UCF
UCF will be hosting UAB Wednesday evening. UCF went 10-4 in OOC games. Their best victories were over Belmont and South Florida. Their worst loss was to South Florida. Interestingly, UCF won at South Florida, and South Florida won at UCF.
As far as common opponents are concerned, UCF hosted Middle Tennessee back on November 20th, and lost by 14 points. UAB lost by 20 at Middle TN.
Speaking of Middle TN, they did lose on the road to Belmont, which UCF beat at home.
KenPom.com has UCF ranked 109th, and UAB 154th. UCF is projected to win this game 79-71, with a 73% probability of victory. UAB is 8-7, and KenPom.com has correctly picked the winner of UAB's game 14 times (14-1).
UCF plays their home games at UCF Arena, which has a capacity of 10,000. It's the 99th largest arena in D1 college basketball.
They are picked to go 9-7 in C-USA this season, and 20-11 overall.
UCF has lost three home games already. They have lost to Middle TN by 14, Miami by 22, and South Florida by 9. Their other loss was by 13 at Florida.
UCF plays at a fairly slow tempo, where their adjusted tempo is 65.8 possessions per game. That's 223rd in the country. UAB gets 74.0 possessions per game, which is 8th in the country. Only four other teams in C-USA play at a slower tempo - Rice, SMU, Tulane, and Southern Miss (imagine that).
UCF has two star players: 6-5 215 Isaiah Sykes and 6-9 250 Keith Clanton. Both guys have taken the most 2-pointers on the team, and the most free throws. They get to the foul line a lot. Clanton is 86-122 from 2-point land, good enough for a very impressive 70.5%. Neither one is an outstanding free throw shooter.
The best 3-point shooters on the team are 6-7 225 Kasey Wilson (56.4%), 6-5 210 Matt Williams (50.%), and 6-2 180 Daiquan Walker (45.7%).
The best free throw shooter on the team is 6-8 230 Tristan Spurlock at 79.5%. Again, Sykes and Clanton get to the FT line a lot more than anybody else on the team, and they make less than 66% of their free throws.
UAB has 7 players shooting free throws at 75% or better.
Keys for a UAB victory:
1. Play a fast pace style of basketball, which is not UCF's style.
2. Play a very physical game which leads to fouls on both sides. UAB is a much better FT shooting team. Get to the foul line a lot to take advantage of that edge.
3. Contain Sykes and Clanton to average or subpar games. If either one of these guys has a super game, UAB will have a tough time winning.
4. UCF appears to be a better 3-point shooting team. Must limit the number of 3-pointers by UCF.
5. Score more points than UCF.
(This post was last modified: 01-08-2013 11:04 AM by KevMo4UAB.)
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UCF
