Transfer-heavy UCF celebrated a rare AP ranking by losing last time out at Oklahoma State but the Knights are pretty solid and could make some noise in the Big 12. Their nine quad 1-3 wins are tied for the second most in Division I. UCF has won eight in a row at home. Senior guard Riley Kugel (from Mississippi State) paces four Knights in double figures scoring with 14.1 points per game. It's a deep team. We won fading Cincinnati earlier this week at West Virginia and UC hasn't won away from home yet including neutral sites.

Not many lately have tried to slow the pace on UCF as the Bearcats might do on Sunday. By necessity, as the best chance for Wes Miller (feeling some heat) is for Cincy to slow the pace, which almost netted a major upset of Houston last week. A subsequent grinder vs. West Virginia landed only on 122 points, and the Bearcats recently slowed the nation's highest scoring team, Georgia, to 15 points beneath its average. Of course, part of this is due to limitations on the Bearcats roster, as suspect shooting, from the floor (42.2%), beyond the arc (31.8%), and FT line (63.8%) have effectively tied Miller's hands and forced a deliberate pace as the best alternative. Play Cincinnati-USF Under

This is an excellent bounce-back spot for UCF, which has covered five straight at home. The Knights are balanced; six different players have led the team in scoring. Cincinnati is a team I tried to fade last week — the Bearcats burned me though with a late three, covering in a loss at West Virginia. But I still don’t like Wes Miller’s team and am expecting a much better performance from the Knights after they shot poorly in Stillwater, Okla.