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Play second round at Illinois St. Monday night -- good team

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UCFProf

Golden Knight
Nov 13, 2011
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Watched some of their game tonite controlling UC Irvine. They only lost to Wichita St. (split with them, lost in the conference tourney) in Missouri Valley conference. They are 28-6 and only lost one game at home all year; the crowd was noisy tonight there. Their 1 seed is merited since they were definitely a serious bubble team that arguably deserved an NCAA tournament invite. It's sort of a similar situation as when we played an angry Drexel in our previous NIT -- many felt Drexel should have gone to the NCAAs that year.

We must travel to Normal in central Illinois east of Peoria and 116 miles SW of Chicago.
 
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If UCF can compete with Cincinnati and SMU, they can compete with this team

Rest and recovery will be important before Monday. Bench players will need to step up big
 
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OmniKnight said:
If UCF can compete with Cincinnati and SMU, they can compete with this team

Rest and recovery will be important before Monday. Bench players will need to step up big
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Correct. There's no way that this team is better than Cincinnati or SMU. Their only advantage is that they are playing at home. We lost to Villanova by 10. They would blow Illinois St. out of the building
 
Thanks for the recap. Of course we were all hoping for another home game. Last night's game was thrilling. Glad that Colorado dude missed that last second three to tie it up. I don't think UCF would have won going into overtime. They were on fire at the end.
 
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Central Floridave said:
Thanks for the recap. Of course we were all hoping for another home game. Last night's game was thrilling. Glad that Colorado dude missed that last second three to tie it up. I don't think UCF would have won going into overtime. They were on fire at the end.
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Was it nerves on the free throw shooting?
 
On the other hand, the Colorado coach was admiring UCF for holding the Buffaloes to only 6 free throws.
Also, the Knight's were even luckier in two of their recent last minute wins: a missed dunk and a 3 that miraculously went down and back out. Last night was just another in a series of charmed wins for a team of destiny. What a great ride that still ain't over. Marc Daniels relates how Dawkins told his team about how nice it'd be to have a 2017 NIT Champion banner hanging forever in the arena.
 
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"Was it nerves " In the first few minutes I would say yes. Tacko airballed one free throw early minutes. Towards the end I would say it was from being tired. BJ I think played 39 minutes. He was dog tired at the end along with being pocked in the eye. He missed two important free throws that allowed Colorado to get within 3 points.
 
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Illinois State, buoyed by a vocal crowd of 5,124, advanced to the NIT's second round Monday night against Central Florida at Redbird Arena at 6 p.m. Former Redbird Nick Banyard is a starter for the Knights.

"(UCF) is playing their best basketball right now," Muller said. "I'm looking forward to that one. It'll be a fun night at Redbird Arena. It'll be good to see Nick."

http://www.pjstar.com/sports/20170315/hot-shooting-keys-isu-to-85-71-win-over-uc-irvine-in-nit
 
The Redbirds kept their home record perfect at 16-0 while winning their 22nd straight game at Redbird Arena. With students on spring break, the crowd was larger than anticipated, especially with an 8:30 p.m. start.

“Shout out to the crowd. They were locked in,” said Lee. “We pumped them up and they got loud. If we can get that going in NIT, that will help us out a lot.”
http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/co...cle_325463dd-c8b6-5ed2-98c6-47f7f8cd4703.html
 
Google Image Illinois State Milner Library. Looks oddly enough like UCF library. i wonder if it was designed by the same architecture.
 
Speaking of crowds, I took a pic last night to show how virtually every sideline seat was filled in the lower deck -- that is, it was the largest home crowd of live body, revenue generators this season. But then I noticed at least one woman trying to cover her face while sitting next to a guy glaring at me -- so I dared not out them in case they weren't married to each other.
 
Nick Banyard is going "back home" to play against his former teammates at Illinois State. He could be the wild card for UCF in this game where he hopefully plays great on both ends or he presses too much trying to impress his former Coach and teammates and ends up taking bad shots and struggling.

