(Photo by Victor Tan / New Day Review)
Oct. 2, 2017 at The Venue
Availability: HC Johnny Dawkins, PG B.J. Taylor, F A.J. Davis
- At 24-12 (11-7 in American Athletic Conference), the University of Central Florida finished with its first winning season in the AAC last season in Dawkins’ first year at the helm.
- The Knights also advanced to the National Invitation Tournament semifinals in Madison Square Garden.
HC JOHNNY DAWKINS: “Well it’s been a good offseason. I think our guys really worked hard. They’ve gotten stronger, and they really play with a lot of energy, enthusiasm all summer long.”
“I believe they did [take it to heart when I said the team was good but not great]. You know, and I told ’em I’d always tell ’em the truth, so what we wanna accomplish is something special, then we have to be better than we were last year, and that’s gonna be our goal.”
“Well, I think it’s always about our standards. You know, I’m looking at, you know, what our standards were going into last season. I look at what our standards are going into this season. I don’t measure ’em always on wins and losses. I measure ’em in is how we perform on a nightly basis.”
“You know what, I have [felt the anticipation building to start the season]. They’ve been excited. I don’t think they slept very well this weekend in anticipation of practice. And that’s how it should be. This is a great time in their lives. You’re at an amazing institution. You getting an education, and you’re playing a sport that you love. I mean, it should be exciting, and you can see it in their faces right now.”
“You know what, I see in this year’s team—I see an amazing focus in what they want to accomplish. And I also see a team that, you know, you can tell they’ve been together for a year—at least the core group have been together, so there’s some continuity that’s already there because they know each other. They kinda know what they wanna do, and that’s kinda neat to see as well.”
“You tell ’em that, for us, it’s about the journey. And this journey that you’re gonna have some ups and downs in it. The main thing you have to do is stay focus and stay together, and that’s where we are. So, you know, if you’ve been in this game as long as we have, you know you’re gonna face adversity. It’s what you do with that, and you hope that your guys will learn and mature through the process so they can meet it head on and overcome it.”
“Successful season, one, I hope we stay healthy, and, two, I just hope that we perform to a level that we think we’re capable of, and we think we can be competitive. That’s something that we’ve talked about all season and this past summer. It’s about being just the most competitive team, you know, on a nightly basis. We think we can do that, and, like I said, it’s just playing to our standards, and we have high standards as individuals, and we have high standards collectively, and, if we can do those things, I think it’ll be a good year for us.”
PG B.J. TAYLOR: “It’s been a lot of excitement from the community. A lot of support. We did a lot of work this offseason. I mean, Coach told us last year that we had a good season, but we didn’t have a great season. So, we just excited to get back out there in front of the fans and take it even a step higher because we know we’re capable of doing that and taking this program to another level.”
“Yeah, Coach definitely took it up another level on us. The expectations have risen for the program, but, as competitors and all the guys on our team, that’s what we want. You know, we wanna be considered, you know, at the top and upper-echelon, and we wanna have those expectations ’cause we wanna live up to ’em and, you know, show everybody that we can live up to ’em.”
“The work that we put in this offseason [makes me think we can be better than last year]. Coach believes in us, and all the guys that we have that can play this year, and I know the guys and the chemistry we have on this team, and I’m just extremely excited to get out there in front of the city, and, you know, do our thing.”
“Oh, no question [there’s anticipation for the first practice]. I mean, everybody’s here extremely excited. Everybody’s ready to get back to work, and we’re just really happy to be here and build off last season.”
“[The differences from last year’s team to this year’s team are] yet to be seen. A lot of things aren’t gonna change in terms of where we hang our hat and our defensive mentality and how we approach every game. We have some new players, but the recipe for success stays the same, Coach always tells us.”
“What’ll be a successful season to us, I mean, that stays, like, in our locker room a lot of times. We just keep that internally, and that’s between us.”
F A.J. DAVIS: “I mean, I think we definitely have really high expectations. You know, last year, that was our first go-around with Coach Dawkins, so were kinda feeling it out, but we know what to expect now. You know, we know what we’re going for. We know what we have to do, so it’s a more-experienced team.”
“I think we’ve been waiting for this day. This is the day we’ve been preparing for so we can get, you know, officially start our season and get the show on the road.”
“You know, I think we’re just trying to keep, you know—all that stuff that we did last year was good, but that wasn’t enough. We want more. We want more than that. So I think that’s what kinda pushes us. We know that we want more than what we did last year, so that keeps us level-headed and, you know, preparing for this season.”
- After transferring last season and sitting out the 2016-17 season, Aubrey Dawkins, Dayon Griffin, Terrell Allen and Rokas Ulvydas will all be available to play in the 2017-18 season.
HC JOHNNY DAWKINS: “You know what, I’m excited about having a full roster. You know, we’ve been so, you know, under-manned, especially last season. It’s good to have all of our guys here in full strength and ready to go. So, gives us a lot more options. It gives us some, you know, things that we could do a little differently this season. I think our guys are looking forward to that.”
