ORLANDO – Already 17 games into the season, the UCF men's basketball team (12-5, 4-3 AAC) will look make it three wins in a row this week as the Knights head to Wichita, Kansas for a showdown at Wichita State (9-7, 0-4) on Wednesday, Jan. 26.
The game, which is set to tip off at 8:00 p.m. ET, will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Marc Daniels also on the call on FM 96.9 The Game.
After their last two games where the Knights trailed by at least 13 points or more before coming back to win, UCF will look to get out to a quicker start at Wichita State.
The Shockers have yet to win an American Athletic Conference contest to this point in the season, sitting at 0-4 after falling to Memphis (82-64), Houston (76-66), Tulane (68-67) and Cincinnati (61-57). Wichita State has not played a game since Jan. 16 as the program has been shut down due to COVID-19 concerns and protocols.
The Shockers have had UCF's number since the two side first met on Jan. 25, 2018. Over that time, UCF has yet to defeat Wichita State, and the Shockers lead the all-time series, 7-0.
Wednesday night's game will mark the first of two regular season matchups between the two programs, with Wichita State coming back down to Orlando for the second and final game of the series on Feb. 8.
Game Information
Date: Wednesday, Jan. 26
Time: 8 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 106-65 since starting with the Knights in 2016, a win percentage of .620, 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.
COMEBACK KIDS
- The Knights have made a habit of falling behind only to turn it on in the second half and come back to win.
- At ECU (01/18), UCF was down as much as 20 (48-28) as the Knights couldn't find their rhythm to open play and were shooting just 37.9 percent from the field and 28.6 percent from deep headed into halftime to trail the Pirates 44-28.
- Over the course of the second half at ECU, the Knights shot 53.3 percent from the field, including 64.3 percent (9-of-14) from deep to work their way back into the game. With the Knights down three, and with just 24 seconds left in the game, Darius Perry drained one from the top of the arc to tie it up at 72 and send it to overtime for the first time this season, where UCF finished off the comeback to take down ECU, 92-85.
- Against Tulane (01/22), UCF fought its way back from a 13-point second-half deficit to regain the lead with just less than five minutes to go.
- UCF bounced back with a 14-0 run--as Tulane missed five straight shots over one stretch--giving the Knights a 56-55 lead, and they didn't look back from there.
- UCF took down the Green Wave, 68-66 as freshman Darius Johnson paced the Knights with a season-high 17 points to go with seven rebounds (another season best).
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).
FRESHMAN ON FIRE
- UCF freshman point guard Darius Johnson picked up his first career American Athletic Conference Freshman of the Week award on Jan. 24.
- The honor came after Johnson averaged 16.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists to help lead UCF to comeback wins at ECU and versus Tulane.
- Johnson posted 16 points and four rebounds at ECU on Jan. 18 and followed it up with a career-high 17 points, seven rebounds and four assists in the win over Tulane on Jan. 22.
- Johnson is now second on the team with 35 total assists on the season. He's shooting 35.4 percent from the field and he's tied for fifth on the squad with 12 steals.
- In 2020-21, Isaiah Adams was named AAC Freshman of the Week three times.
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