Nick's been on a pretty good run since he got over his major slump at the start of conf play where he had a stretch of 7 games with just 12 ,pts and lost his starting spot.

Hopefully he can have a solid game up there because UCF will need it.

Here's a look back at Nick's play over past month, beginning with the last game he didn't start (UCONN).

UCONN: 5-9 (3-5 from 3), 13 pts, 8 rebounds
TULSA: 5-6 (4-4), 18 pts, 9 rebounds
At ECU: 7-9 (3-3), 18 pts, 9 rebounds
At Temple: 5-11 (1-4), 11 pts, 10 rebounds
CINCI: 1-4 (0-1), 2 pts, 10 rebounds (Senior Night)
At usf: 1-4 (1-3), 4 pts, 6 rebounds
Vs Memphis: 5-10 (1-4), 12 pts, 6 rebounds
Vs SMU: 6-9 (4-6), 16 pts, 2 rebounds
COLORADO: 2-4 (1-3), 6 pts, 5 rebounds

18-33 (54.5%) from downtown during that stretch.
 
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What may be overlooked a little here is the fact that we are playing on ESPN on a Monday at 7:00 with very little going on. That's so huge!! Even our football team rarely has had THIS kind of exposure.
 
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Don't forget that at least one (or two) of -- Nick, AJ, or BJ -- is always open shoot or drive. Why? We underestimate how outrageously good Matt and Tacko are on offense. Opponents MUST take them out of the game with what amounts to a triangle and two defense or they have no chance of stopping us. USF the first time we played them and most recently Colorado didn't give Matt enough attention. Wednesday night, we in the crowd suddenly realized that, and collectively went, "OMG, are they playing with fire!" Despite being closely guarded, thirteen quick points in 5 minutes and Matt had almost blown the game wide open. For then on, the Buffalos had to put their best athlete, a 6-7 all-everything to chase him around the court the rest of the game. Similarly, they must deny Tacko inside touches and collapse on him when he does.
 
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Mikesi said:
What may be overlooked a little here is the fact that we are playing on ESPN on a Monday at 7:00 with very little going on. That's so huge!! Even our football team rarely has had THIS kind of exposure.
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ESPN will use Tacko and IL ST's "chip on the shoulder" to hype this one on Monday...should be interesting to see how they start the broadcast....definitely good exposure....wonder what Henriquez and McBride will be thinking when they tune in....both would have added much needed depth and probably seen a lot of minutes/been major contributors to this team....coulda shoulda woulda....
 
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Oldest Man said:
ESPN will use Tacko and IL ST's "chip on the shoulder" to hype this one on Monday...should be interesting to see how they start the broadcast....definitely good exposure....wonder what Henriquez and McBride will be thinking when they tune in....both would have added much needed depth and probably seen a lot of minutes/been major contributors to this team....coulda shoulda woulda....
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I thought that, too, but Henriquez was too slow and inept a ball handler for a guard and couldn't leap to play small forward. He clearly had worked hard on driving to the basket so that defenders wouldn't play him as tightly, but he was still too limited. In fact, I think he decided to transfer AFTER Matt did, and I suspect that Williams stayed because he and Henriquez had the similar skill sets. Now Matt became THE outside shooter a team made up of drivers, slashers, and inside players.

On the other hand, I'm pretty sure McBride was told he would not be playing much on a Dawkins team. He was too heavy and slow to get down court, had refused to drop weight for 3 years, and was seen more than once instigating from the bench player rebellion late in the season. I was a big fan of him, but clearly he'd worn out his welcome here.
 
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So it looks like they have the standard college roster with 3 wingers, a pg and a 6'9 forward. It looks like they really only play 7 and have a 8th guy who is 7'1.

I suspect they play up tempo like they did against UC Davis. And it looks like they can get hot beyond the arch.

I doubt they seen a team like us especially with Tacko. Afterall, we are the tallest college team.

Should be an interesting game. I'm sure everyone on the court will believe that Illinois State should be in the NCAA. The have something to prove and we want to prove that we belong.
 
