Men's basketball is third in nation for blocked shots

The Knights have been inconsistent of late.

They've won a bunch. They've lost a bunch. They've shot really well, they've shot really poorly.

But there has been one consistent thing all season: It's been a block party all season.

UCF is third in the nation in blocked shots entering Wednesday's game against Memphis. The Knights are averaging 6.67 blocks per game, enough to put them just behind South Carolina, who is averaging 6.76, and just in front of Kentucky, 6.64.

What's more is that it has truly been a team effort.

Transfer center Tom Herzog is the highest-ranked Knight individually, as the No. 21 shot blocker in the nation, averaging 2.53 blocks per game. That's also good enough to put him atop Conference USA.

"If they keep driving it at me, I'm going to keep blocking their shots," said Herzog

Sophomore standout Keith Clanton is tied for No. 41 at 2.14 blocks per game.

It has been a collective effort headed by Herzog and Clanton, who account for 93 of the team's 140 blocked shots, but also followed by players like Dwight McCombs (20), A.J. Tyler (12), and P.J. Gaynor (10) who have a majority of the other 47 blocks.

It's also something that hasn't changed much in conference play. Unlike a lot of other areas of the Knights game that have struggled as of recent, UCF has still tallied 51 blocked shots since league play started in January. That's double the 24 shots that the Knights have had blocked by opponents. It's also good enough for 6.38 blocks per game, not far behind their season average as a whole.

Memphis is second in the conference, averaging 5.22 blocks a game.

Perhaps one of the most striking things with how many shots UCF has blocked this season is the inverse of that equation; how many shots the Knights have had blocked of theirs. To this point, opponents are averaging three blocks per game, less than half, marking a clear advantage for UCF.

This season alone, in separate games, Clanton has set and Herzog has tied the now-school record for blocked shots, at eight. Herzog's record-tying performance came in only one half of play against Bethune-Cookman, after he watched the first half from the bench.

"I think Tom, [if] he would have played the first half, he would have had like 10 and broke the record," said Clanton of the Herzog's impressive performance.

While Herzog, standing tall at 7 feet tall, definitely adds some height, the Knights as a whole are not the tallest unit and it's hard to tell why blocked shots have spiked this season. Herzog credits the surge in blocked shots to extra effort.

"Our identity is playing hard," said Herzog. "I think we've been able to play some really good team defense, and there's always room for improvement."

What's easy to tell is that this is easily shaping up to be UCF's most prolific shot blocking season. The Knights had only 95 blocks all of last year and already have 140 on the season entering Wednesday's game. That leaves them three behind the school's single season mark of 143, something they should surely eclipse.

Reader Question

Earlier this season, there was a lot of focus on playing faster, and that seemed to work well for the Knights. In light of the recent struggles, has coach Jones emphasized or talked about getting back to playing the way they did out of conference, or in addition to nagging injuries has something changed with this UCF team that won't allow them to play with that same pace?

- Scott

Coach Jones is very much so trying to get his team back to the level of play they were at in their out of conference schedule. It's been a challenge though, because in addition to the fact that the team is clearly slumping, C-USA is much improved and it's not just Memphis. I think if you add the Knights ranking earlier this season with the fact that it's widely known that the school as a whole has bigger conference aspirations, whether other coaches or players will admit it or not, UCF is a team they want to beat and circle on their schedule.

That said, I think one of the reasons we haven't seen the same pace on the court ties into defense. A lot of that fast play came as a result of the Knights effective use of the full-court press, whether it resulted in a turnover or simply in creating some energy on defense that translated to offense. The Knights were running on both sides of the ball and it worked well. A combination of things including fatigue, injuries and mismatches have forced coach Jones, at different times this and games this season, to pull back his press and play half-court man defense, or even zone  defense a few times. So I think not being able to press at the level they had earlier this season, for whichever reason, has contributed to the slowed pace.

Injuries as a whole play a role, especially at point guard with A.J. Rompza out recently and Marcus Jordan slowed down from turf toe. The team appears fatigued at times; it is a long season and the core is still predominately young. The end is in sight, however, and it will be interesting to see how well coach Jones can motivate the team to turn it on and sprint to the finish and build some momentum going into the C-USA Tournament in El Paso, Texas. After all, this is still a team that was a Top-25 team earlier this season, and getting on a roll in time for March may be all they need in a conference where anybody can beat anybody.