PG B.J. TAYLOR: “Oh, I mean, they’ve been itching since last October. I mean, they’ve been wanting to play, and they’re out there on the field, so the time is here, and, I mean, I know they’re super excited, and I’m just excited to have ’em out there with me.”
“We got a lot of guys that sat out last year. But, at the same time, only five guys can play. So, I mean, we have to build our chemistry. We have to be connected on the floor, and we have to play as one.”
F A.J. DAVIS: “You know, I think we got more people that can just dribble, pass, shoot. You know, last year we all had our own little roles that we filled in perfectly together, but, this year, everybody can do a little bit of everything. We just got more bodies, you know, more basketball players that can do a lot of different things. There’s nothing, you know, or one area where we’re all better. I think we can all do a lot of different things well.”
“Everybody. Everybody. I’m excited the same for everybody, man. The guys coming back, the guys transferring in and playing this year—I’m excited for everybody. I’m excited for our team as a whole.”
- The University of Louisville recently underwent another recruiting scandal that involved the FBI.
- Both Louisville’s athletic director and head coach Rick Pitino have since been relieved of their respective duties.
HC JOHNNY DAWKINS: “Sad. Sad to see some of the things that I was able to read and to see some of the interviews I saw. Just unfortunate. You know, college basketball, like all collegiate sports, are amazing. You know, it gives some of these young men and women a great opportunity to experience something special at this level, and you never like to see it be tainted by anything, you know, with that type of negativity. So, hopefully we can move past it and have a fun-filled season, one in which I think our fans and our supporters will enjoy as well as our student body. So, that’s what we’re looking forward to.”
- UCF’s all-time leader in three-pointers played for the Miami Heat National Basketball Association Summer League and has since earned a contract with NBA team.
- On July 24, Williams signed with the Heat.
HC JOHNN DAWKINS: “Oh, absolutely [I’ve kept in contact with Williams]. You know, I’m really proud of what Matt’s doing. I saw him play last night, and I watched him. He had a good game. He got in late in the fourth quarter and made the most of his time, and he’s a terrific player, but, like I said, he’s a better young man. And I really enjoyed my time spent with him, and hopefully I’ll get a chance to see him this Saturday. I think the Heat plays the Magic this weekend, so, you know, I’ll be looking forward to seeing Matt Saturday night.”
- Taylor averaged career-highs in points per game (17.4), assists per game (3.5), rebounds per game (4.0), steals per game (1.1), field-goal percentage (41.4 percent) and minutes per game (36.4).
- Davis averaged 8.3 points per game, 7.0 rebounds per game and 2.4 assists per game last year.
PG B.J. TAYLOR: “I put in a lot of work this offseason just every day, every single morning. At 6 a.m., I’m in here working out. I took like two weeks off, and I was right back at it. I mean, that’s been my whole thing since I came to college is put the work in, put the effort in, and, you know, model my game after guys like Kobe [Bryant] and their mindset going into the game and how they prepare every offseason, so I idolize those guys and try to mimic them.”
I think just maturity [is what I’ve added to my game]. When you get to be a (sic) older player, the game slows down a little bit every year, and you just have to incorporate the things that you can see and watch a lot of film from yourself from last year and see where you made mistakes and see what your weaknesses are and turn ’em into strengths.”
“No, I mean, every year, I go out—every time I go out on the floor, I just wanna win. I wanna lead my team to victory. I wanna show that ’cause, as a point guard, that’s the most important thing. If you don’t win the game, if you don’t go out there and lead your team to a victory, it really doesn’t matter. So, every time I step out on the court, I just go out there to compete at a high level and lead my team to a win.”
F A.J. DAVIS: “I would just say fine-tuning on my little skills. You know, just trying to get better and help wherever I can. You know, being versatile, you gotta do a lot of different things, so I had to—just been working on a lot of different things to, you know, fill in wherever we need help really.”
- During the offseason, Wichita State University was added to the American Athletic Conference.
PG B.J. TAYLOR: “I mean, we’re obviously excited to have a team like Wichita [State] in the conference. They’re gonna be preseason highly ranked, and, as a competitor—and our whole team is full of guys that wanna play at the highest level, so when you get a team like that in the conference, you’re excited to have it and go up against them and see where your game is at and see where your team matches up.”
F A.J. DAVIS: “Nah, [there’s no specific game I’m looking forward to more than another]. I wanna win every game. There’s definitely games that I’m looking at that I’m excited for, but they’re all the same to me. I just wanna win one game at a time.”
“You know, they’re a great team. You know, great coaches. They’re a storied program. They’re winning every year. But we’re gonna approach it the same way. We’ve had other good teams in this conference before, so we’re gonna approach them the same way we approach every other team.”
For more on the Knights, as they begin their preseason, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.
