Let the madness begin for UCF men’s basketball team as it lands the No. 10 ranked spot in the East Region in the NCAA basketball tournament.
The Knights finished with a 21-11 record while splitting their conference games with nine wins and nine losses. The team’s play earned themselves a spot in the March Madness tournament this year, giving them a possibility to bring home a championship.
Riley Kugel, senior guard, and Themus Fulks, fifth year guard, led the team points; averaging 14.4 and 14.1 points per game this season.
UCF started the season hot, winning 12 of its first 13 games. They finished the season off on a slower pace with a record of 9-10 in their last 19 games. The team was able to win 13 of its 18 home games, including their upset win over Texas Tech that led to fans storming the court at the Addition Financial Arena. UCF was fined $25,000 for the incident according to MSN. The Knights have lost three of its last four games, but its 1-point win over Cincinnati on March 11 punched its ticket to the tournament.
The team’s last appearance was in 2019 as the No. 9 seed, where they lost in a nail-biter to No. 1 seed Duke led by its star player at the time, Zion Williamson. With a win, the team would have advanced to the sweet sixteen portion of the tournament and increased their chances at making it to the championship game.
UCF has also previously appeared in March Madness tournaments in 1994, 1996, 2004 and 2005. No championships have been won in the school’s history.
The team earned some notable wins this season against ranked teams like Kansas, Texas Tech and BYU according to the team’s stats.
UCF will play its first game against the No. 7 ranked UCLA Bruins on Friday, March 20 at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This will be the Knights first matchup against UCLA this season.
If they win on Friday, they’ll face off against either No. 2 seed UConn or No. 15 seed Furman on Sunday, March 22.