Just as A.J. Davis was starting to get into the groove with UCF after returning from a broken hand the Knights will see another hand injury sideline one of their stars. B.J. Taylor likely will miss the remainder of UCF’s nonconference season.
"He hurt his hand and he'll be out for a little while," head coach Johnny Dawkins said Friday morning. "There's no real timetable for his return. We're gonna need guys to step up. He was terrific for us, he was our leading scorer for us, leading us in assists and so we're gonna miss him. But this is an opportunity for our guys to continue to grow and we know he'll be with us at some point in time."
The Boone alum is averaging 16 points per game and has played the second most minutes on the team. With depth already an issue for the Knights Coach Dawkins says they’ll need everyone to step up to replace Taylor’s production.
"There's not one person who's going to fill the void for losing B.J.," Dawkins said. "But what we want to do is we want to have our guys on the perimeter take some responsibility and take some ownership in helping us make sure we value the possessions and value the basketball."
“It’s part of the game, we just have to focus on how do we make up for that,” junior guard A.J. Davis said. “Obviously B.J. is a big part of our team, great leader for us, great ball handler, and he controls a lot of things for us, so we just need to step up and do what we have to do to win the game.”
“We just have to try and fill that void for a little bit,” senior forward Nick Banyard said. “Hopefully we can still keep it rolling by the time he gets back.”
The Knights have 5 games remaining before conference play begins.