Hoopsters just need to survive the toughest conference schedule start (with national top 10 Houston and Iowa St. coming up plus the longest travel miles in NCAA history (after leading the nation in milage last year). The 2 added conference games and 4 schools added even farther west than all but BYU. Attendance rose last year among the most in basketball history after being stagnant for 17 years, never winning a single conference regular season FOR 35 years! And surprise, Dawkins slowly developed Mikey and he had his coming out party vs. Arizona (after Ivy-Curry choked for the 3rd time in 4 conference games! -- watch out for your starting job, Jordan). Lastly, sure the Kansas win was momentous, but UCF got far more national publicity from the "horns down" gesture after Knights took down Texas at their place! The impudence, akin to declaring a national championship in football a few years back. The press was trying to label Dawkins' program as LAST CHANCE U for adding players with run-ins with the law (in spite of Miami, FSU, and UF having a much worse historical record in criminality).
Totally agree with your take on Dawkins. We are so lucky to have him!
Hoopsters just need to survive the toughest conference schedule start (with national top 10 Houston and Iowa St. coming up plus the longest travel miles in NCAA history (after leading the nation in milage last year). The 2 added conference games and 4 schools added even farther west than all but BYU. Attendance rose last year among the most in basketball history after being stagnant for 17 years, never winning a single conference regular season FOR 35 years! And surprise, Dawkins slowly developed Mikey and he had his coming out party vs. Arizona (after Ivy-Curry choked for the 3rd time in 4 conference games! -- watch out for your starting job, Jordan). Lastly, sure the Kansas win was momentous, but UCF got far more national publicity from the "horns down" gesture after Knights took down Texas at their place! The impudence, akin to declaring a national championship in football a few years back. The press was trying to label Dawkins' program as LAST CHANCE U for adding players with run-ins with the law (in spite of Miami, FSU, and UF having a much worse historical record in criminality).