To the best of my non-research aided recollection, UCF has a unique opportunity to be the first team in Division I history to both be ranked in the Top 25 and eventually finish 14th or worse inside their conference in the same season. Tonight is yet another likely step for the Knights to solidify their historic achievement.
Four weeks ago? This date was circled on the calendar; the battle for first place in Conference USA - a game not just to slug out who would win the league but also for jockeying for seeding position in the Big Dance.
Seven straight losses later, including a pair to East Carolina and a loss to Rice, Donnie Jones has to be wondering, 'will we ever win another game?' To hell with 'can we still reach the NIT?' He is trying to stave off one of the most bizarre and disappointing plumetts in recent college basketball history.
For Memphis, this game still matters a lot. The Tigers didn't do themselves and favors dropping back to back games to Marshall and Tulsa, however their 62-58 win over likewise reeling Gonzaga was an enormous win, placing them right back on the precarious bubble. The Tigers enter at 17-6, and having played an excellent non-conference schedule. However at 5-3, they are tied with SMU for fifth place in Conference USA; not exactly something that endears a team in the Committee's eyes come Selection Sunday.
Memphis still has an excellent chance to make the tournament. Although they are technically in fifth place, they are only one game behind conference "leaders" UTEP and Southern Miss. As long as the Tigers can avoid another bad loss, their overall body of work should land them safely inside the Field of 68. Tonight would constitute a very, very bad loss for Memphis.
Perhaps that's the most disappointing thing for Knights' fans tonight. It isn't that Memphis will likely once again unceramoniously dismiss the Knights with routine fashion, and it isn't even that the season, for all intents and purposes, is over. It is the fact that a win tonight would once again be an enormous upset, just like it has always been. Despite the promise and attention of November and December the UCF Knights are once again double-digit underdogs to the conference bigboy Memphis, hoping to spring an enormous upset.
Just like last season. And the season before. And the season before that. Yep, it's just like old times indeed, right back to square one.
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