ORLANDO — For the second year in a row, UCF made history when hosting Kansas for its Big 12 men’s basketball opener.
Last January, the Knights scored their biggest upset in program history against the then-No. 3 Jayhawks, igniting a court-storming celebration from the sellout crowd. There was no such joy Sunday inside Addition Financial Arena, rather the worst beating UCF has ever taken on its home floor.
Preseason All-American center Hunter Dickinson had 27 points, nine rebounds and three blocks, starring as seventh-ranked Kansas (10-3, 1-1) pummeled the Knights 99-48 in front of 9,669 fans. The Jayhawks shot 50.6% from the field with five players finishing in double figures, and outrebounded UCF (10-3, 1-1) 63-32 with 22 offensive boards resulting in 37 second-chance points.
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UCF, which entered on a six-game winning streak following Tuesday’s toppling of Texas Tech on the road, matched the second-worst, all-time margin of defeat. It lost by 51 at Florida all the way back in 1984.
“I thought Kansas played a really good game. They came in with a great focus, and I thought they made a lot of connecting plays, especially offensively,” Knights coach Johnny Dawkins said. “When they didn’t make a play offensively, they did a really good job of getting second and third opportunities that led to points for them as well.
“The way we hang our hat, the one place, is defensively and rebounding. I thought, in both areas, it wasn’t who we’ve been or who we want to be. We have to get back in the gym, and we have to start working toward what we have to do to be successful in this conference.”
UCF never led, falling into a 19-point halftime hole and making just 14 field goals over the course of 40 minutes. Keyshawn Hall produced a team-high 12 points on 4-of-17 shooting.
Here are three takeaways from Sunday’s lopsided showdown.
Hunter Dickinson, Kansas motivated after loss to West Virginia
Kansas hardly needed any motivation after a lackluster showing in Tuesday’s loss to West Virginia, but Dickinson found some during Saturday night’s shootaround.
“We saw confetti falling down from the top. Apparently, somebody was expecting another upset this year,” Dickinson said. “We carried that in, and we also carried in, too, them telling us that we had to go through a separate exit when we were leaving, like they were preparing for another court-storming.
“I felt like guys took that to heart and really realized how teams are looking at us. And we really needed to come out and show everybody why we were the preseason No. 1 team in the country.”
A UCF official said the confetti was residual from a New Year’s Eve event hosted in the arena, and the evacuation measures are standard protocol for visiting teams.
Dickinson, who labored through a knee bruise in last year’s trip to UCF, opened the scoring and provided 18 of the Jayhawks’ first 29 points. True freshman Flory Bidunga dominated in the second half, providing the night’s major highlight with a block of Benny Williams at one end and a fastbreak dunk at the other.
Bidunga, a consensus top-20 national recruit, had 12 points, five rebounds and six blocks in 21 minutes. Bill Self plans to utilize the two bigs next to one another more often throughout Big 12 play.
“We’ve got to do it,” said Self, who improved his record to 125-21 as Kansas coach when coming off a loss. “The biggest thing today, even with (Dickinson), was we had rim protection. We haven’t had rim protection like that all year long. We made up for some bad defensive plays by guys contesting and blocking. The biggest thing I like about them right now is defensively they can play together. Flory’s good enough and quick enough that he can play out on the perimeter.”
UCF punished for common problem: woeful first-half shooting
Slow starts were somewhat commonplace for UCF at home during the non-conference portion of its schedule, but no one took full advantage. The Knights entered the afternoon 8-0 on their own floor.
But as shots continued to clank off and around the rim, UCF’s players pressed and got stuck in isolation far too often for Dawkins’ liking.
“We tried to get it all back fast when they were building a lead,” Dawkins said. “We had guys trying to make one-on-one plays individually, and that’s not who we have been. … I think that helped snowball what was going on.
“It came from a good place. They were trying to get it back for us. But we’re not an individual-playmaking team.”
UCF opened 1 of 7 from the field, with Jordan Ivy-Curry’s 3-pointer serving as the team’s lone bucket at the first media timeout. By halftime, its success rate was a lowly 7 of 34 — including a 5-for-16 mark beyond the 3-point arc.
Deebo Coleman chipped in nine points off the bench, but Kansas held starting UCF guards Darius Johnson (three) and Jordan Ivy-Curry (five) to season-low totals.
Knights will seek similar response to defeat against Colorado
Much like Kansas demonstrated a determination to shake off its first Big 12 loss of the campaign, UCF will attempt to do the same at 7 p.m. Wednesday in its first conference matchup against Colorado.
Colorado, which advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament in 2023-24, has opened with consecutive defeats in its new surroundings. The Buffaloes lost by 20 on Saturday night to Arizona State.
Losing to Kansas, even in humiliating fashion, will not derail UCF’s chances of making the 68-team NCAA tournament field. The Jayhawks will almost assuredly be a nationally ranked team for the rest of the year.
Letting it spiral and failing to capitalize in winnable home dates, however, certainly will. UCF can still build a quality at-large résumé across its next 18 games — with marquee matchups still ahead against the likes of Arizona, Houston, Iowa State, Cincinnati and others.
“We have to take it personal,” Dawkins said. “We have to get better. We have to take this as a chance to grow.
“Our leadership is going to be very important, and I believe in our leaders. They’ve done a great job thus far leading our team to where we are, and I think they will continue to do that.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: UCF Knights basketball: 3 takeaways in record loss to Kansas Jayhawks
