Men's Hoops Hosts Kansas State Wednesday

ORLANDO – The UCF men's basketball team is set for its penultimate home contest this season, hosting Kansas State for the first time in Orlando. 

GAME INFORMATION
Date: Sunday, Feb. 26, 2025
Time: 7 p.m. ET
Location: Orlando, Fla.; Addition Financial Arena
TV: ESPN+
TV Talent: Drew Fellios (PxP), BJ Taylor (Analyst)
Radio: FM 96.9/AM 740 The Game
Radio Talent: Marc Daniels (PxP), Taylor Young (Analyst)

KNIGHT NOTES

• The Knights snapped their seven-game losing streak, the longest during the Dawkins era with a 76-72 win over Utah. Darius Johnson hit the game-winning layup with 2.8 seconds left marked the fourth time in the Dawkins era that UCF has made a game-winning shot with under three seconds left. The last time it happened was on Feb. 20, 2022 where Darin Green Jr. made a buzzer beater to beat ECU 69-66. Five Knights had double-digit points in the contest, with Moustapha Thiam leading the way with 18. Darius Johnson and Jordan Ivy-Curry each had a dozen points, while Keyshawn Hall had 11 and Deebo Coleman had 10. The meeting marked the first time UCF and Utah faced each other as conference foes, with just one meeting prior coming outside the continental United States in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2006.
• With its 76-72 victory over Utah on Feb. 23, UCF finished with a record of 3-2 against Big 12 newcomers this season. UCF finished its early season three-game stretch against three of the newest Big 12 additions, topping Colorado 75-74 and adding a road win at Arizona State 95-89. The lone loss was wedged between the two wins, falling to Arizona on the road 88-80. UCF went 0-6 against last season’s group of newcomers and added a loss to BYU in the Big 12’s postseason tournament. All seven of UCF’s conference wins during the 2023-24 campaign came against legacy Big 12 schools.
• Freshman Moustapha Thiam is one of just 11 freshmen averaging 10+ points and 5+ rebounds per game this season across the Power 4 and Big East. He is joined by fellow Big 12 guard VJ Edgecombe as well as other big names such as Duke’s Cooper Flag and Rutgers’ Ace Bailey. Thiam is the only one of the group to also average 2.5 blocks per game.
• Thiam has scored double-digit points in 13 games while swatting aside five or more blocks in five contests. The freshman is pacing nicely with UCF legend Fall who posted 70 blocks in his rookie season, a Knights freshman record. Through 27 contests of the 2015-16 season, Fall had 61 blocks while Thiam sits at 59, despite missing three games due to injury or illness, participating in 24 games thus far. Thiam boasts five games with five or more blocks while Fall had three his entire rookie season. Taylor Hendricks, UCF’s first lottery and first round pick in program history, had 59 in 2022-23, the second most by a UCF rookie. Hendricks had 46 blocks through 27 games.
• Keyshawn Hall currently leads the Big 12 in scoring in both the regular season (18.8 ppg) and in conference play (21.3 ppg). He’s shooting 47.2% from the field over the last five games, along with averaging 21.0 PPG and 6.8 RPG. Hall has nine 20+ point showings in Big 12 play alone, including three 34+ point performances: 40 at Arizona State Jan. 14, 34 at Kansas Jan. 28 and 34 at Oklahoma State Feb. 19.
• Prior to this season, UCF hung its hat on winning games on the defensive side of the ball. This season, its been the offense. In Dawkins’ previous eight seasons at the helm of the Black and Gold, the Knights averaged 68.9 points per game with the best clip in points per game sitting at 72.3 back in 2018-19, the last time UCF made the NCAA Tournament. This season, the offense has errupted, averaging 78.9 points per contest with 14 games of 80 or more points this season (51 total in JD era). The Knights’ defense has allowed an average of 65.8 points per game over the previous eight seasons under Dawkins and has allowed 80.3 on the current campaign. The previous season-high never eclipsed 69.4 points per game (2020-21).
• The Knights go as their trio of Darius Johnson, Jordan Ivy-Curry and Hall goes, with big differences in shooting percentages in wins vs. losses. Combined, the trio makes 5.8% more of their field goals and 4.4% more of their three-point attempts in games UCF wins.
  • In UCF Wins: Johnson: 44.2 FG%, 44.4 3PT%; Hall: 46.7 FG%, 40.8 3PT%; Ivy-Curry: 44.4 FG%, 33.0 3PT%
  • In UCF Losses: Johnson: 39.4 FG%, 36.5 3PT%; Hall: 42.3 FG%, 33.3 3PT%; Ivy-Curry: 34.8 FG%, 33.3 3PT

THE MATCHUP

• UCF welcomes Kansas State to Orlando for the first time in program history after the previous three meetings with the Wildcats have happened away from home. The Knights first met Kansas State in Manhattan in 2003 before meeting them in the Old Spice Classic in 2007. The two sides faced off as conference mates in UCF's inagural league contest as members of the Big 12 on Jan. 6, 2024. Kansas State has earned victories in all three meetings with the Black and Gold thus far.

SCOUTING KANSAS STATE

• Kansas State has lost 3 straight games (at BYU, Utah and vs. Arizona State) after a 6-game winning streak from Jan. 25 to Feb. 11. The Wildcats played without its all-everything Coleman Hawkins in the loss to the Sun Devils, scoring a season-low 54 points on a season-worst 33.3 percent shooting. There is no timeline for Hawkins’ return as the Wildcats used a 4-guard lineup in his absence. Hawkins was the only Division I player to average 10 points, 6.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.0 blocks per game.
• Wildcats newcomers have combined to score 1538 (79 percent) of the team’s 1958 points, accounting for 72 of 93 double-digit scoring games. Senior returner David N’Guessan has scored in double figures in a team-best 22 games (out of 27 games played) with five 20-point performances, but the next six highest scorers are newcomers, including 17 double-digit scoring efforts by junior Brendan Hausen and 15 by senior Coleman Hawkins, senior Max Jones and junior Dug McDaniel.
• McDaniel has started to step up in the last month, as he is averaging 14.2 points on 40.4 percent (57-of-141) shooting in the last 10 games with 8 double-digit scoring games, including three 20-point efforts against No. 3/3 Iowa State (2/1/25), No. 13/13 Arizona (2/11/25) and BYU (2/15/25).
• Kansas State made improvements on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball during its recent six-game winning streak, which was the longest such streak in Big 12 play since winning 9 in a row from Jan. 9 to Feb. 12, 2019. The Wildcats averaged 77.2 points during its winning streak, connecting on 47.8 percent (170-of-356) from the field, including 37.9 percent (50-of-132) from 3-point range, while making 70.9 percent (73-of-103) from the free throw line. Five players averaged between 15 and 11.3 points per game, including Dug McDaniel (15.2 ppg.), David N’Guessan (14.5 ppg.), Coleman Hawkins (12.0 ppg.), Max Jones (12.0 ppg.) and Brendan Hausen (11.3 ppg.). On the defensive end, K-State allowed 65.2 points during the streak on 40.5 percent (143-of-353) shooting, including 27.9 percent (38-of-136) from 3-point range, while narrowly being out-rebounded, 35.3-35.2, and forcing 14.5 turnovers.