Jan. 15, 2010
By John Denton
UCFAthletics.com
Unable to build upon their success from last season so far, UCF's women's basketball team is hoping to begin a strong second-half run tonight against Memphis. History, of course, says that that very thing is possible for the Knights.
Once 2-11 last season, UCF won eight consecutive home games and shocked Conference USA by winning the postseason tournament for the first time in school history.
Sitting at a frustrating 4-8 so far this season, head coach Joi Williams has said that she expected so much more from her team. And she expects the Knights experience, talent and depth to start taking hold tonight in hopes of turning around the season once again.
"We have a very good team when we put the little things together," Williams said recently. "That's what's been frustrating to us as a staff is that we haven't done those things for 40 minutes. We either have a good start or we finish strong, but we need to do both."
The C-USA champs were given a tough roadtrip to start conference play and they dropped road games at Marshall and East Carolina last week. But with home games against Memphis (tonight) and UAB (Sunday, 5 p.m.), UCF can even its conference mark and hopefully string together a run similar to last season.
Williams, who saw the Knights conference title banner unveiled at UCF Arena last month, is candid about her disappointment over the struggles of a team that had high expectations this season. Many of the same players on the floor now are in their third year as starters, and Williams expected the team to have made more progress.
Turnovers have been a major issue. Of late, UCF turned the ball over 36 times against national power Notre Dame and had a combined 51 turnovers in the road losses to Marshall and East Carolina last week.
"The thing that disappoints us is that we're not very much further ahead because we're making a lot of the same mistakes,'' Williams said. ``As a staff, we've been disappointed that some of the mistakes that we're making are ones veteran teams don't make. We're a veteran team and these players have been starting since they were freshmen. They're unlike a lot of juniors in the country because they played so many minutes as freshmen and sophomores.
"I'm not going to sugarcoat it - we're not a lot further ahead than we were last year because we've played in spurts," the coach continued. "In conference play we have to be more consistent."
UCF needs to get a consistent effort tonight like the ones they got from junior forward Emma Cannon last season against Memphis, a team UCF swept last season. In two games against the Tigers, she averaged 27.5 points and 17.5 rebounds. One effort included a spectacular 34-point, 20-rebound performance in Memphis.
UCF is also hoping that Chelsie Wiley can have another solid shooting night tonight. Wiley had 17 points against East Carolina and her next 3-pointer will be the 100th of her career.
"It was such a relief to shoot the ball better because my confidence was kind of down lately," Wiley said. "I've just realized that I need to be more aggressive. I'm trying to take it more off the dribble now. Teams know that I'm a shooter and even though I haven't been shooting it well they still respect my shot and that opens up driving lanes for me.
"I'm just hoping that East Carolina game knocked me out of my shooting slump and I can keep it up."
Williams has said that if the slow start to the season has taught her team anything it's that the Knights are now the hunted team rather than the hunters. Their stirring run last season to a conference crown and the NCAA tournament has opposing teams up to play them.
"There's a target on our backs now as conference champions and people are going to be out to get us," Williams said. "We have to understand that we have to come to play every single night no matter who it is we're playing."
==== John Denton's Knights Insider appears on UCFathletics.com several times a week. E-mail John at jdenton@athletics.ucf.edu.