Southern Miss @ UCF: Post-game Review

Matt's Thoughts on the game:
The Knights played very well in a convincing win tonight over conference foe Southern Miss. Jermaine Taylor led us in scoring as always, I saw a different Jermaine Taylor tonight than I have ever seen before. Southern Miss shut him down inside both from the post and off of drives. Although he had quite a few open looks from 3, he was only 3-10 on the night. He cooled off noticeably going into halftime after missing 2 or 3 of them in a row, and the most important part of the night, he made the adjustment! Jermaine started taking mid-range jumpers and nailed them every time. This is the kind of adjustment I’ve been looking for from him for the last two years. We’ve known he can shoot the 3 and slam the ball, but could he consistently make jumpers inside the arc? Yes he can, and yes he did. He was blocked twice on dunks and seemed to get flustered for about 5 minutes while trying to do too much to prove himself. After he calmed down, he came back to hitting 15 foot jumpers with ease.

Zondervan had another great offensive game, and I cannot stress enough how much I love his passion and hustle. He’s receiving passes in the paint much better lately, and it shows. He finished his layups well tonight, and he seems to be hitting his stride. I saw quite a few great passes tonight; especially the one to Z right after the Golden Eagles missed a shot. We took down the rebound and quickly moved it up the court, ending with a quick slicing pass under the basket to Kenny for the easy bucket. His hustle made the play perfect. He sprinted the length of the court to get in position quickly and executed perfectly.

The three point shooting the Golden Eagles displayed tonight was completely unexpected on my part. They shot 10% higher tonight than they have on the season, a clear improvement. We did get into some foul trouble tonight with Zondervan and Rompza racking up 3 fouls each just after halftime, but our depth is proving to be our strength. When Rompza comes out, Taylor Young and Will Weathers come in and play just as well. When Z gets in a bit of trouble, AJ Tyler comes in with some beautiful sky hooks.

I was very impressed tonight, and we proved we can play near the top of this conference. We need to keep this momentum rolling through this home-stand and beyond.

Another NBA Scout?: On a side note, word inside the arena was that an Orlando Magic scout came to watch the game while taking notes from section 107. More NBA news for Mr. Jermaine Taylor is always good for both the school and Jermaine himself.