UCF debuts new basketball uniforms
Fans attending the UCF men's basketball season opener on Sunday may have noticed something missing: Last year's pinstriped jerseys.
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A year ago, the Knights debuted their new pinstriped look on both their home white and road black uniform ensembles. They also had a non-pinstriped gold option that was worn once for the home game against Louisville.
"We were looking for something different like we did with the (black) court," UCF coach Donnie Jones said when the pinstriped jerseys were unveiled in October 2013. "How do we brand our program? I kind of liked the old Orlando Magic look that they had back in the Shaq days. I thought that might be appealing to the Orlando community, so we kind of went with that look thinking that would be something neat because I haven't seen too many programs across the country wearing pinstripes."
So where did the pinstripes go? According to team officials, they were notified late last season the jerseys were in violation of an obscure NCAA uniform rule.
The applicable rule is Rule 1-22.4 which states:
Art. 5. The neutral zone(s) of the game jersey shall be of the same single color. A tonal design effect is permitted within the neutral zone(s) provided the tonal shift is not more than 15 percent of any one shade of color.
John Whitford, UCF's equipment manager for men's basketball, designed this year's updated jerseys which feature a prominent stacked logo on the front.
The gold jerseys, with a "Knights" theme running down the left side of the shorts, are the same ones worn last year. The new white shorts have the Knight head logo on both sides. The Knights wore gold for the two exhibition games and white for Sunday's 64-55 season-opening victory against Stetson. Their first game in the new black jerseys will be Dec. 6 at Florida State.
UCF, which has a six-game homestand to begin the season, returns to action Thursday night against Eckerd. Tip-off from CFE Arena is set for 7 p.m.
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