March on: Let's dance ⚔️🐊 3 things to watch this spring and gone streaking 🥎
Coach Abe's squad clinches its highest seed ever in the NCAA Tournament, UCF football's spring season has arrived and lucky number 11 for UCF Softball.
Appreciate you all being so patient with me as I balance a bunch of new projects, combined with a part-time transition up to Nashville. Thanks for sticking with us and supporting the newsletter! Love ya’ll more than I can express.
Now, let’s get after it, since it’s been way too long 👊🏻.
Today’s read is 7.5 minutes ⏲️
Trending in the Kingdom: Let’s Dance ⚔️🐊
Postseason play? In-state match up? Sounds familiar. Let’s hope this goes as well as the last round with the Florida Gators, as the No. 7-seed UCF women’s basketball gets ready for its first-round match up with the No. 10 seeded Gators in this weekend’s opening round of the Women’s NCAA Tournament.
Here’s the scoop: Let the Madness begin. UCF-Florida will tip on Saturday, from Storrs, Connecticut, at 3:30 p.m. on ESPNews. UCF is a 7-seed, its highest in program history. They’ve never won an NCAA Tournament game in its history
This will be UCF's seventh NCAA Tournament appearance since moving up to Division I in 1984-85.
Each of their first four appearances had been via an automatic berth, but this year was UCF’s first since 2011, and only as a member of the American Conference.
“Every year that we go, I’m just over-excited,” UCF coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson told the Orlando Sentinel. “It’s another journey, another part of this season. You see something new pop up and I’m just super excited for the ladies.”
How we got here 🤔: Boy, has it been a historic year for Coach Abe’s group, and it’s without question the best in program history. The Knights started off the season 12-2, with its two losses to Tennessee (4-seed) and Iowa (2-seed), both tournament teams.
The Knights have gone 13-1 since January 26th, including a 13-game win streak to close out the regular season and win the AAC Tournament title.
UCF won the regular season and AAC tournament championships, both program firsts, beating rival USF in the title game to earn an automatic bid to the tournament.
The Knights are ranked No. 24 in the latest AP poll, their first appearance in the Associated Press’ Top 25 in program history.
UCF’ NET ranking is 15th, the highest of any non-Power 5 program.
Diamond Battles was named The American Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, the first player in program history to earn those accolades since 1999 and 2005, respectively.
Head coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson was named The American Coach of the Year, while Brittney Smith earned the conference’s Sixth Player of the Year.
Coach Abe’s ascent ⬆️: You can make an argument for Coach Abe as the best hire of the last decade for UCF. She has lifted her basketball program to new heights since taking over in 2016, and she’s going to earn a huge raise when her contract expires after next season. Each time the Knights have made the NCAA tournament under Coach Abe, UCF’s seed has been its highest - they were 12th in 2019 and a No. 10 seed last year.
In case you forgot, UCF had five consecutive losing seasons prior to Coach Abe's arrival, including a 7-23 record the year before she came on board.
She’s lost a total of 25 games over the last four years, and the Knights have finished top four in The American for six straight seasons.
UCF has the best scoring defense in the nation this year, allowing 47.5 points per game. They ranked No. 1 in the nation (50.5) last season under Coach Abe, too.
UCF has been in the Top 25 of scoring defense every season since Coach Abe arrived, including ranking 21st her inaugural season. The season before she took over, the Knights had the 324th ranked defense in Division I.
As our friends at Black and Gold Banneret point out, only 13 teams have ever had a defensive scoring average under 49.5 points per game for an entire season, dating back to 1982. Coach Abe’s squad is on pace to become the 14th.
Scouting the Gators 🐊: They’ve been a surprise squad this season, with interim-turned-head coach Kelly Rae Finley leading the Gators to their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2016.
They have some massive wins on their resume, including beating LSU and Tennessee. In fact, eight of their 21 wins came against top-25 opponents.
But they’ve dropped four of their last five games heading into the NCAA Tournament.
Also, they’re going to be missing arguably their best player, with senior guard Kiara “Kiki” Smith suffering a season-ending knee injury in the first round of the SEC Tournament. She’s their top scorer and rebounder.
Florida, at one point this season, ranked as high as 15th in the AP poll last month. Their NET ranking is now 45th in the nation.
UCF is 0-26 all time vs. Florida.
Give me a Knugget 🐴: The last NCAA Tournament appearance in 2016? The Gators were upset in the first round, 61-59, by Albany. You know who was Albany’s coach that year? Katie Abrahamson-Henderson.
UCF's NCAA Tournament History
Year Seed Round Opponent Result
1996 #16 First Round #1 Louisiana Tech L, 98-41
1999 #16 First Round #1 Louisiana Tech L, 90-48
2009 #14 First Round #3 North Carolina L, 85-80
2011 #13 First Round #4 Ohio State L, 80-69
2019 #12 First Round #5 Arizona State L, 60-45
2021 #10 First Round #7 Northwestern L, 62-51
👋🏻 Hello, spring season!
