 4 of the 5 we made were by Tank and Nick, who made one FG total between them against 'Nova. Guys stepping up is what winning's about.

 

[UCFhonors]

Do you think our D is that good or are teams just having bad nights shooting against us? UMASS missed a bunch of wide open shots that were not defended at all.

That's a good question. We played our best defense today. But honestly it's too early to tell and we haven't played enough quality opponents to really know if our defense is just good or something really special. Our stats say we are special.

 

[UCFProf]

Opponents don't even bother trying shots in the paint anymore. There is no player ever in the game who can do that. And I've seen them all. So all Dawkins has to do is guard the 3-point lines, and the result is opponents cannot make a large enough share of their shots to win. Not when they shoot 25% from 3 and 30% overall. We had 30 fewer shots than UMass due to all the steal and no rebounding edge, our leading scorers couldn't drop it in the ocean, and we still won. Even Villanova's high percentage, multiple pass offense fell 20 percentage points against us. Yeah, we're really that good a defense. Every single opponent shoots the same pathetic percentages (and we have played 4 good teams so far!).

 

[pittstoner74]

Do you think our D is that good or are teams just having bad nights shooting against us? UMASS missed a bunch of wide open shots that were not defended at all.

Flowers was hot today. Plus most of the borderline calls went in UMASS favor.

 

[hemightbejeremy]

Do you think our D is that good or are teams just having bad nights shooting against us? UMASS missed a bunch of wide open shots that were not defended at all.

The D is good. Pretty much anything in the paint is negated by Tacko. Even some 10 footers are blocked. 15 footers have to be shot with higher arc lots more 3s are shot. I didn't see a ton of wide open misses from UMass. At least no more than the contested 3s that Flowers kept hitting.

 

[Knight_Light]

The D is good. Pretty much anything in the paint is negated by Tacko. Even some 10 footers are blocked. 15 footers have to be shot with higher arc lots more 3s are shot. I didn't see a ton of wide open misses from UMass. At least no more than the contested 3s that Flowers kept hitting.

The main and only key is to have Tacko stay on the floor (and out of foul trouble).

In most games this year, as soon as Tacko goes to the bench...opponents start driving the lane...and while Brown has some blocks this year...he is still a foul machine (3 fouls in just 7 mins of action yesterday) and opponents know that.

I think bigger post players and/or tall/quick wing players in the conf will challenge Tacko a lot more hoping to get him into foul trouble...because UCF is a totally different team on both ends of the court when he is on the bench.

 

[UCFProf]

The main and only key is to have Tacko stay on the floor (and out of foul trouble).

In most games this year, as soon as Tacko goes to the bench...opponents start driving the lane...and while Brown has some blocks this year...he is still a foul machine (3 fouls in just 7 mins of action yesterday) and opponents know that.

I think bigger post players and/or tall/quick wing players in the conf will challenge Tacko a lot more hoping to get him into foul trouble...because UCF is a totally different team on both ends of the court when he is on the bench.

Against a mediocre team, Chad Brown is plenty good enough as Stetson discovered. We actually expanded our lead each time Brown was in there. But against a good team like Miss St., Charleston, UMass, or 'Nova, he's a fouling machine and not an experienced enough defender to even cleanly block shots or grab most rebounds.

But this is not a static situation by any means. He hardly saw the floor with all bigs on the squad last season. Frustrated Donnie only started giving Brown PT to shake thing up and provide Chad's hi-energy. With continued coaching and game experience, he'll improve throughout this season including his big upside offensive potential. That's the value of the OOC games. He can really run the floor, so Dawkins will use him often as a power forward next year alongside our 7-footer.

 

[Knight_Light]

Against a mediocre team, Chad Brown is plenty good enough as Stetson discovered. We actually expanded our lead each time Brown was in there. But against a good team like Miss St., Charleston, UMass, or 'Nova, he's a fouling machine and not an experienced enough defender to even cleanly block shots or grab most rebounds.

But this is not a static situation by any means. He hardly saw the floor with all bigs on the squad last season. Frustrated Donnie only started giving Brown PT to shake thing up and provide Chad's hi-energy. With continued coaching and game experience, he'll improve throughout this season including his big upside offensive potential. That's the value of the OOC games. He can really run the floor, so Dawkins will use him often as a power forward next year alongside our 7-footer.

Only thing is Stetson is not a "mediocre" team...as real mediocre teams in AAC will be much more talented than Stetson.

 

[UCFProf]

Only thing is Stetson is not a "mediocre" team...as real mediocre teams in AAC will be much more talented than Stetson.

However, nobody expects double digit scoring and shut-down defense like he displayed against Stetson.
Against 2 or 3 other opponents, Chad was not much of a liability at all this season except for his fouls. He's a great rebounder and shot blocker whose made great strides on team defense and floor presence.
Also, right now, the bottom half of the conference are piling up losses at record speed (although Tulane had has an insanely tough schedule).

 

[UCFhonors]

With Prof and K_L, this has been by far the best basketball talk / discussion I've ever seen here. So thanks for that. Wish @Hoops McKnight* was still giving his game breakdowns and stories.

Regarding Chad Brown and Tacko, I see Johnny making great adjustments for who is in the game. I think with AJ back we will see even more of that.

We are still relatively tall when Tacko is out and we have Brown, Banyard and AJ in. I think they just need more time playing together and Johnny needs to see how they can work together. We can't really expect Tacko to be playing 30+ mins a game, every game. So playing well with Tacko out is a key delevopment opportunity.

