Facing a crucial rematch, Coach Dawkins focuses his Knights on the present moment after a tough loss and before honoring seniors.
Following a disappointing and controversial one-point loss to Baylor, UCF (20-8, 9-7 Big 12) closes out its home schedule with a rematch against Oklahoma State (17-12, 5-11 Big 12) Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.
Following the loss, head coach Johnny Dawkins told media how he and his coaching staff are preparing the team to bounce back.
"We have to be ready to move on to the next play. This league is very challenging from top to bottom. I've said it all season long, and ever since I've been in the Big 12, every team is very good," Dawkins said. "Every team is really talented and well-coached. And so you have to understand that. What you have to do is you have to get our guys together, start watching tape, 'What are the things we need? The lessons we need to learn? The good and bad,' and then you need to move forward understanding that the next game is the most important game that you have; the game that's behind you is gone, the next game is the most important, and understand you have to stay in the moment. You cannot go looking beyond the next game that we have, which is Oklahoma State; that's where we have to pour all our energies into as coaches and as players."
The Knights are currently within the March Madness picture, but these two final games could prove crucial in improving their seeding.
UCF suffered an 87-76 loss against the Cowboys back in early January, shooting just 38% from the field and 21% from 3-point range. Junior forward Jordan Burks struggled immensely, scoring just three points on 0-of-11 shooting.
Oklahoma State was led by senior big man Parsa Fallah, who dominated the then-ranked No. 25 Knights, scoring 24 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Fallah will not play Tuesday after suffering a season-ending torn ACL against West Virginia.
The Knights should look to attack the weakened Cowboy front court and get to the free-throw line. In these two squads' last matchup, UCF got dominated at the charity stripe, giving up 35 attempts while only generating 23.
Senior guard Riley Kugel should also be in line for a strong send-off performance on senior night, as he is coming off a 26-point performance in his first game back from injury.
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