UCFhonors said:
So it looks like they have the standard college roster with 3 wingers, a pg and a 6'9 forward. It looks like they really only play 7 and have a 8th guy who is 7'1.

I suspect they play up tempo like they did against UC Davis. And it looks like they can get hot beyond the arch.

I doubt they seen a team like us especially with Tacko. Afterall, we are the tallest college team.

Should be an interesting game. I'm sure everyone on the court will believe that Illinois State should be in the NCAA. The have something to prove and we want to prove that we belong.
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I saw a couple teams that had real small lineups. 6-9 tallest guy and a bunch of 6-2 guys. Like the old DJ teams that really bothered me. I hate watching short guys play. These teams were NCAA too.
 
BlakNGoldAllDay said:
I saw a couple teams that had real small lineups. 6-9 tallest guy and a bunch of 6-2 guys. Like the old DJ teams that really bothered me. I hate watching short guys play. These teams were NCAA too.
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It's pretty standard in college basketball. There just aren't that many 7 foot people.

We were good during the Kieth Clanton years who was listed at 6'9.

I just don't think most people realize how tall our team is. Having a 6'9 3 AJ and 6'8 4 Banyard is unreal!
 
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BlakNGoldAllDay said:
I saw a couple teams that had real small lineups. 6-9 tallest guy and a bunch of 6-2 guys. Like the old DJ teams that really bothered me. I hate watching short guys play. These teams were NCAA too.
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A majority of teams play without centers now, and a surprisingly large number list 4 guards in the starting lineup -- but that's deceptive because of the trend toward all big guards that are really small forwards or swing men. Notice how FSU got eliminated tonight with their "tallest team in America" which got blown out by shooting so many threes.

Note: if we can get by Illinois St. and Boise St. upsets Illinois, game 3 will be in Orlando (Wed?).
 
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UCFProf said:
A majority of teams play without centers now, and a surprisingly large number list 4 guards in the starting lineup -- but that's deceptive because of the trend toward all big guards that are really small forwards or swing men. Notice how FSU got eliminated tonight with their "tallest team in America" which got blown out by shooting so many threes.

Note: if we can get by Illinois St. and Boise St. upsets Illinois, game 3 will be in Orlando (Wed?).
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The quarter finals will be Tuesday the 28th vs either Boise State or Illinois.
 
UCFhonors said:
The quarter finals will be Tuesday the 28th vs either Boise State or Illinois.
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It says March 21-22 for 3rd round games, so that should allow for a Wednesday game, like the previous week's. Otherwise, logistically it could be a hassle if it were Boise St. at Orlando.
 
UCFProf said:
I thought that, too, but Henriquez was too slow and inept a ball handler for a guard and couldn't leap to play small forward. He clearly had worked hard on driving to the basket so that defenders wouldn't play him as tightly, but he was still too limited. In fact, I think he decided to transfer AFTER Matt did, and I suspect that Williams stayed because he and Henriquez had the similar skill sets. Now Matt became THE outside shooter a team made up of drivers, slashers, and inside players.

On the other hand, I'm pretty sure McBride was told he would not be playing much on a Dawkins team. He was too heavy and slow to get down court, had refused to drop weight for 3 years, and was seen more than once instigating from the bench player rebellion late in the season. I was a big fan of him, but clearly he'd worn out his welcome here.
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I disagree with your analysis...much as I like Laing, Mumin, Morse and Stephenson as team guys, they are far from providing a competitive bench...Adonys and Justin would have been part of a 9 man rotation and AJ would have played more point forward, especially when BJ was hurt...I believe we'd have won 25 games (especially with their contributions during the stretch when we lost 7 of 8 and AJ and Nick were struggling) with those 2 and that may have been enough to get us to the Big Dance...and ripping McBride is really unfair...he was very supportive, especially of Tacko....he did need to lose weight but even if he hadn't, he could have contributed in spurts off the bench...anyway like I wrote coulda, shoulda, woulda.......
 
