{"id":154089,"date":"2026-02-13T06:30:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T06:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/154089\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T06:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T06:30:17","slug":"ucf-looks-to-solidify-postseason-hopes-against-west-virginia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/154089\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF looks to solidify postseason hopes against West Virginia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two weeks ago, UCF<\/a> basketball was riding high following an impressive 88-80 win<\/a> over then-No. 11 Texas Tech. The Knights appeared to be well on their way to earning an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 2018-19 campaign.<\/p>\n

But back-to-back losses to Houston<\/a> and Cincinnati<\/a> have left an uneasy feeling of deja vu among many of those in Knight Nation, who are concerned about witnessing another late-season collapse by the Knights.<\/p>\n

UCF (17-6, 6-5 Big 12) has struggled in February, posting a 5-12 record in the second month since joining the Big 12 two seasons ago.<\/p>\n

The team has dropped consecutive games for the first time since losing to Arizona (Jan. 17) and Iowa State (Jan. 20) last month. What made last week\u2019s losses even more concerning was just how poorly the Knights played against Houston and Cincinnati.<\/p>\n

The 24-point loss to the Cougars was the second-worst loss of the season, only behind the 30-point loss to Arizona. But more troubling was the 20-point loss to the Bearcats on Sunday, a team that had lost four of its last five games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about getting better for us,\u201d said coach Johnny Dawkins<\/a>. \u201cWe had a tough road trip and that\u2019s what this league is. It\u2019s very difficult, home or away, so we need to make sure we learn the lessons from the games we just played and apply them in the games we have coming forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

UCF shot just 36% (43 of 118) from the field in the two losses, including 27% (12 of 44) from 3-point range: both well below the team\u2019s season averages. Meanwhile, the Knights allowed both Houston and Cincinnati to combine to shoot 57% (68 of 120) from the field.<\/p>\n

The Knights were outrebounded 60-77 over the two-game stretch.<\/p>\n

Senior forward Devan Cambridge believes UCF sometimes gets too comfortable and needs to toughen up, particularly on defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t come out like that,\u201d explained Cambridge. \u201cDefense has to be our identity and it hasn\u2019t been lately. That\u2019s why we\u2019re losing some of these games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defense has been a focus during the Knights\u2019 bye week.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything has been defense. We returned to the groundwork we had done in the summer,\u201d Cambridge said. \u201cWe went away from that and it feels like we\u2019ve forgotten some things. We went back to Day 1 practices and are learning to be defensive. That\u2019s been our focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

UCF has seven remaining games on its schedule, starting with a home stretch featuring West Virginia on Saturday (6 p.m., FS1) and TCU on Feb. 17.<\/p>\n

West Virginia (15-9, 6-5 Big 12) has lost three of its last five games, including a 70-63 loss to Texas Tech on Feb. 8. The Mountaineers own a 3-1 record against UCF, with a 72-59 win on Jan. 23, 2024, as the Knights\u2019 only win in the series.<\/p>\n

Big 12 debuting state-of-the-art digital court during basketball tournament<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re very well-coached and a team that plays well together on both sides of the basketball,\u201d said Dawkins. \u201cThey know who they are and they play to their roles very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Knights are projected to earn an NCAA Tournament bid, thanks to a resume that includes wins over ranked foes Kansas and Texas Tech, there is still room to solidify their position with a few more conference wins.<\/p>\n

The latest NCAA NET rankings, which the NCAA selection committee uses to evaluate tournament resumes, have UCF at No. 44. The Knights have four Quad 1 wins, which are determined by location: home (1-30), neutral site (1-50), or road (1-75).<\/p>\n

Of their remaining schedule, only BYU (Feb. 24), which entered the week ranked No. 18, and the season finale at West Virginia (March 6), which is 63rd, offer the best chances to add Q1 wins.<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s Joe Lunardi has UCF projected as a 9th-seed in his latest Bracketology projections. The Knights are among seven Big 12 teams expected to make the 68-team field, which will be revealed on March 15.<\/p>\n

That means Saturday\u2019s showdown with the Mountaineers is crucial.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery game is a big game, but this one is important,\u201d said Cambridge. \u201cYou can\u2019t let them come in and win this game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. Sign up for the Sentinel\u2019s Knights Weekly<\/a> newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two weeks ago, UCF basketball was riding high following an impressive 88-80 win over then-No. 11 Texas Tech.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[111,28,114,1335,139,141,140,110,3865],"class_list":{"0":"post-154089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-college-sports","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-orange-county","12":"tag-orlando","13":"tag-orlando-headlines","14":"tag-orlando-news","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-ucf-knights"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}