I went back and looked at some highlights bc Prof said UMass were pushing Tacko in the back during rebounds. They totally were and weren't getting called for that. That crap needs to stop. The game could've been completely different if those fouls were called. I'm proud that we battled through it and got the W.

 

[UCFhonors]

The D is good. Pretty much anything in the paint is negated by Tacko. Even some 10 footers are blocked. 15 footers have to be shot with higher arc lots more 3s are shot. I didn't see a ton of wide open misses from UMass. At least no more than the contested 3s that Flowers kept hitting.

Yeah, I agree. The last three games opponents have been driving, and stopping for those 15 foot jumpers. Tacko will learn when to contest those shots.

Overall both teams played great defense. If Matt's shots were falling or if Tacko could've gone for rebounds without being fouled, we could've been up by 10 points for most of the game IMHO.

 

[UCFhonors]

Only thing is Stetson is not a "mediocre" team...as real mediocre teams in AAC will be much more talented than Stetson.

True. From what you've seen so far, where do you expect us to finish in the AAC this year or where do we rank in the AAC right now?

The UMass announcers kept saying we are the most underrated / most improved AAC team. I was fine with the AAC coaches projecting us to be 8th in the league preseason.

I know RPI doesn't mean much this early in the season but we are 2nd in the AAC and 31st in the nation.

I would put us at 6th behind Temple Cincy, SMU, Memphis, and UConn (despite their bad losses) in that order.

Looks like the top AAC teams are having a down year which could be good for us.

http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_aac_Men.html

 

[pittstoner74]

Against a mediocre team, Chad Brown is plenty good enough as Stetson discovered. We actually expanded our lead each time Brown was in there. But against a good team like Miss St., Charleston, UMass, or 'Nova, he's a fouling machine and not an experienced enough defender to even cleanly block shots or grab most rebounds.

But this is not a static situation by any means. He hardly saw the floor with all bigs on the squad last season. Frustrated Donnie only started giving Brown PT to shake thing up and provide Chad's hi-energy. With continued coaching and game experience, he'll improve throughout this season including his big upside offensive potential. That's the value of the OOC games. He can really run the floor, so Dawkins will use him often as a power forward next year alongside our 7-footer.

Dawkins doesn't like to push the tempo up. Hence our holding opponents under 60. So Cgad being able to run floor doesn't help the offense. He needs to be able to play with back to basket.

 

[UCFProf]

With Prof and K_L, this has been by far the best basketball talk / discussion I've ever seen here. So thanks for that. Wish @Hoops McKnight* I went back and looked at some highlights bc Prof said UMass were pushing Tacko in the back during rebounds. They totally were and weren't getting called for that. That crap needs to stop. The game could've been completely different if those fouls were called. I'm proud that we battled through it and got the W.

UMass did have a starter who fouled out after only 9 minutes of playing time. Their wide body just leaned his way to the basket against Brown, who's not slouch at 230. And then there were the usual muggings of BJ. It seems that only hand checking and reach ins get called, not body contact unless it's in the act of shooting.

 

[Knight_Light]

True. From what you've seen so far, where do you expect us to finish in the AAC this year or where do we rank in the AAC right now?

The UMass announcers kept saying we are the most underrated / most improved AAC team. I was fine with the AAC coaches projecting us to be 8th in the league preseason.

I know RPI doesn't mean much this early in the season but we are 2nd in the AAC and 31st in the nation.

I would put us at 6th behind Temple Cincy, SMU, Memphis, and UConn (despite their bad losses) in that order.

Looks like the top AAC teams are having a down year which could be good for us.

http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_aac_Men.html

Key for UCF in conf play will be HOME games. Hopefully UCF can go 6-3 in home games as wins on the road will be hard to get.

If UCF can win 6 home games, they should finish around 6 or better in conf...and that assumes no one else gets injured.

 

[UCFProf]

Key for UCF in conf play will be HOME games. Hopefully UCF can go 6-3 in home games as wins on the road will be hard to get.
If UCF can win 6 home games, they should finish around 6 or better in conf...and that assumes no one else gets injured.

Normally, that a truism in any conference. But not with UCF. Last year (and since jumping up several levels to the AAC), the only factor that didn't matter was home vs. away! UCF took care of business by defeating the 3 bottom dwellers (Tulane, USF, and ECU) at home and on the road, but lost every single game against the top seven in the conference. Most weren't close. The top teams just toy with us, then go on a run, we lose composure, and that's all she wrote.

Issues of mental toughness have been well addressed by Dawkins (except BJ losing it vs. UMass).
What still needs to be built: a home court advantage! Then KL's analysis would be relevant at UCF. We need full houses.

 

[Knight_Light]

Issues of mental toughness have been well addressed by Dawkins (except BJ losing it vs. UMass).
What still needs to be built: a home court advantage! Then KL's analysis would be relevant at UCF. We need full houses.

I think Matt Williams poor shooting night at UMASS shows, especially those that shoot from downtown like Matt...home court/baskets can be a huge advantage.

Many times, UCF has problems shooting from downtown in large NBA like arenas (i.e. at Memphis).

 

[UCFProf]

I think Matt Williams poor shooting night at UMASS shows, especially those that shoot from downtown like Matt...home court/baskets can be a huge advantage.

Many times, UCF has problems shooting from downtown in large NBA like arenas (i.e. at Memphis).

Did you notice the horrid 3-point shooting by the UMass players, but they kept shooting. Not so with Matt. This is only the second game where Williams wasn't hitting, and both times either Dawkins or Matt himself didn't take those shots in the 2nd half (until he finally made one late in the game). Instead, he led the team with 4 steals (got to be a personal best) and 4 assists helping calm the team while poor BJ was getting rattled by Pitkin.