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Oldest Man said:
I disagree with your analysis...much as I like Laing, Mumin, Morse and Stephenson as team guys, they are far from providing a competitive bench...Adonys and Justin would have been part of a 9 man rotation and AJ would have played more point forward, especially when BJ was hurt...I believe we'd have won 25 games (especially with their contributions during the stretch when we lost 7 of 8 and AJ and Nick were struggling) with those 2 and that may have been enough to get us to the Big Dance...and ripping McBride is really unfair...he was very supportive, especially of Tacko....he did need to lose weight but even if he hadn't, he could have contributed in spurts off the bench...anyway like I wrote coulda, shoulda, woulda.......
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As I said, Matt wouldn't have been able to convince to stay if Adonys hadn't gone -- he was frustrated the previous two season with an inferior copy of himself taking so many of the 3s. Thus, the only realistic "what if" question is "Would Wake Forest have had enough of a better team with Matt to have gone deep into the NCAAs?

McBride was called out by the broadcaster for prime instigator of the bench rebellion during the Tulane game. I've almost always defended players who've left or be thrown off the team (when nobody else here has). And nobody was a bigger supporter of McBride here from day 1. But a new coach couldn't take the risk of keeping him. As it was, dozens of times Dawkins has stated the prime challenge was getting this veteran squad to buy in, believe in themselves, be selfless team players, and expect to win. That's not too subtle code for changing the culture. McBride grabbed the leadership and cheerleader role on a team without a leader or emotion or energy, and he never saw a camera he didn't get in front of. With BJ back, he didn't need that competition. I'm not ripping McBride -- it was just too risky, oil-and-water case to keep him with much faster style of play (Chad always gets back in time, Justin could never).
 
Illinois state fans seem to be looking past this game and are ready to buy seats for a game against Illinois. Let's hope their team is doing the same. They seem to be having strong ticket sales. I hope UCF goes into their house and blows the roof off.

They seem to think some of our comments on this thread are ludicrous. I think most comments have been fair. This will be a tuff test for both teams, and in no way a gimmie.

Professor's comments really seemed to get them going.

I did not see one mention of Nick Banyard coming back to play them.

Let's go Knights!
 
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UCFProf said:
As I said, Matt wouldn't have been able to convince to stay if Adonys hadn't gone -- he was frustrated the previous two season with an inferior copy of himself taking so many of the 3s. Thus, the only realistic "what if" question is "Would Wake Forest have had enough of a better team with Matt to have gone deep into the NCAAs?

McBride was called out by the broadcaster for prime instigator of the bench rebellion during the Tulane game. I've almost always defended players who've left or be thrown off the team (when nobody else here has). And nobody was a bigger supporter of McBride here from day 1. But a new coach couldn't take the risk of keeping him. As it was, dozens of times Dawkins has stated the prime challenge was getting this veteran squad to buy in, believe in themselves, be selfless team players, and expect to win. That's not too subtle code for changing the culture. McBride grabbed the leadership and cheerleader role on a team without a leader or emotion or energy, and he never saw a camera he didn't get in front of. With BJ back, he didn't need that competition. I'm not ripping McBride -- it was just too risky, oil-and-water case to keep him with much faster style of play (Chad always gets back in time, Justin could never).
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wow...you make a lot of claims with no real substantiation and certainly no actual confirmation...are you the "fake news" contributor to the board?...re: Justin, you are off base about his attitude....and you claim you were his "biggest supporter"?...what a joke...

McBride was a positive contributor, wanted to win and played hard...his weakness was his inability to get into complete game playing shape....and that had to contribute to why Johnny was OK with his moving on....

Re Matt, here's his quote “I just feel like UCF was the place for me,” Williams told UCFSports.com in a text message. “It’s the place where I started and where I should finish." Now that's a real quote, I'm not making stuff up....I don't see any claim that he's staying because Adonys is leaving, do you?.....interpret as you want but, as I stated with my original comment and without any personal attacks on these young men, I wonder what they're thinking now?
 
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