UCF men’s basketball season ends, NBA decision awaits Taylor Hendricks

UCF’s 5-point loss to Memphis in the AAC tournament quarterfinals Friday night at Dickies Arena fit the overall theme of the season for Johnny Dawkins’ squad.

The Knights, who lost 14 games all year long, suffered their 12th defeat by single digits.

Dawkins described the close losses as a tribute to his team’s character and leadership.

“I’ve been involved with a lot of basketball all [of] my life and there are not too many seasons I’ve had — even with really good [teams] that have gone deep in the postseason — that they didn’t have a game or two where they didn’t have it,” he said after the game in Fort Worth, Texas.

“This team, every single night has given us a chance to win and be successful in games.”

He credited veteran players such as CJ Kelly and Michael Durr, who completed their college careers with UCF’s season now finished, along with other upperclassmen as one reason the Knights were able to fight in so many single-digit games.

“Those guys set the tone for how we’re going to be and they did a great job of establishing that with this team,” Dawkins said.

While UCF found itself consistently in competitive matchups, the team struggled to find ways to win those games. Had the team won just half of their single-digit losses, the Knights would be sitting at 24-8 overall, presumably heading to the NCAA tournament as an at-large bid.

UCF forward Taylor Hendricks (25), pictured beside head coach Johnny Dawkins during a January home game, has a decision to make regarding the NBA draft. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

Instead, the offseason begins for a UCF program that’s moving to one of the top basketball conferences in the country — the Big 12 — and likely doing so without their top player, Taylor Hendricks.

The 6-foot-9 freshman forward is well on his way to becoming UCF’s first “one-and-done” NBA draft prospect.

ESPN draft insider Jonathan Givony projected Hendricks to go No. 14 overall to the Atlanta Hawks in his latest mock draft posted Thursday while listing the UCF product as one of 12 prospects “likely playing their last college games.”

[ UCF men lose 81-76 to Memphis in AAC tourney ]

While a decision to declare for the NBA draft still awaits Hendricks, Dawkins discussed what it was like coaching the freshman throughout the year.

He described Hendricks as a great teammate and hard worker.

“He was a joy to coach,” Dawkins said. “It’s not been one bad day coaching Taylor and that’s hard when we’re intense in practices and games. It’s not one time where he dropped his shoulders when you had to kind of criticize something that he was doing.

“He’s always first to say, ‘what can I do to help my teammates?’ and that’s rare for a freshman who’s having the type of year he’s had,” Dawkins added. “You would think he’d be thinking about more of himself but he’s always thinking about his teammates and that’s why he’s going to be a great player and win a lot of games because those types of kids usually do.”

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