Trio of Knights Named All-Big 12 Honorable Mention

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Ibrahima Diallo, Darius Johnson and Jaylin Sellers of the UCF men’s basketball team earned All-Big 12 Honorable Mention in the 2023-24 Phillips 66 All-Big 12 Men’s Basketball Awards, as announced by the Big 12 Conference on Sunday evening.

The trio of Knights were instrumental in UCF’s winning efforts this season. Sellers led the Black and Gold throughout the entirety of the regular season. Johnson led the charge in points per game during conference play as well as leading the Knights in steals, assists and three-pointers made over the 30-game schedule. Diallo has led the Big 12 in blocks per game since Jan. 2 and recorded three double-doubles on the year.

Sellers was the first Knight to earn a Big 12 weekly award, earning Big 12 Co-Newcomer of the Week back on Nov. 27. He averaged 26.5 points per game over a two-game stretch, while averaging 7.0 rebounds per contest. He shot 59.4% from the field and 46.2% from beyond the arc. Sellers is averaging 16.0 points per contest across all 30 of UCF’s games thus far, which stands to be the highest scoring average in a UCF campaign since B.J. Taylor averaged 17.4 during the 2016-17 season. The junior, who transferred in from Ball State over the summer, scored six 20-point games with his former team while accomplishing the same number in just one year with the Black and Gold, including one 34-point performance. He netted his 1,000th career point this season and is already north of 1,100 after earning a career-high 479 points. Sellers also has career-highs in steals, assists and free-throw percentage.

Johnson had a campaign to remember, making massive strides on both sides of the ball. His three-point shooting was on-point for the majority of the season, posting a 37.5% clip from deep, a mark that sits 7.6% higher than his career best from his freshman season. He more than doubled the amount of three-pointers he made a year ago, helping in posting a 14.8 point per game clip, also a career-best. Johnson was a pest on the defensive side of the ball, snatching a career-high 68 steals including a remarkable 11-game stretch where he recorded two or more steals with six instances of exactly four steals during the run. That streak was snapped Saturday at TCU, but Johnson still is among the nation’s leaders in steals, averaging 2.27 thefts per outing, sitting 15th in the country.

Diallo had three of UCF’s six double-doubles this season and was the conference’s top shot blocker all season long. After 30 games, he averages 1.83 rejections per game and has led the Big 12 in blocks since before conference play began. Diallo led the Knights in blocks in 16 games on the campaign and had nine instances where he swatted aside three or more shots. Diallo’s first double-double of the season came at the Jacksonville Classic with 10 points and 14 rebounds. He later had two double-doubles in a two-day span, posting 11 points and an impressive 19 rebounds against No. 18/17 BYU before scoring 14 points and 12 boards against West Virigina. The 19 rebounds was a career-high and made him the 13th player in program history to record that many rebounds in a single contest.