Quick Primer on UCF, UCLA's first round opponent

UCLA basketball will begin its NCAA Tournament run on Friday in a first round matchup against 10-seed UCF. You probably have many questions — What is a UCF? Why is a UCF? If I see a UCF in the wild, am I supposed to freeze or make a lot of loud noise? — and your friendly neighborhood Dave has all the answers you need.

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What is a UCF?

UCF stands for the University of Central Florida, so named as to differentiate it from the University of South Florida (USF), the University of North Florida (UNF), and the University of Florida (UF). Orlando, where UCF is located, is known in some circles as the worst place in the world and it is indeed the most central of central Florida. The sports teams for UCF are known as the Knights, earning that nickname from the student body in 1970 because they had all collectively read The Once and Future King when they were children and decided they wanted to be Good and True knights.

The UCF basketball team is led by old Pac-12 friend Johnny Dawkins, who slowly coached Stanford into a ditch over the course of eight years, like a person who falls asleep at the wheel while driving through a construction zone at 5 mph. He’s been at UCF for a shocking number of years (10), but this is just the second time the Knights have made the NCAA Tournament under him. As with a lot of mediocre coaches, his teams have no real profile or identity — some years the offense is decent, some years the defense is decent, some years he’s very up tempo, some years his teams slow it down a lot. This year’s team is decent on offense, mediocre on defense, and pretty up-tempo. Next year, it could just as easily flip.

Why is a UCF?

The university was founded because of the space race, which is a fact I learned today. It was originally known as the Florida Technological University and was basically designed to support NASA and Cape Canaveral with a steady supply of engineers and math/science folks. After we landed on the moon and decided it was pretty boring and there were no good restaurants, FTU became UCF and evolved into just another cog in the vaunted Florida public university system.

The basketball team is 21-11 and is limping to the end of the season here having lost 7 of its last 11 games. After starting the season 12-2 by blitzing through a mostly weak non-conference schedule, the Knights went 9-9 in conference play, with their best win probably a road win over KenPom No. 23 BYU.

Their statistical profile reveals an offense that has some explosive potential with very short possessions (30th in average possession length), a high three-point shooting percentage (48th in the country in three-point percentage), and decent Brutal Math numbers (118th in turnover percentage, 52nd in offensive rebounding rate). They’ve scored more than 100 points three times, and have gone over 85 12 times.

Defensively, they’re not good. They let teams shoot a really high percentage (235th in eFG% allowed) and don’t turn them over much (236th in turnover rate forced). They do rebound their defensive glass reasonably well (88th nationally), but that’s about the only decent quality of this defense. Think of them like, hey, a Johnny Dawkins Stanford team.

If I see a UCF in the wild, am I supposed to freeze or make a lot of loud noise?

Great question. As with most potential predators, freezing if you believe a UCF has not seen you is the best course of action, but if a UCF appears to have spotted you, you’re going to want to make yourself appear as large and frightening as possible.

UCF senior point guard Themus Folks is a bit of a turnover machine, but he has potential to take games over at times. He shoots over 40% from three, and has gone over 20 points eight times this season. His turnovers got pretty bad in conference play, though, and UCLA could heat him up on defense. Power forward Jamichael Stilwell has been an iffy scorer against high major competition this year, but his rebounding seems to translate against anyone he’s playing — he has 26 boards in UCF’s two games in the Big 12 Tournament. UCF also has a 7’2 guy, John Bol, who can block some shots and rebound, but had a scary collapse against Arizona, and his status is uncertain.

For UCLA, I think the goal will be attacking UCF on defense, both on the perimeter trying to force turnovers with hard hedges/blitzing, and on the interior with frenetic energy to try to strip the ball from these effective rebounders. If Tyler Bilodeau and Donovan Dent are healthy (and we expect they are or will be), I really don’t see much that’s particularly challenging about this UCF defense. Simply avoid shooting like 35% from the field, Bruins.

When is a UCF?

Really stretching the limits of this conceit aren’t we? UCLA takes on the Knights on Friday at 4:25 p.m., meaning Matt Painter, that lovable galoot, was absolutely correct when he told Mick Cronin the Bruins would be playing on Friday. Should the Bruins win, they’ll play again on Sunday against Furman (look man, just putting the good vibes out there, let a guy live).