GREENVILLE, N.C. – The UCF men's basketball team (10-5, 2-3 AAC) will look to bounce back this week as the Knights take on ECU in a mid-week showdown in Greenville, North Carolina Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m.
The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Marc Daniels also on the call on FM 96.9 The Game.
The Pirates currently sit in seventh place in The American standings, one spot ahead of UCF, after starting the year off 11-5 and 2-2 in league play. The Pirates are coming off a 72-71 win against Memphis.
The Knights have had ECU's number for years now as they have yet to lose to the Pirates during the coach Dawkins era (March 12, 2015). UCF has won its last 12 games against ECU, including six straight on the road.
Saturday's game will mark the first of two matchups between the two programs, with ECU set to make its return trip to Orlando on Feb. 20.
Game Information
Date: Tuesday, Jan. 18
Time: 7 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN+
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 104-65 since starting with the Knights in 2016, a win percentage of .617, 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.
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.
MONEY AT THE LINE
- As a team, UCF has knocked down 76.7 percent of its free throw opportunities through the first 15 games of the season, which is second in the conference and 30th in the nation as of Jan. 17.
- The Knights' current single-season record for highest field goal percentage is 76.1 percent (1975-76).
- Before missing his first free throw of the year in the win over Michigan, fifth year senior Brandon Mahan had not missed a free throw dating back to 02/01/21 at Memphis (last 20 games).
- Mahan was a perfect 48-for-48 in free throw attempts over that stretch.
- If he qualified, Mahan would lead the conference with a 93.9 mark on free throw attempts.
- Six Knights are shooting 75.0 percent or better from the line as of Jan. 11 (min. 10 attempts).
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