MBB v UCF Game Thread

[mustangxc]

SMU (7-2, 3-2 American) at UCF (3-5, 1-4 American)
Addition Financial Arena - Orlando, Florida
January 23, 2021 – 1 p.m. CT
TV: ESPNU

SMU resumes the season today after a long layoff without Tim Jankovich on the bench but with Tyson Jolly now available. Impossible to know what to expect today, but hoping for a win and the Jolly addition definitely raises the ceiling of this team.

[Charleston Pony]

UCF came out of the gate as one of the more impressive teams in the AAC with wins vs Auburn & FSU. Have not followed them to know if there have been injuries or Covid issues or what, but they certainly have tailed off compared to how they started. I suppose the same could be said for SMU.

[Charleston Pony]

This team does not look good in a half court game. Bigs play a little soft and somebody needs to tell Feron he is NOT a 3 point shooter!

[Sewanee Stang]

Tyson Jolly in the game!

[Charleston Pony]

UCF's bigs are killing our guys in the paint and on the boards

[Charleston Pony]

We just aren't very good in the half court and UCF doing a good job not letting us run. One high screen and not much motion otherwise in our half court offense. Have to give UCF credit for their D.

[Charleston Pony]

UCF with 6 offensive boards on 14 missed shots. Have to do better on the boards in 2nd half. Our guys are shooting well with the exception of a couple of ill advised threes by Hunt & Anei. May take a while for Jolly to get his touch back.

[mustangxc]

All things considered, I'll take a 1 point halftime deficit on the road against a giant killer like UCF after a long layoff. We just need a few minor adjustments and a sniper mentality in the second half.

[Charleston Pony]

Our bigs are running the floor now. Hunt is an elite rebounder and I can't think of an opposing big that can run with him and now Anei adding another dimension

[Sewanee Stang]

Nice to see a strong finish. Go Ponies!

[mustangxc]

Big win with as much adversity as the team was facing. It helps keep our NCAA tournament hopes alive. Hopefully Jolly improves quickly and becomes a key cog in our rotation. High end talent matters. Davis and Anei carried us today and they along with Jolly are our most talented players.

[Charleston Pony]

Give Feron credit, too. Our bigs really stepped up today and simply out ran UCF in that 2nd half. Great D to finish with Anei blocking 4 shots and altering almost everything else UCF attempted in the paint in that 2nd half (after they had so much success in the 1st half). What's really impressive is that our bigs did all that and nobody got in foul trouble. Only thing that concerned me was that our guys gave up 14 offensive boards but part of that was because UCF missed 14 threes.

A sweep in next week's Memphis series could determine whether either team takes solid control of 2nd place behind Houston

[Charleston Pony]

Hitting 16 of 17 FTs helps when you are looking to put a game away late. Just a solid performance today, especially in that 2nd half once we forced tempo

[Terry Webster]

Read that the director of player personnel was their coach in practice the past week cause all of the coaches were out. The first half looked like we hadn't played in a while. Second half was the best half we have played against good competition.

[DC-Pony]

Looks like our not-messing-around line-up is:
Davis - Jolly - Bandoumel - Hunt - Anei. That was far and away the best line-up in today’s game. Even with Tyson probably at 60% of cardiovascular capacity. And that’s not to slight some other really good players...may be the deepest team we’ve had in the last 30+ years.

Solid win. I like how they were able the drop the handle in the second half. Even with UCF’s tough 6 point possession (virtually), SMU quickly jumped back to a 9 point lead and didn’t let up.

Ponies totally have the talent to make the tourney.