No time to panic as Knights face West Virginia in season finale
Despite suffering two gut-wrenching home losses in a row, UCF basketball isn’t quite ready to hit the panic button regarding its NCAA Tournament chances.
However, the Knights are definitely not making it easy for themselves as they aim to conclude their regular season with a challenging game at West Virginia this Friday.
After a three-game stretch that saw UCF (20-9, 9-8 Big 12) take down TCU , Utah and No. 19 BYU in a seven-day period, the Knights seemed a virtual lock to make their first NCAA Tournament appearance since the 2018-19 season.
The team was projected to be seeded between 7th and 9th.
But an 87-86 loss to Baylor in the final seconds, coupled with an 111-104 overtime loss to Oklahoma State Tuesday night, has put UCF in the uncomfortable position of needing to beat the Mountaineers or win at least one game in next week’s Big 12 Tournament to impress the NCAA Tournament selection committee.
“We have to understand the importance of regrouping and responding,” said UCF coach Johnny Dawkins . “We’ve done that all throughout the season. We have to do it again.”
The Knights found themselves trailing in the second half to both Baylor and Oklahoma State and in both games, they rallied to tie the game in the final seconds of regulation.
“In both games, our guys gave great effort,” Dawkins said. “It’s just that we came up a little short. They made one or two more plays than we did. [In both losses] there are lessons for our team to learn and we have to learn them quickly.”
“We’re moving on to the next game, but it was two tough losses,” added senior guard Riley Kugel .
The Knights have been outscored 101-82 in the first half of their losses to Baylor and Oklahoma State, but outscored both teams 98-80 in the second half.
UCF, meanwhile, enters Friday’s contest ranked 48th in the latest NCAA NET rankings, which are one of the criteria used by the committee to determine tournament-eligible teams. The Knights already have five Quad 1 wins on their resume and a win over West Virginia would be their sixth.
The Big Ten and SEC are projected to send 10 teams apiece for the NCAA Tournament, with the ACC and Big 12 expected to send eight apiece. Still, with teams such as Auburn, Virginia Tech , Cincinnati and West Virginia making late pushes, nothing is a certainty.
“We’ve lost now back-to-back games, so we want to get back on the right track,” said Dawkins. “I just want to win the game in front of me.”
The Knights were once again shorthanded after backup center Jeremy Foumena (6-foot-11) was ruled out of the game against the Cowboys. The redshirt junior, who has been averaging 3.8 points and 2.5 rebounds in 10 minutes this season, went down with an apparent lower leg injury in the team’s loss to Baylor on Feb. 28.
Foumena’s absence forced Dawkins to rely on 7-foot reserve Elijah Hulsewe (Hul-SUHway) to give the team some valuable minutes. Hulsewe responded with a season-high in points (9), rebounds (4) and minutes (9).
UCF will need all hands on deck against West Virginia.
The Mountaineers (17-13, 8-9 Big 12) have lost four of their last five games, including a disappointing 65-63 loss at Kansas State on Tuesday night.
In their last meeting, UCF built a 14-point lead midway through the second half before WVU rallied to stun the Knights, 74-67, on Feb. 14. It was the third consecutive loss to the Mountaineers in the series.
West Virginia is 14-3 at Hope Coliseum this season, with the losses to Baylor, Texas Tech and Utah.
UCF currently sits in seventh place in the Big 12 standings, which would earn it a first-round bye in the Big 12 Tournament, which tips off on Tuesday, March 10, at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City . With the bye already locked in, the Knights can only improve their seeding with a win on Friday night.
Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com . Sign up for the Sentinel’s Knights Weekly newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.
