The UFC Knights knocked off the Kansas Jayhawks in the Big 12 opener Saturday in Orlando
The UCF Knights off to a strong start after Saturday's victory against the Kansas Jayhawks in Orlando.
It led to fans, who were on winter break, storming the court. Lost in all the jubilation was coach Johnny Dawkins' message to the team. And that was refuse to get complacent because there is a long way to go.
"Well, it's important to get off to a good start," Dawkins said. "And it's more important about how we play. And, we talk about we're not playing the opponent in front of us. We're trying to play our standards. And, you know, we have certain things we want our guys to do well every night. And we try to hold them accountable for that. And I thought, you know, they understood coming into this game. A lot of those guys hadn't played in the Big 12. They hadn't played in a conference like this. And so, I knew it would be their first time. And I just wanted them to go out there and just, you know, follow their hearts, play for each other, and I thought they did that. And that's what you want to see happen on a nightly basis. This is one of 17. We have 17 more that's going to be just like this. That's what I've seen in this conference. And so, you have to have a short memory and you move forward because you have so much to compete against that's going to be equally as competitive."
At 12-1 and 1-0 in the Big 12, the Knights are off to the best start under Dawkins. They have won 11 straight since losing to Vanderbilt in the second game of the season. It's pretty impressive considering the Knights are still adjusting because of so many new players.
"We've taken it in small portions," Dawkins said. "Just one game at a time. We've not really looked at the big picture of where we are. I don't even keep up with our record as far as those things are concerned, to be quite frank. Just focusing on one game at a time, who we're preparing for. "Let's give them our best effort, let's play to our standards" is kind of things that we preach to our team, and not caught up in, okay, you won this one or you won this many in a row. I don't want our guys to get into that mindset. I want to get in the mindset of the most important thing is who we're playing and right in front of us and nothing else matters. And when we can take that type of mindset and continue to mature, I think we can improve."
Shandel Richardson is the publisher of UCFRoundtable. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com