TAMPA – Fresh off an important win over American Athletic Conference foes Memphis, the UCF men's basketball team (10-4, 2-2 AAC) will look to keep the momentum rolling Saturday as the Knights head to Tampa to play South Florida in the latest edition of the War on I-4.
The game is set to tip at 7:00 p.m. ET on ESPNU, with Marc Daniels also on the call on FM 96.9 The Game.
The Knights snapped a two-game losing streak with their latest win over the Tigers on Wednesday, and have won six of their last eight games played overall, including a five-game winning streak over the month of December.
The Bulls, meanwhile, are off to a 5-10 start to the season and have yet to win an AAC game (0-3) after falling to SMU, Tulane and No. 12 Houston.
The Knights split the series with the Bulls last season as the Knights won, 81-65, in Orlando but couldn't get it done on the road, falling 68-61 in Tampa. The Knights have won 10 of the last 12 games played against South Florida, but the Bulls narrowly hold the all-time series lead at 24-19.
Saturday's game will mark the first of two matchups between the two programs, with South Florida set to make its return trip to Orlando on Feb. 3.
Game Information
Date: Saturday, Jan. 15
Time: 7 p.m. ET
TV: ESPNU
Radio: FM 96.9 The Game
DAWKINS ERA AT UCF
- Johnny Dawkins picked up career win No. 100 in the Knights' win over N.C. A&T on Dec. 11, becoming just the third coach in UCF history to reach the milestone.
- Dawkins is 104-64 since starting with the Knights in 2016, a win percentage of .619, the second best of any UCF coach (Torchy Clark, .754 from 1969-83).
- He has the third most wins over any UCF coach, trailing only Clark's 274 and Kirk Speraw's 247 from 1993-2010.
- Dawkins is the fastest coach to reach 100 wins in program history in the Division I era, needing only 162 games to do so.
- Dawkins had his squad off to a 4-0 start to begin the 2021-22 season, tying his 2017-18 mark for his best start to a season at UCF.
- 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).
- Prior to Dawkins' arrival at UCF, the program had won three games against ranked opponents from 1984-2016. Since Dawkins has taken over, the Knights have won five games against ranked opponents.
- UCF had never won two games against ranked teams in a single season, and the Knights did it in a span of five days, taking down No. 6 Houston and No. 19 Cincinnati late in the 2018-19 season.
- UCF is now 8-50 all-time against ranked opponents, but 5-16 against ranked teams under Dawkins.
WAR ON I-4
- The 44th edition of the War on I-4 between UCF and South Florida continues on Jan. 15 as the Knights travel to Tampa for the first of a two-game series against the Bulls.
- Entering Saturday's contest, South Florida holds the all-time series lead at 24-19.
- Currently, the all-sports War on I-4 tally favors the Knights, 21-9
- If UCF wins Saturday night, three more points will be awarded to the Knights in the all-sports series.
- The Knights have won 10 of the last 12 games played against South Florida.
- Last season, UCF split the series with the Bulls as the Knights won, 81-65, in Orlando but couldn't get it done on the road, falling 68-61 in Tampa.
TAMED THE TIGERS
- The UCF men's basketball team defended its home court in a big way on Jan. 12 against visiting Memphis, taking down the Tigers 74-64 to move to 10-4, 2-2 on the season.
- In the process, UCF wiped out a handful of streaks as Memphis had defeated the Knights five straight times--and the Tigers had won three straight games (and four of five) at the time.
- Meanwhile, UCF had lost two in a row after winning five straight. All that came to an end after a superior early shooting exhibition by UCF paved the way in the victory over Memphis despite multiple late runs by the Tigers.
- Junior guard Darin Green Jr. notched 20 points (eight of 14 from the field). His four three-point goals keynoted a 45.8% shooting effort by the home team (11 of 28 on long-distance attempts).
- Junior C.J. Walker and freshman Darius Johnson added 12 points each--and Walker and senior Cheikh Mbacke Diong had seven rebounds apiece.
- Fifth-year guard Darius Perry had 11 points and five assists for UCF, as six different Knights connected for at least one three-pointer.
- The Tigers missed 12 of 18 free throws, turned the ball over 19 times and shot only 39.7%.
- The win marked the Knights' first over Memphis since Feb. 16, 2019 (W, 79-72), and moved the all-time series to 27-7 in favor of the Tigers.
DECEMBER STREAK
- UCF was riding high on a five-game winning streak after defeating Bethune-Cookman (12/5), North Carolina A&T (12/11), Temple (12/15), North Alabama (12/22) and Michigan (12/30) before their streak came to an end with a loss at SMU on Jan. 2.
- Over that stretch, the Knights outscored opponents 389-296 while shooting 49.6 percent from the field and 37.7 percent from three-point range.
- The Knights held a +7.2 rebounding margin over opponents during their winning streak.
- Meanwhile, UCF was holding opponents to a 36.9 field goal percentage, including 27.6 percent from deep.
- Junior Darin Green Jr. led the team over the five-game streak with 17.0 points per game and was shooting 48.7 percent from three (19-of-39).
- Darius Perry was dishing the ball out with solid efficiency as he led the Knights with 29 assists over that stretch (5.8 per game).
WIN OVER THE WOLVERINES
- UCF capped off non-conference play with a bang on Dec. 30 as the Knights ran away with a second-half lead to fend off visiting Michigan 85-71.
- The Knights capitalized on the energy of 9,358 strong at Addition Financial Arena, the third largest crowd in UCF history, to secure the win over the Wolverines.
- The crowd also marked the most for UCF at a home game before January of any year.
- The win finalized UCF's non-conference record at 8-2 and marked the Knights' fifth straight win and first over the Wolverines.
- The Wolverines carried a 35-31 lead into halftime, and the deficit only grew for the Knights to kick off the second half as Michigan extended its lead to 12 just two minutes into the second half before the Kngihts called time to regroup.
- The stoppage worked as the black and gold went on an 18-2 run shortly after play resumed to take a 55-51 lead and they didn't look back.
- The Knights shot 72.0 percent from the floor and hit all eight of their three-point attempts in the second half to outscore the Wolverines 54-36 in the half and secure the victory.
- Darin Green Jr. poured in a career-high 27 points on a career-best seven made three-pointers.
- Meanwhile, Brandon Mahan had season highs of 26 points and five made threes to lead the way.
- The duo of Green and Mahan combined to go 12-of-16 from beyond the arc as they totaled 53 of the Knights' 85 total points.
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