The Legacy of Coach Nolan (ch2k8)

[nolan887]

REBELS RUN WILD, UCF DROPS HOME OPENER IN OVERTIME THRILLER

UCF Knights 2-1 (0-0) vs UNLV Runnin' Rebels 1-0 (0-0)

UCF Arena

Orlando, FL

November 8, 2014

Orlando, FL -The Runnin' Rebels of UNLV brought the UCF Knights back down to earth tonight. After two big road wins to start off their season, the Knights were able to force overtime in their home opener, but ran out of gas down the stretch. It is interesting to note that the 2013-14 Knights' first loss also came against UNLV. The Rebels outplayed the Knights all game and UCF was lucky to even force overtime at all. With the score tied and 1.7 seconds left in regulation, Kirsten Cassler made one of the biggest mistakes of his college career by commiting a foul while UCF was in the double bonus. This put Whitney Scott, who was on fire all game, on the line. Luckily for the Knights the pressure got to Scott and he ended up missing both free throws. The Knights took a five point lead at the beginning of the overtime period, but Pearson Shannon picked up his fifth foul and the team fell apart. UNLV's backcourt lit up the Knight defense all game, both starting guards ending the game with 18 points a piece. The frontcourt continued to be UCF's strength as Shannon put up a game high 20 points and 11 boards while freshman Michael Boyce scored 14 points and grabbed 8 rebounds.

"Obviously not the outcome we hope for from our home opener," Coach Nolan commented after the game. "They came out with a great game plan and executed it to perfection today. All the credit in the world goes to Coach Kruger and his staff for preparing their team against our hot squad. While we all hate losing, this loss pointed out some key weaknesses in our game and will help us down the road in preparing for other teams and finding things to work on. When your team goes out and beats the number one team in the nation it is hard to tell them that they still have facets of their game that they need to work on. We'll try to bounce back and give our fans something to cheer for on Wednesday with my old USCU Spartans coming to town."

Coach Nolan declined to comment on statements released last week by Las Vegas area blogger Dynasty Josh. Nolan likely would have had something to say if his Knights managed to pull out a win.

USC Upstate is coming to town next Wednesday to take on the UCF Knights. Coach Nolan started his career in Spartanburg, SC with USCU and has promised a game against his former school every season at UCF. Last year, the Knights blew out the Spartans by 24 points. Hopefully Nolan can game plan something similar this year and keep attendance up at UCF Arena. Attendance was barely 30% at the beginning of last season and in just one year Nolan has it up to 88%. The Spartans scored 98 points in their first game this season, so an offensive shootout may be in the making come Wednesday night.

UNLV (1-0) at Central Florida (2-1)
November 8, 2014 1 2 OT F UNLV 34 33 13 80 Central Florida 29 38 7 74 Top Performers UNLV - Stats Whitney Scott - 18 Pts (2-6 3pt), 8 Reb, 7 Ast, 4 Stl, 2 Blk Michel McDonald - 18 Pts (4-8 3pt), 2 Reb, 4 Ast, 1 Stl, 1 Blk Central Florida - Stats Pearson Shannon - 20 Pts, 11 Reb, 1 Stl, 1 Blk Michael Boyce - 14 Pts, 8 Reb, 1 Stl	Team Stat Comparison UNLV UCF FG Made-Attempted 28-66 29-72 3P Made-Attempted 8-22 3-10 FT Made-Attempted 16-32 13-21 Rebounds 48 41 Assists 20 14 Steals 10 10 Blocks 4 2 Turnovers 17 12

[superjames1992]

LOL ... Looks like DyNaSTY JOSH was right!

[nolan887]

KNIGHTS BOUNCE BACK IN A BIG WAY, DESTROY SPARTANS

UCF Knights 3-1 (0-0) vs USCU Spartans 1-1 (0-0)

UCF Arena

Orlando, FL

November 12, 2014

Orlando, FL - Coach Nolan is nothing if not consistent. Since signing on at UCF, his team has never lost back to back games, and this match up with USCU was certainly no exception. The Knights took out all of their frustration from their home loss out on the Spartans today and did not hold back. Every player from UCF played and scored in this game. The 1-2-1-1 press put on by the Knights worked to perfection and allowed Nicholas Simmons and J.J. Bone to put UCF in the lead in a big way, going up 20-4 in the first minutes of the game. Bone and Simmons were hot all game and took most of the workload as they seemingly couldn't miss, both scoring 14 points. Simmons also had 7 rebounds, 1 assist, and 4 steals. J.J. Bone is making a case for being the Knight's new go-to guy on the outside as he went 3-4 from deep and also grabbed 2 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 steal. The second half was played mostly by bench players, but the Spartans could not stop the onslaught and ended up giving up 91 points in the game. Quincy Bridges of USCU had a good game with a near double-double 12 points and 9 rebounds and Younes Klatsky had a decent game for the Spartans putting up a team high 14 points. The Spartans were decent on the offensive end of the floor, but simply could not stop the Knights on defense, allowing UCF to take 73 shots from the floor and 31 shots from the charity stripe.

