ORLANDO – The American Athletic Conference announced schedule pairings for the 2021-22 season on Thursday.
The league's 11 members will return to a 16-game schedule. Each team will play six of its 10 opponents twice, and four opponents once each – two at home and two away.
In the single-game pairings for 2021-22, UCF hosts Tulsa and Memphis, and travels to ECU and SMU. The Knights play South Florida, Houston, Cincinnati, Temple, Tulane and Wichita State twice, both at home and on the road.
The 2022 American Athletic Conference Championship returns to Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. For the second straight year, the women's and men's tournaments will run in conjunction, with the women's championship slated to be held March 7-10.
The complete 2021-22 women's basketball regular season schedule with dates and times will be announced in the fall.
UCF enters the 2021-22 campaign with its entire starting five returning from the 2020-21 season. All-in-all, the Knights return every letterwinner from a year ago, including all-conference honorees Brittney Smith and Tay Sanders, all-tournament selections Diamond Battles and Masseny Kaba and The American Newcomer and Co-Sixth Player of the Year Alisha Lewis.
The Knights finished second in the league standings in 2020-21 and made its second appearance in The American Championship title game in the last three seasons. Not only did UCF return to the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight year as an at-large squad, the Black and Gold also made the trip to San Antonio as a No. 10 seed - the highest in program history.
Defense has been a UCF staple under head coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson, as the Knights have held their opponents under 57 points per game in each of the five seasons. The Knights limited opponents to 50.5 points per game during the 2020-21 slate, which was the top scoring defense in the country.
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