Men's Hoops Host Big 12 Newcomer Colorado Wednesday

ORLANDO – The UCF men's basketball team is set to face its first of three straight Big 12 newcomers, hosting Colorado on Wednesday to wrap up the Knights' two-game Big 12 home swing.

GAME INFORMATION
Date: Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025
Time: 7 p.m. ET
Location: Addition Financial Arena; Orlando, Fla.
TV: ESPN+
Talent: Drew Fellios (PxP), BJ Taylor (Analyst)
Radio: FM 96.9/AM 740 The Game
Talent: Marc Daniels (PxP), Taylor Young (Analyst)

KNIGHT NOTES

• The Knights and Buffaloes will meet for the first time as league foes and the third overall time in program history. The last time the two sides met proved to be a memorable one for the Black and Gold, beating Colorado to earn the program’s first win in the National Invitation Tournament 79-74 on March 15, 2017. The victory came in Coach Dawkins’ first year at the helm of the Knights and set up a run for UCF to reach the NIT Semifinals where they later lost to TCU in Madison Square Garden. BJ Taylor led the Knights with 26 points on 7-for-13 shooting, including 5-of-8 from the three-point line. He would have been the game’s leading scorer if it wasn’t for 2024 NBA Champion Derrick White posting 30 in Colorado’s losing effort. The meeting with the Buffaloes will be the 11th time Dawkins will face Colorado as a head coach. He won his first three meetings against the Buffaloes while leading Stanford before losing the next six meetings, snapping the streak with the NIT win.
• UCF is set for three consecutive contests against Big 12 Conference newcomers, hosting Colorado on Jan. 8 before taking a trip out west to The Grand Canyon State, visiting Arizona on Jan. 11 before swinging over to Arizona State for a Jan. 14 tilt. Colorado is the lone newcomer that UCF will face twice during the conference slate and one of two the Knights draw at home. Utah, the fourth addition to the Big 12 this summer, will pay its first trip to Addition Financial Arena on Feb. 23. The Knights were 0-6 against Big 12 newcomers last season while being a newcomer themselves. UCF earned all seven of its conference victories last season against Big 12 legacy teams.
• UCF is 7-2 in games immediately following a loss in the same season of 20 points or greater under Dawkins, including four straight winning answers to what has been a rare occurance during his tenure. The Knights went 3-0 last season in games immediately after a loss of 15+ points, a run that was snapped this season after UCF lost to No. 19/25 Wisconsin by 16 points before being narrowly edged by LSU in triple overtime the following game.
• The Knights saw their six-game winning streak come to an end at the hands of No. 7 Kansas. The run represented the first six-game winning streak since the 2019-20 season. The loss also concluded a perfect 8-0 record at home this season, the second longest under Dawkins.
• The Black and Gold are one of six teams in the Power 4 and Big East to have three 14.0+ points per game scorers this season; they’re joined by Texas Tech, Notre Dame, North Carolina, Purdue and Creighton. The trio of Keyshawn Hall (15.5), Jordan Ivy-Curry (14.8) and Darius Johnson (14.5) combine for 56.9% of UCF’s points, accounting for an average of 44.8 PPG of UCF’s average of 78.8. All three are in the top 13 of the Big 12 in scoring. Johnson is shooting 44.6% from three-point land this season, 9.1% better than the Big 12 average of 35.5%. Johnson is the only one in the top 25 nationally in three-point percentage and steals per game, and the only one in the top 10 of the Big 12.

THE MATCHUP

• UCF and Colorado have met just twice. The Knights travled to Boulder in 2007, losing 96-87. The only other meeting between the two sides came in the first round of the 2017 NIT where UCF earned the 79-74 victory in Orlando.

SCOUTING COLORADO

• Colorado is 9-4 overall and 0-2 to open Big 12 Conference play after falling to Arizona State 81-61 on Jan. 4 in its first true road game of the season. The Buffaloes will be looking to avoid their first 0-3 conference start since the 2016-17 Pac-12 schedule. Overall, it’s Colorado’s first back-to-back losses since Feb. 10 & 15, 2024 (Arizona, at UCLA) which proceeded an eight-game winning streak that led the Buffaloes into the NCAA Tournament.
• Colorado returns to the Big 12 where it had been a charter member for the 1995-96 season when the old Big Eight Conference and four teams from the dissolved Southwest Conference merged to form the Big 12. The Buffaloes left for the Pac-12 for the 2011-12 season.
• As anticipated, Colorado’s three graduate transfers, spanning all levels of collegiate basketball, have made immediate impacts for the Buffaloes. Andrej Jakimovski, a four-year standout at Washington State, is averaging 11.0 points ranking second on the team in rebounding (4.8 rpg) and steals (15) and third in 3-point field goals (19). He is closing in on 1,000 points for his collegiate career, needing 13 for that milestone. Elijah Malone, the 2024 Bevo Francis Award winner as the best small-school player in the nation (Grace College [Ind.] - NAIA) tops the Buffaloes in shooting at 63.7 percent (58-91) while averaging 11.2 points an outing. Malone is also shooting 77.1 percent from the free throw line (27-35) and is second on the team in blocks (11) and fourth in rebounding at 3.8 per game. Trevor Baskin, an NCAA Division II All-American at Colorado Mesa, leads Colorado and ranks 14th in the Big 12 in rebounding (6.5 rpg). He also holds the team lead in blocked shots (13) and steals (16) while averaging 9.8 points on 53.2 percent from the field.