Piss Poor Coaching and Playing last knight vs. Temple!

[Knight_Classes_begin_7pm]

I just did my ranting under another post!

Very disappointed in the coaches and players last Knight!

Last Knight made me say....Johnny, what the hell are you doing and/or coaching??

I didn't know who or what I was watching!

Comments? Thoughts?

PS: We already can't win on the road and this game was home. Not the same team that played Michigan.

 

[mattropolis]

I've gotta agree with you. We didn't seem to recognize any of the mismatches we had all night (and never tried to exploit them). For example, Reynolds was monstrously bigger than any of their centers but I can only recall 3-4 times they fed him the ball. He dunked once, he kicked-out another time when the double-team came (which was the right thing to do), and the other time was a turnover. What seemed worse, to me, was that he wasn't even trying to get position in the paint, and that seems like a coaching decision. We were running offense and he was just standing along the end line like 8-10 ft from the basket.

5 minutes into the game I said,"#1 is their guy. Our best defender needs to be on him all game. If there is one guy you can't leave open. It's him." He's the kid who hit the 3 at the end of the game.

Walker should have been fed the ball a lot more while heading to the basket.....by designed plays. He was successful when the team did that, but it seems like we barely tried doing it. He was far more athletic than anybody guarding him.

Perry should not be handling the ball at the end of games. He didn't handle it well last season, and yesterday he dribbled the ball out-of-bounds (off his foot...whatever he did...from my seat it was hard to see).

Mahan's body language was horrible at some points in the game. Walking off with his shoulders slumped and looking at the floor. I can't believe the coaches didn't ride him about that and talk him up, or bench him.

For the last two games, Diong is the only guy out there playing with energy and some emotion. Everyone else looks like they are sleepwalking.

We were bigger, faster, and stronger than that team but they just kept plugging away and we just kept making mistakes. They deserved the win.

 

[tjb74]

Yeah a 7-6 team missing 3 of their top 5 scorers and their head coach should not come into your arena and leave with a win…like never.

 

[Central Floridave]

I didn't watch the game but listened to Marc Daniels call for the whole game. Really sounded like UCF should have won but didn't. Temple head coach out, two players, asst coach. Maybe it was just one of those days where the opposing team had something to prove. Most games can go either way and a funny bounce of the ball, a ref's call, or just missing a shot the final second makes a diff. Frustrating loss for me, it's interesting how listening to it on the radio and my only take is from what Marc was describing. I went to the Oklahoma game and could tell then that the team is inconsistent with no killer instinct. It was there for the 2nd half of the Michigan game, but not on others. The good thing is the season ain't over, and in basketball a team can get hot. Here's hope there is a lesson in this loss.

In good news, UCF women's beat Tulane yesterday.

UCF Opens AAC Play With Win at Tulane - UCF Athletics

The UCF women's basketball team opened American Athletic Conference action with a 54-47 win over Tulane Wednesday evening inside Avron B. Fogelman Arena in Devlin

ucfknights.com

Maybe we need Coach Abe to lite a fire under the Men's team and get back in the win column....

 

[Knight_Classes_begin_7pm]

I've gotta agree with you. We didn't seem to recognize any of the mismatches we had all night (and never tried to exploit them). For example, Reynolds was monstrously bigger than any of their centers but I can only recall 3-4 times they fed him the ball. He dunked once, he kicked-out another time when the double-team came (which was the right thing to do), and the other time was a turnover. What seemed worse, to me, was that he wasn't even trying to get position in the paint, and that seems like a coaching decision. We were running offense and he was just standing along the end line like 8-10 ft from the basket.

5 minutes into the game I said,"#1 is their guy. Our best defender needs to be on him all game. If there is one guy you can't leave open. It's him." He's the kid who hit the 3 at the end of the game.

Walker should have been fed the ball a lot more while heading to the basket.....by designed plays. He was successful when the team did that, but it seems like we barely tried doing it. He was far more athletic than anybody guarding him.

Perry should not be handling the ball at the end of games. He didn't handle it well last season, and yesterday he dribbled the ball out-of-bounds (off his foot...whatever he did...from my seat it was hard to see).

Mahan's body language was horrible at some points in the game. Walking off with his shoulders slumped and looking at the floor. I can't believe the coaches didn't ride him about that and talk him up, or bench him.

For the last two games, Diong is the only guy out there playing with energy and some emotion. Everyone else looks like they are sleepwalking.

We were bigger, faster, and stronger than that team but they just kept plugging away and we just kept making mistakes. They deserved the win.

Exactly Matt! I mean what is Johnny teaching here! I mean keep Reynolds in there! Tell him to get to the basket and draw the foul! He's 300 lbs. He's scared to go up! I thought he would really improve this year and be aggressive. Where's the coaching?? Also he comes out every 2 minutes!

Almost all of them looked like they didn't want to be there! Johnny Dawkins looks like a stick in the mud. No excitement, no fire, no passion! OMG is Donnie Jones back! I mean sometimes Johnny you have to throw a chair on the court!!! Figuratively speaking!!

Walker has no move to the basket. He's so athletic but he wont post up (because he has no move).