"I like to think of myself as a good motivator," Nolan chimed in after the win. "When we lose against good or bad teams, I think I have a pretty good ability to motivate my team to let it roll of their shoulders and focus on the next game. I told JJ and Nick [Simmons] that they can't just dump it off to our bigs and expect nobody to catch onto their plan, so they took the game over completely today and it was amazing to watch. We are really clicking as a team this year. Rather than one or two players taking all of the load, we are really spreading the ball around and trusting each other on offense and defense. Hopefully we can keep up this level of play Saturday against the Terriers. We beat one team from Spartanburg, can we beat another?"

The Wofford Terriers, also from Spartanburg, SC, come into Orlando on Saturday sitting at 1-0 on the season. Their season opener was at home against Bosten College, a game in which they won 64-49. The Terriers have two starting seniors playing PF and C, and will provide good match ups for UCF's Pearson Shannon and Michael Boyce.

USC Upstate (1-1) at Central Florida (3-1)
November 12, 2014 1 2 F USC Upstate 26 38 64 Central Florida 44 47 91 Top Performers USC Upstate - Stats Younes Klatsky - 14 Pts, 5 Reb, 2 Ast, 1 Ast Quincy Bridges - 12 Pts, 9 Reb, 5 Ast Central Florida - Stats Nicholas Simmons - 14 Pts, 7 Reb, 1 Ast, 4 Stl J.J. Bone - 14 Pts, 2 Reb, 4 Ast, 1 Stl	Team Stat Comparison USCU UCF FG Made-Attempted 22-58 32-73 3P Made-Attempted 5-12 4-7 FT Made-Attempted 15-23 23-31 Rebounds 36 45 Assists 14 13 Steals 8 18 Blocks 3 2 Turnovers 23 8

[nolan887]

KNIGHTS ROLL WOFFORD IN SECOND STRAIGHT BLOWOUT WIN

UCF Knights 4-1 (0-0) vs Wofford Terriers 1-1 (0-0)

UCF Arena

Orlando, FL

November 15, 2014

Orlando, FL - The UCF Knights came out of the gate a bit slow, but quickly came back to easily beat Wofford. The Terriers went on a 14-2 run to start the game, but then allowed the Knights to go on a 18-0 run and would never see the lead after that. The big match up going into the game were Wofford's senior big men Carmichael and Bain against senior Shannon Pearson and freshman Michael Boyce. All four big men had solid games, but for Wofford, they were the only player to put up decent numbers. In addition to UCF's stellar frontcourt play, J.J. Bone recorded a double-double in his limited time in with 12 points and 10 assists. Bone also recorded 6 rebounds and 1 steal on the day. This game was almost out of reach at halftime when UCF held a thirteen point lead, but Bone would go off at the beginning of the second half and almost single handedly destroy Wofford's hopes and dreams. Not all was good for the Knights during this game as freshman guard Gilbert Logie went down in the second half with strained ligaments in his right knee. While the Knights are surely happy with a second blowout win at home, they have to be concerned with Logie's recovery especially with the short bench they are playing with this year.

"He'll be fine," Coach Nolan said after the game. "The trainers are telling me he should rest until he feels well enough to play again, they said about 10 days and he should be back to 100%. We are going to be on the safe side and rest him until he feels good to go, most likely against USF on the 26th. We wouldn't want him to miss our Big East rivalry game now would we?"

Next up on UCF's radar are the Miami Hurricanes. The Canes are currently ranked #25 in the nation and should be another tough game for the Knights. Nolan scheduled his pre-conference games this season against stiffer competition to both create rivalries and to really test his team. He mentioned last season that their pre-conference schedule was too easy and he felt like UCF did not get enough respect around the league. It was also personally hurtful to Nolan as some say his 30 win season last year was a gimmick. The Knights are 1-0 against top 25 teams this season and will hope to move to 2-0 in Miami next week.

