Dec. 9, 2011
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By John Denton
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - UCF coach Donnie Jones is one of college basketball's ultimate one-game-at-a-time coaches, refusing to allow his focus to stray past the task at hand while always remaining in the moment.
And while Jones certainly has his sights set on UCF's game against Bethune-Cookman Saturday at 5 p.m. at UCF Arena, forgive the Knights' coach if some of his thoughts this week have been about what the future holds for his program.
With UCF now officially members of the BIG EAST and set to begin play in the 2013-14 season Jones is already considering the benefits that a move to the nation's premier basketball league will have for UCF. A staggering 13 of the 16 programs in the new BIG EAST have made trips to the Final Four. And just last season, eight BIG EAST teams qualified for the NCAA Tournament, with Connecticut - the league's ninth-best team during the regular season - winning the national championship.
UCF (5-2) has already proven its readiness this season for the jump to the league by stunning fourth-ranked UConn in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas. Jones said despite the big jump in the level of the competition the Knights will be facing in the future that the move to the BIG EAST is a tremendous one for UCF.
``I knew coming here that this was always a vision for the school and I liked that. I knew this school could make that next step,'' said Jones, who is in his second season at UCF. ``Sometimes you leave a school to go to a BIG EAST job and now we'll transition into that. This move is great for the school and it's just amazing the leadership that Dr. (John) Hitt has provided us at this school.''
UCF is joining the BIG EAST with fellow Conference USA schools Houston and SMU. Those two markets combined with Orlando - the 19th largest media market in the USA - should give the BIG EAST even more television exposure across the country. The reconfigured league will feature 10 of the top 20 media markets in the U.S. and 14 of the top 35 markets. TV contracts for the BIG EAST could potentially reach 28 million people, Commissioner John Marinatto said in a conference call on Wednesday.
Jones said that added exposure will be not only good for UCF's basketball and football programs, but also for the school. With games being televised nationally from UCF's campus in the coming years the rest of the country will learn of UCF having the nation's second-largest enrollment with more than 58,000 students.
``From an exposure standpoint, it's priceless for us. We can walk into homes now and promise to kids that they'll be able to play on TV almost every night,'' said Jones, whose Knights will be going for their fifth win in the past six games Saturday against Bethune-Cookman. ``Kids watch TV and they'll get to see our program, see our fans, see our campus and learn about our academics. By being on TV, we have a chance to get in a lot of homes across the country selling UCF. That's such a big key in recruiting.''
Ahhhh, recruiting. That, of course, is the lifeblood of any program, and Jones is of the belief that being in the BIG EAST will allow him to lure some of the nation's best recruits to UCF. After all, UCF now knows that it will play games in New York's Madison Square Garden, in Washington, D.C. against Georgetown and against some of the highest ranked teams in the country.
``It gives us an opportunity to get people to listen. You hope that you can get into some people's houses now that you might not have been able to before. We have a chance to brand our program and talk about the program on a big stage,'' Jones said. ``We're still trying to change a culture because it's still only 25 years since we've been in Division I, so our name is still new in a lot of places. But hopefully now being in the BIG EAST and playing against some great competition that we'll get some of the best kids looking at our school.''
Jones is happy that the Knights have a season and a half to prepare for entry in the BIG EAST. But he stressed that the recruitment of the top athletes has already begun in earnest, as evidenced by the transfer of Tristan Spurlock (from Virginia). The Knights also recruited highly touted guard Isaiah Sykes out of Detroit, and he and Spurlock figure to be major players on the first UCF team that competes in the BIG EAST in 2013-14.
John Denton's Knights Insider appears on UCFAthletics.com several times a week. E-mail John at jdenton@athletics.ucf.edu.