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.

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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.”

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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.

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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…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/no-time-panic-knights-face-153300753.html

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Publish date : 2026-03-05 15:33:00

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