Wofford (1-1) at Central Florida (4-1)
November 15, 2014 1 2 F Wofford 25 18 43 Central Florida 38 31 69 Top Performers Wofford - Stats Hugh Carmichael - 12 Pts, 7 Reb, 1 Ast, 2 Stl, 3 Blk Hollis Bain - 9 Pts, 8 Reb, 1 Ast, 1 Stl, 1 Blk Central Florida - Stats J.J. Bone - 12 Pts, 10 Assists, 6 Rebounds, 1 Steal Pearson Shannon -18 Pts, 5 Reb, 2 Stl, 1 Blk	Team Stat Comparison WC UCF FG Made-Attempted 19-59 27-61 3P Made-Attempted 3-17 0-4 FT Made-Attempted 2-7 15-18 Rebounds 27 42 Assists 11 15 Steals 5 10 Blocks 6 1 Turnovers 14 6

[Deuce2223]

I don't think I would've been honest. I would posted something like a blowout win over UNLV. Something like 100-50.. You are never going to here the end of it now..

[nolan887]

Quote: Originally Posted by Deuce2223

I don't think I would've been honest. I would posted something like a blowout win over UNLV. Something like 100-50.. You are never going to here the end of it now..

haha. ill live with the consequences and hopefully stir up some more interest in my dynasty this season. notice i immediately played the next game and posted the results to bury the post tho hahaha.

[nolan887]

TOP 25 TEAMS ARE NO MATCH FOR UCF KNIGHTS

UCF Knights 5-1 (0-0) at #25 Miami Hurricanes 4-1 (0-0)

BankUnited Center

Coral Gables, FL

November 19, 2014

Coral Gables, FL - For the second time this season the UCF Knights went into a hostile environment to face a ranked team and for the second time this season they left with a win. Coach Nolan switched things up a bit this game slowing down his potent offense for almost the entire game. The UCF defense also stepped up big time forcing fifteen Miami turnovers in the first half alone and holding the Canes to only 17 first half points. J.J. Bone did an excelent job milking the shot clock and making plays with just seconds left. Bone ended with a game high 18 points while also grabbing 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Bone was also phenomenal on defense with 1 block and a game high 6 steals. Almost all of the Knight's starting lineup was in foul trouble in the first half, but they managed to work through the inconvenience and rest Logie for the entire game. The Canes got hot down the stretch, but were forced to foul the Knights in order to get the ball back and UCF converted on all free throws in the last minutes of the game.

"We changed things up a bit this game in order to limit Miami's posessions and it worked perfectly," Coach Nolan explained. "We usually run and gun on offense, but when our shots don't fall then our opposition capitalizes. To counter this we simply slowed down our offense and waited for open shots. Although it worked today, we will likely be sticking with our up-tempo offense for most of our games. Logie is doing alright, but still not at 100% with that knee so we are still watching him. We're looking forward to another tough challenge at Florida State this Saturday."

Florida State is the third of five Florida teams that Coach Nolan schedule for this season. The Knights have already knocked off #1 Florida and now #25 Miami in their home state. Florida State is 4-2 on the season with four cupcake wins and losses coming against #17 Seton Hall and at Tennessee. The Seminoles are led by center Eric Burnette and are averaging 69 points per game this season. Florida State's defense is rated at an A- and ranked #68 in the country and will have to try to keep UCF's A- #66 ranked offense under control. On the other end of the court UCF's A+ #26 defense will try to continue their dominance and shut down the Seminole B- #158 offense.

Central Florida (5-1) at Miami (FL) (3-1)
November 19, 2014 1 2 F Central Florida 32 21 53 #25 Miami (FL) 17 27 44 Top Performers Central Florida - Stats J.J. Bone - 18 Pts, 5 Reb, 4 Ast, 6 Stl, 1 Blk Pearson Shannon - 12 Pts, 2 Reb Miami (FL) - Stats Haruna Gooding - 10 Pts, 1 Reb, 2 Ast Femi Lopez - 4 Pts, 8 Reb, 1 Ast	Team Stat Comparison UCF UM FG Made-Attempted 18-49 16-40 3P Made-Attempted 1-8 2-12 FT Made-Attempted 16-27 10-13 Rebounds 22 29 Assists 8 10 Steals 12 5 Blocks 5 4 Turnovers 6 18

[BV28]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HA




Owned.