I'm just SUPER disappointed in what I saw last night OMG

 

[Knight_Classes_begin_7pm]

Yeah a 7-6 team missing 3 of their top 5 scorers and their head coach should not come into your arena and leave with a win…like never.

This team, with all the longness, height, skill, and seniors was supposed to be better that the team that Donnie built, Tacko, BJ, Chad, etc. I really thought it would happen this year. Johnny Dawkins is starting to remind me of Randy Shannon who never did anything (just hung around for a paycheck!). The players are making dumb mistakes, for instance when our player has possession, crosses mid court then stops, holds the ball, the other team player puts his hands on the ball, then it's a jump ball, possession arrow to Temple!!! Ugh!

 

[Knight_Classes_begin_7pm]

I didn't watch the game but listened to Marc Daniels call for the whole game. Really sounded like UCF should have won but didn't. Temple head coach out, two players, asst coach. Maybe it was just one of those days where the opposing team had something to prove. Most games can go either way and a funny bounce of the ball, a ref's call, or just missing a shot the final second makes a diff. Frustrating loss for me, it's interesting how listening to it on the radio and my only take is from what Marc was describing. I went to the Oklahoma game and could tell then that the team is inconsistent with no killer instinct. It was there for the 2nd half of the Michigan game, but not on others. The good thing is the season ain't over, and in basketball a team can get hot. Here's hope there is a lesson in this loss.

In good news, UCF women's beat Tulane yesterday.

UCF Opens AAC Play With Win at Tulane - UCF Athletics

The UCF women's basketball team opened American Athletic Conference action with a 54-47 win over Tulane Wednesday evening inside Avron B. Fogelman Arena in Devlin

ucfknights.com

Maybe we need Coach Abe to lite a fire under the Men's team and get back in the win column....

Dave, it was piss poor horrible watching this game. Players just not hustling, shoulders slumped, nobody cared. Once we had a lead, we gave up. It was horrible to watch! Not defensively covering their shooters...UGH!

 

[BlakNGoldAllDay]

Exactly Matt! I mean what is Johnny teaching here! I mean keep Reynolds in there! Tell him to get to the basket and draw the foul! He's 300 lbs. He's scared to go up! I thought he would really improve this year and be aggressive. Where's the coaching?? Also he comes out every 2 minutes!

Almost all of them looked like they didn't want to be there! Johnny Dawkins looks like a stick in the mud. No excitement, no fire, no passion! OMG is Donnie Jones back! I mean sometimes Johnny you have to throw a chair on the court!!! Figuratively speaking!!

Walker has no move to the basket. He's so athletic but he wont post up (because he has no move).

I'm just SUPER disappointed in what I saw last night OMG

Reynolds and Diong are limited offensively. Either a dunk or a miss. Dunks are typically alley oops. Offense is either fast break or 3 point attempt. Great when shots are falling but when they aren’t it’s hard to watch.

 

[Central Floridave]

rhetorical or not, when do we get on the fire dawkins bandwagon? I've been a fan of his for years though. Gonna be tough for me to move that needle. I'm expecting NIT or Bust. UCF obviously needs to win the AAC to make the NCAA tourny. No one is going to vote us in otherwise. But, NIT would be pretty good option and at least final four in that. Competition in B-Ball is fierce. However, pre-season I felt we should be auto-NCAA tourny team. But since, not so much. Coach Abe...save us!

 

[Yung knight]

I’m torn on Dawkins because I think he’s bringing in the best talent we can get, runs a clean program and won some big games
But there have been many head scratching games like this one and I feel like we should do better in these games

 

[BlakNGoldAllDay]

There is definitely a younger coach out there that can bring us into Big 12 stronger. When will Terry pull trigger? In basketball you only need 1 really good player and a good compliment to be a great team. We don’t have that. Some games Green shoots lights out and others he looks bad. We’ve had trouble recruiting big men. Would be nice to get a big that can score.

 

[akhenaten]

I'm torn on Johnny as well.

It's tempting to say "we should be better than this", but the program arguably is as strong and stable as it's ever been.

He led them to an NIT semifinal run in 2017 and their first NCAA tourney win in 2019, but it was with Donnie's recruits.

He's managed to keep players here and build a team that is more than a revolving door, but none of them are stars.

He runs what seems to be an impeccably clean program, but maybe that's why he hasn't recruited any stars.

He's had a losing conference record the past 2 seasons after Donnie's recruits graduated, but the American is a tough basketball conference. No one outside of Orlando thinks UCF should be better than Cincinnati, Memphis, Houston, Wichita State, even SMU. We're just not there yet. Tacko Fall was a gift from the gods, and B.J. Taylor was an all-time gamer who decided to stay home to play college ball.

At the end of the day, I think you don't fire a Johnny Dawkins if you're UCF. It could be a lot, lot worse. But I share the frustrations.

 

[Knight_Classes_begin_7pm]

Reynolds and Diong are limited offensively. Either a dunk or a miss. Dunks are typically alley oops. Offense is either fast break or 3 point attempt. Great when shots are falling but when they aren’t it’s hard to watch.

Exactly BNG! Without the 3 ball going in we have zero, and zero post play.