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UCF Hoops to Face Memphis After Taking Down I-4 Rival USF in the AAC Tournament

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Basketball

Fresh off a win in the first round of the 2022 Air Force Reserve American Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Championship, the UCF men's basketball team will look to build on the momentum as the sixth-seeded Knights (18-11) square off against Memphis (19-9) in the quartfinals at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on Friday, March 11 at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

Television coverage will be on ESPNU with Voice of the Knights Marc Daniels also calling the action on FM 96.9 The Game.
 
Junior guard Darin Green Jr. has led the charge for the Knights this season, checking in at first on the team with 13.5 points per game, mostly coming on a team-high 86 threes, where he has knocked down an efficient 39.7 percent of his shots (good for second in the conference).
 
Green leads the conference and is 19th in the nation with 3.07 threes per game. On Wednesday, Green was named Third-Team All-Conference by The American. Rookie Knight Darius Johnson also received conference praise as he was named to the All-Freshman squad.
 
UCF split the season series with the Tigers in the regular season, winning at home by a score of 74-64 on Jan. 12 before falling in Memphis, 88-60, on Feb. 5. Memphis holds the all-time series lead at 28-7.
 
A victory over the Tigers would pit UCF up against the winner of No. 10 Tulsa (11-19) and No. 2 SMU (22-7), who are also playing tomorrow. The two sides would square off on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET/4 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
 
Game Information
Date: Friday, March 11
Time: 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT
TV: ESPNU
Radio: FM 96.9 The Game

SET FOR THE CONFERENCE TOURNEY                                                 

  • The Knights closed out the regular season at 17-11 overall and 9-9 in The American after dropping their last two games at Tulane and Tulsa.
  • UCF's nine conference wins this season are its most since the 2018-19 season when the Knights went to the NCAA Tournament. In the NCAA Tournament, the Knights won their fist-round matchup against VCU, 73-58, before falling to Duke by one point (77-76) in the second round.
  • The 2021-22 Knights beat rival South Florida 60-58 in the first round of the American Athletic Conference tournament March 10 at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
  • UCF holds an all-time record of 29-23 at NCAA Division I conference tournaments, participating in The American, Conference USA, the Atlantic Sun, the Sun Belt and the American South.
  • The Knights are 5-7 at The American Championship, which is better than their 3-7 record from their time in Conference USA.
  • The last time UCF won more than one game in a conference tournament was the 2005 Atlantic Sun Championship when the Knights won three games en route to their fourth league title.
  • The Black and Gold are aiming for their sixth trip to the NCAA Tournament. The Knights won four Atlantic Sun Tournaments from 1994 to 2005, going 21-7 overall in the tournaments during that span.
  • Before joining the A-Sun, UCF played and lost one game in the Sun Belt Championship (1992) and one in the American South (1991).
  • UCF has never won an AAC title in the regular season or postseason (joined in 2013-14).

BEAT THE BULLS                                        

  • The UCF men's basketball team took down rival South Florida 60-58 in the first round of the American Athletic Conference tournament March 10 at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
  • The game came down to the wire as senior Darius Perry hit a clutch late three to put UCF up and secure the two-point margin of victory.
  • Perry led four Knights in double figures with 13 points while Darius Johnson had 10 points, five rebounds, four assists and four steals.
  • Junior guard Darin Green Jr. added 11 points and sophomore Tyem Freeman chipped in with 10.
  • Following UCF's win, South Florida lead in the all-time series shrinks to 25-21.
  • The Knights have won 12 of the last 15 games played against South Florida.
  • UCF and South Florida had never previously met in the American Athletic Conference tournament.

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 112-71 since starting with the Knights in 2016, a win percentage of .612, 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 8-52 all-time against ranked opponents, but 5-18 against ranked teams under Dawkins.

HONORED BY THE AMERICAN                                         

  • A pair of Knights received postseason honors from The American on Wednesday as junior guard Darin Green Jr. was named Third-Team All-Conference and freshman Darius Johnson was named to the All-Freshman Team.
  • It marks the fourth time in UCF's nine-year history in The American where the Knights have received multiple conference postseason awards.
  • One of the greatest three-point shooters in UCF history, Green led the charge for the Knights in the regular season, checking in at first on the team with 13.6 points per game, mostly coming on a team-high 83 threes, where he has knocked down an efficient 39.7 percent of his shots (good for second in the conference).
  • Green led the conference and was 22nd in the nation with 3.07 threes per game, and he was twice named to the conference honor roll throughout the season, on Nov. 15 and Dec. 13.
  • The third-team nod mark's the first all-conference honor of Green's career.
  • Johnson is the only rookie, and just one of four Knights, to have appeared in all 28 regular season games for UCF this season.
  • The Boyds, Maryland native has started in 11 games for UCF, including the last nine straight of the regular season, where he was averaging 8.8 points, 4.9 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game over that stretch.
  • A two-time AAC Freshman of the Week, Johnson was second on the team with 78 assists, third with 25 steals and fourth with 21 made threes on the regular season.
  • Johnson is just the seventh Knight to earn all-freshman honors in the program's Division I history, joining Isaiah Adams, B.J. Taylor, Adonys Henriquez, Keith Clanton, Marcus Jordan, and A.J. Rompza.