ORLANDO – There are few things certain in life, and that list became one item shorter ahead of the 2023-24 athletic calendar year. UCF and South Florida parted ways as the Knights officially joined the Big 12 Conference on July 1, putting an end to yearly matchups with the Bulls across every sport and with it, the War On I-4 series.
UCF were winners of seven straight all-sports trophies between the two schools, the same length of time that the series was officially recognized, with points awarded to the victors across each sport on campus to try and top the other side. While the war has already been won, a new battle is afoot as the Knights reunite with their rivals to the west in a different setting. The UCF men’s basketball team will host South Florida in the postseason, as the two sides tip on Tuesday night at 9 p.m. in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament.
The Knights are making their second consecutive postseason appearance in the NIT. It is the team’s fourth time appearing in the postseason in the last eight seasons, all under head coach Johnny Dawkins. UCF has made one NCAA Tournament appearance with Dawkins at the helm, winning the program’s first game in the big dance in the 2019 bracket. Coach Dawkins led UCF to the NIT semifinals in Madison Square Garden back in 2017 while he and the Knights beat the Gators in Gainesville to advance through the tournament’s first round in 2023. All told, UCF is 4-3 in the NIT over its three appearances. Coach Dawkins is a remarkable 15-3 in the NIT as a head coach, winning two titles with Stanford in 2012 and 2015. He has never been eliminated in the first round of the NIT; the same can be said about his trips to the NCAA Tournament and the CBI.
Darius Johnson has been scorching hot over his last three games, turning in two 30-point performances. He tallied a career-high 33 points at TCU in UCF’s final game of the regular season, helping the Knights to a 79-77 road win. Two games later, he nearly matched his new career-high as he scored 32 points on a career-best six made three-pointers in eight attempts. Over the last four games, Johnson has made 69.6% of his three-pointers (16-for-23) and is averaging 22.5 points per game over that stretch. He has also continued to be a threat on defense, snatching an average of 2.28 steals per game, a mark that is 15th in the nation. Since Big 12 play started, Johnson has averaged 2.55 steals per game and has seven outings with four steals in his last 14 contests.