Football is back, with spring practice opening up Tuesday morning for Gus Malzahn’s group. The Knights have a ton of talent back, newcomers vying for playing time and spring enrollees hoping to make a statement. Let’s get you ready.
Tell me more: Malzahn and his staff have had a full year to implement their system and get familiar with the program, which means this spring should be much more of an “all systems go” type of mentality. UCF is returning 71 percent of its production from a season ago.
The foundation is there under Gus, as is the familiarity. Now it’s time to take another step forward.
"I felt like we were the best team in the state last year, but our goals are a lot higher than that,” Malzahn said at his pre-spring press appearance. “Our goal is to be the best team in college football, and that's what we're striving to do every day. Our guys understand that and that's what we're trying to do."
In order to reach that goal, there’s a few battles this spring that need to be solidified, none bigger than the quarterback competition.
3 things to watch this spring 👀
Who takes the lead in the quarterback battle?
Malzahn said it’ll be an open competition, but Mikey Keene will start camp with the first unit. He’ll let the other four quarterbacks rotate in over the duration of the spring. To me, it’s Keene’s job to lose at this point. He really hit the weight room this offseason to add some strength to his 5-foot-11 frame, coming off his freshman season where he threw for 1,730 yards and 17 touchdowns. Teammates have raved about his leadership leading offseason workouts, and his embrace of the upcoming competition.
Keene will be battling Joey Gatewood and Parker Navarro, who are both returning, as well as Ole Miss transfer dual-threat John Rhys Plumlee and true freshman early-enrollee Thomas Castellanos. I’d be surprised if Castellanos beat out Keene and Plumlee, but he certainly has the talent and arm strength to impress in camp. Plumlee is the wildcard here, given his experience, which is sorely needed in that quarterback room. His athleticism might be too much for Malzahn to pass on, especially after rushing for an Ole Miss freshman record 1,023 yards a few years back. We’ll see if he can leapfrog Keene.
It’s anyone’s guess at linebacker
There’s only one player at the position with game experience at UCF, and it’s Jeremiah Jean-Baptiste. Malzahn said “it starts with him” at linebacker, but there will be opportunities for others to step up, saying they could “seize the moment” and earn a starter’s role.
I’ve got a feeling Terrence Lewis, the former five-star recruit and transfer from Maryland, will get a strong look. Other than that, it’s Kadeem Leonard, Quade Mosier, Cole Joyce and Derek Burns left on the roster. Not your household names, so there’s definitely room for one of them to emerge. We could also see K.D. McDaniel, the Kentucky transfer, line up at linebacker, but he’ll be featured more as an edge rusher.
Don’t forget about R.J. Harvey
The Knights are loaded at running back, especially with Isaiah Bowser returning for his final season, but let’s not forget about the guy who was likely set to be the starter after last spring, before suffering a season-ending knee injury in fall camp.
R.J. Harvey has looked better than expected during recovery, according to teammates, but will be limited in practice as Malzahn and company slow-play his comeback. Just don’t overlook the Virginia transfer, especially if he continues to climb towards 100 percent.
Bowser and Johnny Richardson, who rushed for a team-high 733 yards, will get the majority of snaps in camp, but this group is incredibly deep, and versatile. There’s also Mark-Antony Richards and Trilion Coles, who both saw playing time last season, so expect some healthy competition in camp. I can’t wait to watch true freshman Jordan McDonald, too. Boy, is this group deep.
West Coast whoopin’
The Golden State was a good one for UCF softball, who crushed the competition on their West Coast swing.
Fill me in: The UCF softball team went 7-0 on their trip out West, becoming the first team in program history to go unbeaten on a West Coast trip.
That also extended their overall winning streak to 11 games.
"It's huge to take the trip that we took and deal with the time change and daylight savings time," head coach Cindy Ball-Malone said in a release. "With the distractions of everything in California and family time and all of that, the team did a really good job of taking care of business and then enjoying the moment with their families."
Here’s a look at what a few key Knights have accomplished in recent weeks:
Jada Cody, the nation’s leader in RBIs with 40, hitting that mark in just 29 games. She’s batting .356 this season, with eight home runs. During the 7-game sweep, she hit .429 with three home runs, 10 RBI and eight runs scored.
Gianna Mancha has been exceptional as well recently, going a perfect 4-0, nothing a save and compiling a 1.48 ERA and 31 strikeouts in six appearances for UCF.
Denali Schappacher is now in 10th place in career hits for the Knights and is 7th all-time in career runs scored, with 123. She capped off the weekend batting .550.
UCF has gone 3-0 against current Big 12 opponents. They also have three walkoff wins this season, all against SEC teams.
The Knights lead the nation in walks, with 134 in 2022.
📆 Next up: The Knights host Ohio State at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, with the broadcast on ESPN+. You can watch it here. The Buckeyes have won five in a row.