Men's Hoops Reunites with Cincinnati for Lone Meeting of Campaign

ORLANDO – The UCF men's basketball team is set to retunite with a longtime rival, facing Cincinnati for the 23rd time in program history after being leaguemates since the inception of the American Athletic Conference. 

GAME INFORMATION
Date: Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025
Time: 7 p.m. ET
Location: Orlando, Fla.; Addition Financial Arena
TV: CBS Sports Network
TV Talent: Jordan Kent (PxP), Mike O'Donnell (Analyst)
Radio: FM 96.9/AM 740 The Game
Tadio Talent: Marc Daniels (PxP), Taylor Young (Analyst)

KNIGHT NOTES

• The Knights are one of six teams in the Power 4 and Big East to have three 14.5+ points per game scorers this season; joined by Creighton, Texas Tech, Stanford, Northwestern and Notre Dame. The trio of Keyshawn Hall (18.1), Darius Johnson (14.8) and Jordan Ivy-Curry (14.5) combine for 59.5% of UCF’s points, tallying an average of 47.4 PPG of UCF’s average of 79.6. The Knights go as their trio goes, with big differences in shooting percentages in wins vs. losses. Combined, the trio makes 10.0% more of their field goals and 4.3% more of their three-point attempts in games UCF wins.
  • In UCF Wins: Johnson: 44.8 FG%, 46.1 3PT%; Hall: 48.4 FG%, 43.5 3PT%; Ivy-Curry: 44.0 FG%, 34.9 3PT%
  • In UCF Losses: Johnson: 34.7 FG%, 37.3 3PT%; Hall: 37.3 FG%, 32.4 3PT%; Ivy-Curry: 35.1 FG%, 38.9 3PT%
• Hall is currently leading the Big 12 in scoring during conference play, averaging 21.3 PPG in league games. He’s shooting 43.8% from the field and 55% from deep over the last five games, along with tallying 7.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists. Hall has six 20+ point showings halfway through conference play (10 games), including two 34+ point performances. He has pieced together three straight 20+ point outings: 26 vs. TCU (Jan. 25), 34 at #11 Kansas (Jan. 28) and 20 vs. BYU (Feb. 1).
• Hall enters Saturday’s contest with 958 career points, needing 42 points to reach 1,000 for his career. Hall has collected 380 points as a Knight while registering 481 with George Mason last season and 97 with UNLV before that. He would be the second Knight to accomplish the feat this season, as Darius Johnson hit 1,000 Nov. 19 vs. Tennesee Tech. Johnson became the 21st Knight to score all 1,000 points in a UCF uniform, becoming the first member of the Black and Gold to score all 1,000 with UCF since Tacko Fall did it in 2018-19. Darius’ dad Kelvin and brother Xavier both scored 1,000 points college. Xavier finished his five-year career with 1,452 points after three years with George Mason and two with Southern Ill. Kelvin finished with 1,400 in four years at Richmond.
  1 UCF currently boasts a trio of 1,000 point scorers: Darius Johnson Jordan Ivy-Curry and Jaylin Sellers. As of the start of Big 12 play, UCF was one of six Big 12 schools with a trio of 1,000+ point scorers.
• UCF has made 10 or more three-pointers in nine games so far this season, including seven times in the last 11 contests. The Knights hit 10 or more three pointers just twice last season. Additionally, UCF already has four games where they’ve shot 50% or better from the floor after doing that just four times in the previous campaign. After tying a season-high with 13 made threes against TCU, the Knights sunk a season-best 14 at #11 Kansas, tying the mark for most threes made against a Big 12 Conference foe in UCF’s time in the league. The Knights average 9.0 made three pointers per game, the highest number of made threes during Dawkins’ tenure, topping the previous best of 8.8 during the 2021-22 campaign. That has helped UCF to its highest scoring offense as well.
• Freshman Moustapha Thiam has been making a big impact on both ends of the floor in his rookie season, scoring double-digit points in 10 games while swatting aside five or more blocks in four contests. The freshman is pacing nicely with UCF legend Fall who posted 70 blocks in his rookie season, a Knights freshman record. Through 21 contests of the 2015-16 season, Fall had 43 blocks while Thiam sits at 48, despite missing two games due to injury or illness, participating in 18 games thus far. Thiam boasts four 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 38 blocks through 21 games.
• Ivy-Curry has rattled home four or more three-pointers in five of his last 12 games and boasts nine games where he’s buried three or more triples this season. He nailed six three pointers at No. 3 Iowa State, tying a career high while setting a season high in points with 24. Ivy-Curry has already made a career-high in three-pointers for a season, topping his previous best of 46 last season.

THE MATCHUP

• The Knights are looking to snap a four-game winning streak against Cincinnati.

SCOUTING CINCINNATI

• Day Day Thomas earned his first start of the season. He started the first 35 last year before breaking his foot in the NIT opener. He finished with a season-high 31 minutes. Thomas had a team-high 10 points (third game in double-figures) to go with a season-high four steals. He aveaged 10.3 ppg last season and led UC with 61 swipes. He and fellow PG Jizzle James shared the floor for the first time on Dec. 16, 2023 against Dayton. It is the only non-injury related lineup change this year.
• Cincinnati went with a much smaller lineup as Aziz Bandaogo and Arrinten Page only played a combined 21:58. Page played 3:54 in the first half but had dealt with a foot issue that held him out of practice Friday. Bandaogo’s 13 points last year at UCF remains his most in a Big 12 game.
• Hometown product Rayvon Griffith went 2-for-3 from the field for seven points over 12 minutes off the bench. He had played four minutes in Big 12 action up to that moment, and he added two assists (two all season prior) and his second 3-pointer of the year.
• Wes Miller, the former 2005 national champion at North Carolina, has won seven-straight games against Duke alumni (four against UCF and Johnny Dawkins, two versus Howard and Kenny Blakeney and this year versus Bobby Hurley and Arizona State).
• Cincinnati had four-straight games with single-digit turnovers (7.5 over that span) until its 14 on Sunday, ranking 22nd nationally at 10.0 per game.
• It’s a Florida homecoming for Jizzle James (Orlando) and Dillon Mitchell (Tampa). James’ last game coming off a no-field-goal outing was when he went for 14 on 4-of-6 deep shooting to defeat No. 22 Dayton. Mitchell had 10 rebounds on Sunday, his fourth-such game in double-figures. James’ 2.56 A/TO ratio is 50th nationally.
• The 11-for-12 outing at the foul line (91.7 percent) on Sunday was UC’s highest since going 10-for-10 in the Feb. 3 road win at No. 15 Texas Tech last year.
• Cincinnati is 11-1 when leading at the half (loss vs. Kansas) and 1-8 when trailing (win vs. Xavier), with both of those being one-point margins. The Bearcats did not allow an opponent into the 70s in non-conference play, and in the league they are 2-4 when holding opponents within the 60s or below.