The ultimate goal is always the NCAA Tournament, but hosting a game in the NIT is a nice consolation prize for a UCF team that defied expectations in Johnny Dawkins' first season.
The Knights, short on depth with just seven scholarship players, finished with a 21-11 overall record and earned a No. 4 seed in the American Athletic Conference Championship, advancing to the semifinals where they fell to No. 1 seed and eventual champion SMU.
On Sunday night, UCF learned they were a No. 4 seed in the NIT and would host No. 5 Colorado on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
"I think it's a great opportunity and a great experience, an opportunity for our guys to continue to play," said Dawkins, who won two NIT championships while the head coach at Stanford. "You're still playing for a championship, the NIT national championship. Our guys are excited about this opportunity."
Sophomore point guard B.J. Taylor sees the NIT as a building block for the future that could pay dividends down the road.
"It gives the older guys a great opportunity to finish up their last games," Taylor said. "For us younger guys, I've never played in the postseason. It will definitely be a great test for me going into next year, having already already played in a postseason tournament. I'll understand how it is, so next year hopefully we can make the run we want to make."
In the meantime, UCF has championship on their minds. Should they beat Colorado, they'd face the winner of No. 1 seed Illinois State and No. 8 UC-Irvine, who also play Wednesday night. The final four teams in the 32-team field advance to New York City and Madison Square Garden for the semifinals and finals March 28 and 30.
"It's very important to all of us," Taylor said of the NIT. "Tanksley (Efianayi), Matt Williams and Nick Banyard have come in and been great for the team this year with their senior leadership and what they've done for the culture at UCF. It would definitely mean a lot to us to come out and let them leave this home court with a win and try to leave them with a championship."
Derrick White is a fifth-year senior who transferred to Colorado from a Division II school, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
FAMILIAR FOE
Dawkins spent the previous eight seasons at Stanford where Colorado was a PAC-12 rival. Tad Boyle's Buffaloes finished the season with a 19-14 overall record and 8-10 within the conference. Marquee wins included home victories against Xavier and Oregon, both of whom are NCAA Tournament teams. They endured a seven-game losing streak in January, but bounced back to win eight of their final 11 games before the PAC-12 tournament.
The Buffaloes have three players averaging double-digit points: Derrick White (17.7), Xavier Johnson (14.8) and George King (11.4). White, their point guard, shoots 40 percent from three-point range.
"Tad does a great job with his team," Dawkins said. "They're a physical team, they really compete. We're going to have to prepare well for them because we know they're good... They're an older team, one of the older teams we'll play. They have four fifth-year seniors. They're men. They're really good. They're experienced. Really good offensive rebounding team. They crash the boards well. They have some terrific shooters. Probably one of the best point guards in the country (Derrick White). His numbers are phenomenal and he's had a great season for them."
Count A.J. Davis as impressed.
"They're a great team," Davis said. "The PAC-12 is a little bit different than our conference. They really get up and down, they're good in transition. They're a physical team, a really skilled team. They're a great team. We've got to be locked to what we're doing and make sure we're sticking to the game plan, really getting back in transition. That's a big key, and playing physical."
EXPERIMENTAL RULES
The NCAA often treats the NIT as a "guinea pig" of sorts when it comes to prospective rule changes. As such, there will be experimental rules to mimic what play would be like under a quarter system without actually breaking up in quarters. The fifth foul in each 10-minute block will result in two free throws, doing away with the one-on-one.
"Tweaking our rules or looking for ways to improve our game is never a bad thing," Dawkins said. "These rules won't be disruptive in the tournament. I think it will be good for our guys to learn more about what's possible. One of my years in the NIT we put the clock down a little lower to 30 seconds before we actually made that change. Now that rule has been implemented."
The women's game has moved to quarters, but the men's rules committee seems hesitant to follow suit even though they may end up adopting the practice of resetting fouls after 10 minutes.
"For me, I probably prefer quarters," Dawkins said. "The rest of the world plays quarters. You play quarters in middle school, elementary school, high school, NBA. Every place plays quarters except for college. Believe me, I'm a big fan of college, that's why I'm here, but I think quarters are a good rule. I think it's something they're probably looking at right now. We'll see how it goes with the experimental rules in the NIT."
For the full breakdown of the experimental rules, click here to read the NCAA press release.
DANCING IN THE AMERICAN
The American Athletic Conference placed two teams in the NCAA Tournament, SMU and Cincinnati, both No. 6 seeds. That's down from last season when four teams advanced and it could have been five if SMU wasn't banned from postseason play.
While every conference has an ebb and flow in terms of strength, the goal will be to have more than two next season.
"I think for us it all boils down to the preseason and getting a reputation of winning some quality games early before you start conference play," Dawkins said. "That sets you up for what you want to do for tournament runs during your conference play. Unfortunately, I don't think we were as strong as we needed to be earlier in the season with enough teams and that might have set us back a little."
As far as that goes, Dawkins is already scheduling for next season with an eye towards building a tournament resume.
"We're always trying to schedule as good as we possibly can," Dawkins said. "I believe in scheduling as strong of competition as possible, especially if you have more experienced players that can handle that type of rigor in the preseason. I think it's good for your team and I think it helps your conference because all the RPIs are a lot higher. I think that helps for consideration for postseason after your conference play is over."
MEDICAL REPORT
On the health front, Nick Banyard played with a sprained ankle during the conference tournament and Tanksley Efianayi has been dealing with knee tendinitis. Other than that, Dawkins says they're as healthy as could be expected.
"This time of year nobody is 100 percent," Dawkins said. "A lot of bumps and bruises, but for the most part I think we're in good enough health and everybody is practicing and seems to have good energy and good spirits."
BRIGHT FUTURE
A.J. Davis called the "gray squad" the "best scout team in the country." That group includes four transfers who are sitting out (Terrell Allen, Dayon Griffin, Rokas Ulvydas, Aubrey Dawkins) along with a freshman who is redshirting (Ceasar DeJesus).
"Sometimes they were our hardest games compared to anybody we've played," Davis said. "They're a great group of guys. They go hard. They're scrappy. They're almost kind of different than how we are. They're really a whole different team. They play up and at a faster pace than we do, so it was great for pushing us. They're not like us. We like to slow it down, get our stops, come back and run our offense. They like to go and play at a different pace. It adds a whole different element to our team. They're a whole new ballgame. They're going to be great next year."
Added B.J. Taylor: "They've been great. They're got a lot of talent. A lot of them have played in college basketball before. That's been the biggest thing. It's not like a group of freshmen that haven't played college basketball before. Terrell played a year at Drexel. Dayon played two years at Louisiana Tech. Aubrey played two years at Michigan. You have guys who have played college basketball before, so the learning curve isn't as much as somebody who has never played before. They've been great all year in preparing us because they know what college basketball is like, prepping us for the physicality of the games. The run we've had this year, we probably wouldn't have been able to get it done without them."
TICKET INFO
As of Tuesday night, a small number of $20 club seats were still available on TicketMaster. Reserved seats everywhere else are $12 and general admission is only $10. The first 300 students who arrive at the CFE Arena box office on Wednesday morning will receive a free ticket.
"I just hope we get the support we've gotten all season," Taylor said. "UCF has been great to us, all the fans and the community have been great to us. I hope anybody who isn't doing anything comes out and supports us. We're going to give you a great effort."
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