ECU away game 4PM: UCF favored by 4.5. ECU tough at home!

[UCFProf]

SMU only favored by 2 at Houston. Houston's killer closing schedule could mark beginning of a slide by Houston that puts us as high as 3rd place. Or we could easily sink back to 7th. All the teams except top and bottom are closely bunched in the AAC. Fortunately, we already finished playing those teams and split with Houston, Memphis and Tulsa.

ECU, after losing 6 conference games in a row, has gone 3-3 including wins against Tulsa and Temple. Also, all four of their conference wins (and 11 of their 12 wins) have been AT HOME! We barely held off ECU's late run in Orlando after we were comfortable up. We just couldn't score against their superb defense (we shot 26% and lowest point total of year). Our only FGs in the final 10 minutes were two jumpers by BJ. Fortunately, they couldn't against ours either (shot 27%)! UCF scored 2 points from the 10 minute mark to 2:12.

Update: Tulsa continued its collapse today, losing 7th of last 8 after starting out 5-1 in the AAC. Tulsa's loss to Cincy today was by a similar margin as we just did to them, and UCF held Tulsa to substantially lower FG and 3pt shooting percentages than the wildcats did this afternoon. So temporarily, we are a full game ahead of 7th place Tulsa. And if we win today and SMU wins at Houston, UCF will only be 1 1/2 games out of 3rd.

 

[BlakNGoldAllDay]

This Washington guy looks better than Tacko to me.

 

[UCFProf]

He leads conference in blocks. He held Fall scoreless last time, but he gets help to keep Tacko from getting touches in the first place. But don't know if he'll play in the NBA. Not even leading his own team in rebounding.

At the half, we have a first: as many steals as turnovers (5) and more assists (7) than turnovers. But not shooting well. Credit ECU's defense.

 

[BlakNGoldAllDay]

Watching Tacko fumbling the ball around, getting 3 second calls and when he does get the ball just turning in circles is frustrating. I'm not sure he will ever have any offensive game. Just too jittery.

 

[ucf24kk]

That's either awful coaching or horrible decision making.

In bound to Tacko knowing they are going to foul and bring him to the line

Then Banyard chucks up a Hail Mary that was 2 inches away from giving them the ball under our basket..

I'll take the win though! But damn..

 

[Nyght Shadow]

Free throws..... damn it

 

[G-Knight]

We win! Road games are tuff, go Knights!

 

[BlakNGoldAllDay]

That's either awful coaching or horrible decision making.

In bound to Tacko knowing they are going to foul and bring him to the line

Then Banyard chucks up a Hail Mary that was 2 inches away from giving them the ball under our basket..

I'll take the win though! But damn..

Laing should have just thrown ball at defender instead of catching it. Clock runs out or goes out of bounds on them.

 

[UCFProf]

How'd we ever win that??? Down 6 late and crowd behind ECU. Their press was working like last time. Tacko went 1-7, BJ shooting terribly and still can't buy a free throw. So Matt sinks a 2 and a 3 (a new AAC record), and AD grabs the ball after an non-timeout for his second length of the court dunk (5th of the past 3 games) to take the lead. Tacko hit 2 of 4 on a flagrant and another grab of him. So we scored 10 straight points. Length of court pass that Nate somehow bats inbound. They'll look back at this the game that may have saved the season.

Banyard is playing like an all-star the past 3 games. Hasn't missed a 3 attempt in two games (8-10 the past three games from 3 pt range). A double double and leading team in scoring. Played a monster game on defense, too. We were down to 5 scholarship players after Chad fouled out. Temple away is next.

 

[mattropolis]

This Washington guy looks better than Tacko to me.

He is a senior.

 

[Stetson_1883]

ECU puked that game away. We were lucky to come away with the win. UCF looked too timid and jittery. A win's a win.

 

[UCFProf]

He is a senior.

Announcer's mentioned he before he transferred to ECU, he hosted Tacko to try to help recruit him to Wake Forest where he played 3 seasons (and got little playing time) and sat out last year. So he'll be 24 in June.
Also, their freshman guard had committed to UCF, but after Donnie was fired he chose ECU.

 

[UCFProf]

ECU puked that game away. We were lucky to come away with the win. UCF looked too timid and jittery. A win's a win.

Sure we were lucky, but we made our own luck. Any win on the road is good. Their defense is among the very best in the nation, too. In many ways a repeat of the first game. Nobody on UCF got a breather, what with Tank hurting. Be critical of someone else's team instead of ours all the time. UCF players left it all out on the floor today.

 

[Knight_Light]

This Washington guy looks better than Tacko to me.

He us a 5th year transfer from Wake Forest who has really improved his offensive game the last few weeks.

He dominated Tacko defensively in these 2 match-ups.