ORLANDO – The UCF men's basketball team is playing at its best at the right time. The Knights, recent winners against SMU and ECU to end the regular season, will look to keep the momentum going this weekend in Fort Worth, Texas, at the 2020 Air Force Reserve American Championship.
UCF (16-14) earned the eight seed after finishing with a league record of 7-11 and owning the tiebreaker over South Florida due to a double overtime win over top seeded Cincinnati on Feb. 19. The Bulls (14-17) are the nine seed, winning their final game of the regular season on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer against SMU on Saturday.
The third edition of the War On I-4 this season will get the first round of The American Tournament started at 1 p.m. ET/12 p.m. CT on Thursday at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. The winner will take on Cincinnati in the quarterfinals at 1 p.m. ET on Friday.
If the Knights advance to Saturday's semifinals, something they've done just once before – a 2017 loss to top-seeded SMU – it will be at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN2. Sunday's American Athletic Conference Championship Game is scheduled for 3:15 p.m. ET on ESPN.
FIRST ROUND INFO
Date: Thursday, March 12
Time: 1 p.m. ET/12 p.m. CT
TV: ESPNU
Radio: FM 96.9 The Game
SETTING THE SCENE
- Following the best season in program history, reaching the second round of the 2018-19 NCAA Tournament, UCF returned just three players with experience and less than 20 percent of its scoring output to start the 2019-20 campaign.
- The Knights went 9-3 in non-conference play, before completing American Athletic Conference action at 7-11 to earn the eight seed in this weekend's conference championship.
- For UCF to get back to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year and the sixth time in school history, the team will have to match this season's longest win streak - six games - and win the tournament championship on Sunday.
- The Knights will get things started against the in-state rival Bulls in first-round competition.
THE WAR ON I-4
- South Florida holds a 23-18 advantage over UCF in the all-time series, which dates back to 1972 when the Bulls won 115-96 in Tampa in the first meeting.
- The Bulls won the first three contests, before the Knights earned their first victory in the series, a 75-74 triumph in Orlando on Nov. 30, 1974.
- Thursday marks the first time the two teams have met in a conference tournament.
- Prior to the loss on Feb. 1, UCF had won each of the last nine games between the two teams.
- Before this season, the last time South Florida defeated UCF was March 4, 2015 in Tampa.
THIS SEASON AGAINST THE BULLS
- UCF and South Florida split the season series for the first time in five years, with each team winning on its home court.
- In the 55-54 UCF win on Jan. 18 in Orlando, UCF held South Florida to 35.7 percent shooting and 15.4 percent from beyond the arc.
- Ceasar DeJesus and Dazon Ingram led the Knights with 11 points each, while Collin Smith and Matt Milon added nine points apiece.
- In the 64-48 South Florida victory on Feb. 1, the Knights shot just 35.3 percent from the field and managed to go just 2-of-22 from 3-point range in the loss.
- Laquincy Rideau and Justin Brown led the Bulls with 14 points each in the win.
STARTING TO STREAK
- For the Knights to even get back to The American Quarterfinals, they will have to do something have yet to do this season - win three straight games against AAC opponents.
- UCF has won back-to-back league games three times this season, including the final two games of the regular season, but has yet to win three in a row.
- If the Knights were to win all four games in Texas and win the conference championship, it would mean they extended their streak to six games, matching their season high (11/29-12/18)
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