ORLANDO – The UCF men's basketball team was scheduled to open the delayed 2020-21 season on Saturday against Oklahoma, but COVID-19 issues on campus in Norman postponed that contest. Now the Knights are set to begin the campaign Monday night, hosting Auburn at Addition Financial Arena.
UCF and Auburn are scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m. with coverage on ESPN+ and FM 96.9 The Game.
The Knights are in their fifth season under head coach Johnny Dawkins and look to get back to the postseason after finishing 2019-20 with an overall record of 16-14, before the season was canceled due to the pandemic.
UCF brings back key contributors in Darin Green Jr., Dre Fuller Jr., and Brandon Mahan among others, and welcome newcomers Sean Mobley (VCU), C.J. Walker (Oregon) and Darius Perry (Louisville) to the fold.
Auburn, meanwhile, is in its sixth season under head coach Bruce Pearl, who has a 101-73 overall record with the Tigers. Auburn has already played two games this season, defeating Saint Joseph's and losing to Gonzaga in the first weekend of action.
Game Information
Date: Monday, Nov. 30
Time: 7 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN+
Radio: FM 96.9 The Game
Dawkins Era at UCF
- Johnny Dawkins has made an immediate impact as head coach for the UCF men's basketball team, winning 83 games in four years at the helm.
- Dawkins is 83-48 since starting with the Knights in 2016, a win percentage of .634, the second best of any UCF coach (Torchy Clark, .754 from 1969-83).
- He has the third most wins over any UCF coach, trailing Clark's 274 and Kirk Speraw's 247 from 1993-2010.
- Dawkins has led UCF to its first NIT Final Four (2017), first at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament (2019) and first NCAA Tournament win (2019).
COVID-19 Shortened 2019-20 Season
- After making its first trip to the NCAA Tournament in over a decade in 2019, UCF finished 16-14 overall and 7-11 in a shortened 2019-20 season.
- It was an up-and-down season as the Knights finished just over .500, but had key victories over Cincinnati and Tulsa, who tied for the regular season title in The American.
- Collin Smith led the Knights with 12.6 points per game, while freshman Darin Green Jr. was second with 10.1 points per game and led The American with 41.7 percent 3-point shooting and 2.3 threes made per game.
Who Is Back?
- Most notably, Green. The now sophomore returns to potentially take on a larger role in year two at UCF.
- Green averaged 10.1 points per game, shot 41.7 percent from long distance and set a UCF freshman record with 68 threes made in 2019-20.
- Additionally, senior Brandon Mahan, redshirt sophomore Dre Fuller Jr., senior Avery Diggs, redshirt junior Ibrahim Famouke Doumbia and sophomore Tony Johnson Jr. are all back for the 2020-21 campaign.
Who Is New?
- Let's start with the immediately eligible transfers. C.J. Walker is a sophomore forward from Sanford, Fla., who spent his freshman season at Oregon, while Darius Perry is a senior guard, who played three seasons at Louisville before graduating.
- Next there are the the two transfers who sat out last season, practicing with the Knights. Sean Mobley is a redshirt junior forward from Orlando, who played two seasons at VCU, including an NCAA Tournament game against UCF. Moses Bol, a distant cousin of the late Manute Bol and current NBA Player Bol Bol, played at Colby Community College prior to arriving in Orlando.
- Finally, there are the two true freshmen looking to make their mark. Isaiah Adams, a 6-foot-6 forward was named Mr. Basketball in the state of Florida out of Paxon in Jacksonville. Jamille Reynolds, out of St. Petersburg, is a 6-foot-9, 285-pound forward.
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