UCF men’s basketball set to host 5 NCAA tourney teams in Year 2 of Big 12

UCF’s home win over Kansas was one of the highlights of the men’s basketball program’s first season in the Big 12.

The Knights will have another opportunity to possibly make history as they’ll host the Jayhawks once again as part of its Big 12 schedule matrix released Thursday.

UCF will play a home-and-away series with Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas, Oklahoma State and TCU. The rest of the home schedule features BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, Kansas State and Utah.

Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU and Utah will make their first trips to Orlando, while the Knights will visit Colorado and Kansas for the first time.

The remaining road schedule is against Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, Texas Tech and West Virginia.

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The Knights will play 20 conference games this season as the league expanded its men’s schedule from the previous 18 games.

“Every game is hotly contested, I don’t care who you play,” coach Johnny Dawkins recently told the Sentinel. “Every night you go out there, the game will be incredibly competitive. So, now with 20 [games], you’ve added two more of those.”

UCF (17-16) finished 12th in the Big 12 last season with a 7-11 conference mark. The Knights were 4-5 at Addition Financial Arena in league games and 3-6 away in road contests.

For the first time in program history, the team defeated three ranked teams in the same season: No. 3 Kansas, No. 23 Oklahoma and No. 23 Texas Tech.

This year’s schedule features games against nine squads that qualified for last season’s NCAA Tournament and three teams that earned berths in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT).

The Big 12 has expanded its membership to 16 schools with the addition of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah. At the same time, longtime blueblood members Texas and Oklahoma have left for the Southeastern Conference.

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“It’s going to be an adjustment for all of us,” Dawkins said of the new members. “Learning about their systems as we went through this year [in the Big 12], taking notes, studying and learning these coaches, their systems and what players they’re returning.

“Now, we have to do that again with the new teams coming in and just putting together a little dossier or folder with what they like to do, whether offensively or defensively principally, and then start to build that up.”

UCF’s women’s schedule features nine games against conference foes that qualified for the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament last season. Unlike the men, the women’s schedule remains at 18 games.

The Knights were 12-17 overall last season, including a last-place finish in the league with a 3-15 mark.

UCF will play a home-and-away series with Houston, Iowa State and TCU, with the remaining home games against Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, Cincinnati, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech.

The road contests feature trips to BYU, Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, Utah and West Virginia.

Dates and television designations will be released in early fall.

Matt Murschel can be reached at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com

2024-25 MEN’S BIG 12 SCHEDULE

HOME-AND-AWAY: Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas, Oklahoma State, TCUHOME: BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, Kansas State, UtahAWAY: Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, Texas Tech, West Virginia

2024-25 WOMEN’S BIG 12 SCHEDULE

HOME-AND-AWAY: Houston, Iowa State, TCUHOME: Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, Cincinnati, Oklahoma State, Texas TechAWAY: BYU, Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, Utah, West Virginia