Three Things To Watch: USF at UCF
South Florida is gearing up for another battle against old rivals UCF on the basketball court. It has been a rough season for the Bulls while the Knights are 9-1 at home.
Quick Facts
Location: CFE Arena | Orlando, Florida
Date/Tip Time: Tuesday January 17, 7 p.m.
Watch: ESPNews (Roy Philpott, Mark Wise)
Listen: 820 AM (Jim Lighthall, Jim Louk)
History: South Florida leads the all-time series with UCF 22-11.
With 13 games left in American Athletic Conference play, there’s still plenty of time for South Florida to improve this season and fix mistakes that have plagued it in both wins and losses.
Having lost five of their last six and seven of their last eight, the Bulls find themselves facing a greater sense of urgency, under interim head coach Murry Bartow, the rest of the season. That starts with the first battle in the War On I-4 at UCF on Tuesday at 7pm.
These are not the same two teams who faced each other last season – both wins for UCF. The Bulls most frequent lineup over the past five games includes only one starter, Ruben Guerrero, from last season. UCF returned almost all of last season’s roster, but under new coach Johnny Dawkins the Knights are simply playing much better. UCF is the top ranked AAC team in scoring defense, field goal percentage defense, three-point field goal percentage defense and offensive rebounding. Matt Williams is having the best season of his career, B.J. Taylor is back from an injury that sidelined him all of last season and Tacko Fall has the No. 1 ranked effective field goal percentage in the nation (80 percent).
Three Things to look for:
1) The Bulls need to start off well offensively and continue to score
This is a rivalry game and there will be lots of energy in CFE Arena where UCF is 9-1 and has not lost since December 12. Just as important as a good start, is avoiding one of those dreaded four plus minute scoring droughts. In Memphis the Bulls started well and led 12-5 with 16:32 left in the first half, then eleven minutes later the Bulls trailed 24-18. Getting off to a good start and keeping that momentum going will help keep the UCF fans in their seats.
2) Contain Matt Williams
Williams is playing better than he ever has and the Knights offense offense depends on him. According to Kenpom.com 27.8 percent of all UCF possessions end with a shot by Williams – typically a three-point attempt. The senior shooting guard is making 37.1 percent of his attempts beyond the arc and has already made more three-pointers this season (59) than in any of his previous three seasons. He has deep range too. Against Houston, Williams connected from the school logo near half court. Williams attempts perimeter shots off the catch, sometimes with a jab step. The Bulls need to make him dribble the basketball and ideally make him go to his left.
3) Guerrero vs. Fall
Guerrero’s juices should be flowing. He needs to take it as a personal challenge to take Fall out of the game. To do this Guerrero needs to stay in the game, be aggressive but not get silly fouls. In just his fifth year of playing organized basketball, Fall has shown great improvement from his freshman season but Guerrero’s length and mobility should be a challenge for him.
And one…
One additional thing to keep an eye on is the play of UCF point guard B.J. Taylor and forward A.J. Davis. Both players have missed games this season due to injury – Taylor missed all of last season with an ankle injury -- and as a result have only been on the court together for five games. They are figuring out how to play with each other and their chemistry is building.