UCF Men’s Basketball played its best first half of the season to date with 47 first-half points as the Knights dominated Towson 86–61 on Sunday afternoon in Addition Financial Arena, improving to 8–1, which is the best start in Johnny Dawkins’ tenure at UCF.
Here are three things that we have learned about this Knights team through nine games this season that have contributed to the best start by any Johnny Dawkins team and will be key the rest of the season.
Advertisement
1. Strength in Numbers
UCF Head Coach Johnny Dawkins has used the term “Strength in Numbers” to describe his team in the past, including this year. Dawkins has his deepest UCF team yet, playing 10-11 guys in a productive rotation.
The Knights had 10 players score before halftime and had 24 points off the bench in the win. Through nine games, UCF is averaging 31.1 points off the bench, which ranks 67th in the NCAA, and is on pace to be the most in the Dawkins era. This roster is the most versatile Dawkins has had, as he has shown he can go with a big lineup and a small lineup depending on the matchups.
Advertisement
The hope is that this will pay off in Big 12 play when UCF will likely not have the more talented starting five most nights, but perhaps UCF’s depth and versatility can wear down the opponents who only go six or eight players deep.
2. Themus Fulks Sets the Tone for the Offense
Fulks scored 15 of his 20 points in the first half, finishing the game 8-of-11 from the floor with eight assists and three steals in the win over Towson.
Fulks ranks fourth nationally and leads the Big 12 at 7.4 assists per game. He is currently at 67 assists in 9 games, would be on pace to break the program’s single-season record held by Sinua Phillips with 183 in 1991-1992.
Advertisement
Fulks set the tone for an offense that averages 18.1 assists per game as a team and ranks 36th in the NCAA and easily would shatter last year’s Knights team that averaged over 14 assists per game, which is the most in the Dawkins era.
UCF is on pace to reach over 500 assists as a team on the season. To put that in perspective, only two Knights teams have reached 500 assists as a team in a season: the 03-04 (520) and 04-05 (512) teams, which both made the NCAA Tournament.
3. UCF Offense Has Been Efficient
The Knights’ offense is averaging 88 points per game, which ranks 35th in the NCAA, and has scored over 80 points in eight of the nine games played this season. To put that in perspective, UCF has has averaged over 80 points per game in a season only once in the Division I era, which came in 1993-1994, which was the first year the Knights were led by UCF Athletic Hall of Famer Kirk Speraw. That team made the NCAA Tournament. Last year’s team averaged 79.5 points per game. The most in the Dawkins era.
Advertisement
UCF has done this by attacking the basket and not settling for jump shots. The Knights are averaging 43 points per game in the paint while shooting 50% from the field compared to 42% last year. The only time in the Johnny Dawkins era that a UCF team has shot better than 43.5% from the field was the 2018-2019 team (46%) led by Tacko Fall, which made the NCAA Tournament.
The Knights have been more efficient from the three-point line as well, shooting 39%, which ranks 29th in the NCAA, and they’re doing it by being more selective, averaging 8.2 threes made on 21 shot attempts per game, which is down from last year when UCF averaged 26 shots per game from the arc, only hitting 33% and making 8.7 threes per game.
The Knights will need to continue these trends when Big 12 play starts to have success in the No. 1 conference in college basketball and hopefully have a chance of making the NCAA Tournament.
