Sytia Messer and the UCF Knights are hoping for some serious improvement in women’s basketball in their second season in the Big 12 Conference.
The Knights are coming off a 12-17 season in Messer’s second year in Orlando. She hasn’t yet taken the Knights to the NCAA Tournament last season was a bit of a step back from her debut in 2022-23, when the Knights went 14-15.
She’s a former assistant coach under Kim Mulkey at both Baylor and LSU, and was at one time the head coach at Tennessee Tech. The Knights went to the NCAA Tournament the season before she arrived. Her predecessor, Katie Abrahamson-Henderson, took the open job at Georgia.
Messer inherited a team that was a regular contender in the American Athletic Conference. But, so far, that sort of consistency has proven elusive. But, she has her best player back from a season ago and remade key areas of the team in the transfer portal in the hope of putting the Knights in position to make some noise in the conference.
Here’s a preview of the UCF Knights’ upcoming season.
Odds
Vegas Insider did not give UCF odds to win the national championship. The Big 12 coaches voted the Knights to finish 14th in the preseason poll.
Three Players to Watch
G Kaitlin Peterson: She had every reason to test the transfer portal after last season, in which she was one of the few Big 12 players to average at least 20 points per game (20.7 ppg). But she opted to stay in Orlando and help Messer build on what they accomplished last season. It helps that Peterson has already transferred once, which was from Indiana, and may not have wanted to move again.
G Laila Jewett: The holdover point guard will have competition for playing time. But Jewett understands UCF’s offensive system and she knows to make sure Peterson gets her touches. Jewett is a talented scorer who averaged 8.3 points last season. But she led the team with 3.4 assists, and with more weapons around her that rate could go up.
C Hannah Gusters: The Oklahoma State transfer didn’t get to play a full season with the Cowgirls, but in that short time on the court she proved how she could impact the Knights this season. She led OSU with 14.3 points in 21 games and she figures to be the starting center for UCF this season.
Biggest Strength
Scoring. For a team that had a hard time getting offense outside of Peterson, the Knights shouldn’t have nearly as much trouble this season. Gusters gives them a double-digit scoring option inside. Two other transfer guards have potential. Guard Nevaeh Brown from East Tennessee averaged 13.6 points last season. Guard Ally Stedman only averaged 2.2 points at Miami last year. But, before that she averaged 13.7 points in two seasons with Pepperdine. Add in Jewett and the Knights have offensive creators inside and outside.
Biggest Weakness
Rebounding. The Knights were a bit underwater there last year, as they averaged 37.1 rebounds per game. That was in the bottom half of the conference at No. 9 overall. As good as Gusters is offensively, she averaged fewer than five rebounds last season. Combine her with two holdovers in center Khayla Ngodu (5.9 rpg) and forward Achol Akot (5.8 rpg) and you have a good start. The Knights will need more from those three and better team rebounding from the rest of the roster to crack 40 rebounds per game, a total that enabled the four Big 12 teams that got there to play in the NCAA Tournament.
Season Prediction
Keeping Peterson was a huge deal for this program. Losing her would have been almost catastrophic to UCF’s chances of reaching postseason play. Getting Gusters out of the transfer portal was a significant get and she’ll give UCF consistent offense inside. Many of the players Messer brought in as transfers could be real assets on the offensive end. This is also a young team roster-wise, as Messer brought in five prep recruits, knowing Peterson will be out the door after this season. This team looks better than last year’s team overall and we’re projecting 14 to 17 wins going into the Big 12 Tournament.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
