Two straight losses, including a 92-72 whipping Sunday at Cincinnati, have UCF looking like the ultimate bubble team when it comes to its NCAA Tournament hopes.
Despite that blowout, the Knights are still on the right side of the bubble, according to most experts, as they prepare for a Saturday night Big 12 home game against West Virginia in Orlando, Fla.
“We’ve just got to keep working,” UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said. “We need to be getting better every day. When you’re in this gauntlet, anything can happen from game to game.”
This time around, “anything” meant allowing Cincinnati to drain 11 of 18 3-pointers and hit 33 of 56 shots overall, an unusually hot shooting performance for a team that usually struggles to score.
But the Knights (17-6, 6-5 Big 12) drew a midweek bye, giving them six days to try to fix a defense that has allowed 83.4 ppg in their last seven games. They will also look to get point guard Themus Fulks back on track after he struggled in 19 scoreless minutes at Cincinnati, missing both his shots and committing two turnovers.
Fulks’ 13.3 points per game are second on the team and his 6.8 assists are 12th in the nation.
West Virginia (15-9, 6-5) needs to get on a late-season run to earn an NCAA berth. It also had a midweek bye after falling 70-63 at home Sunday against then-No. 13 Texas Tech. The Mountaineers lost that one at the 3-point line, going 2 of 22 while the Red Raiders nailed 13 of 24.
First-year coach Ross Hodge said the game’s tone was set early when Texas Tech won a string of loose balls that led to baskets.
“I think if you step on the floor legitimately expecting to win the game, you get more loose balls than your opponent,” he said. “That was the ultimate disappointing part of the game to me.”
Honor Huff is West Virginia’s leading scorer at 15.4 per game, but is coming off a 0-of-8 shooting performance against Texas Tech. He managed six points, all from the foul line.
