2018–19 UCF Knights men's basketball team

The 2018–19 UCF Knights men's basketball team represented the University of Central Florida during the 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Knights were members of the American Athletic Conference. The Knights, in the program's 50th season of basketball, were led by third-year head coach Johnny Dawkins and played their home games at the CFE Arena on the university's main campus in Orlando, Florida. They finished the season 24–9, 13–5 in AAC play to finish in a tie for third place. They lost in the quarterfinals of the AAC tournament to Memphis. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament where they defeated VCU in the first round before losing in the second round to Duke.

2018–19 UCF Knights men's basketball
Myrtle Beach Invitational champions
NCAA tournament, Second Round
Conference	American Athletic Conference
Record	24–9 (13–5 AAC)
Head coach	Johnny Dawkins (3rd season)
Assistant coaches	Kevin Norris (3rd season) Vince Taylor (2nd season) Robbie Laing (3rd season)
Home arena	CFE Arena
Seasons ← 2017–18 2019–20 →

2018–19 American Athletic Conference men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 11 Houston	16	–	2		.889			33	–	4		.892
No. 22 Cincinnati †	14	–	4		.778			28	–	7		.800
Temple	13	–	5		.722			23	–	10		.697
UCF	13	–	5		.722			24	–	9		.727
Memphis	11	–	7		.611			22	–	14		.611
Wichita State	10	–	8		.556			22	–	15		.595
Tulsa	8	–	10		.444			18	–	14		.563
South Florida	8	–	10		.444			24	–	14		.632
UConn	6	–	12		.333			16	–	17		.485
SMU	6	–	12		.333			15	–	17		.469
East Carolina	3	–	15		.167			10	–	21		.323
Tulane	0	–	18		.000			4	–	27		.129
† 2019 AAC tournament winner Rankings from AP poll

Previous season

The Knights finished the 2017–18 season 19–13 overall and 9–9 in AAC play to finish in sixth place. In the AAC tournament, they defeated East Carolina in the first round before losing to Houston in the quarterfinals. Despite having 19 wins, they did not participate in a postseason tournament.

Offseason

Departures

Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	Reason for departure
A. J. Davis	3	G/F	6'9"	215	RS Senior	Atlanta, GA	Graduated
Daniel Lewis	13	G	6'5"	175	Freshman	Atlanta, GA	Transferred to Kennesaw State
Brock Stephenson	20	G	6'0"	190	Sophomore	Miami, FL	Left team
Tate Morse	25	G	6'4"	165	Senior	Orlando, FL	Graduated
Djordjije Mumin	33	G	6'5"	210	Senior	Podgorica, Montenegro	Graduated
Nathan Laing	51	G	6'1"	185	RS Senior	Lillington, NC	Graduated

Incoming transfers

Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	Previous school
Ibrahim Doumbia	14	C	6'10"	205	Sophomore	Miami, FL	South Carolina
Frank Bertz	20	G	6'5"	175	Junior	Hesperia, CA	East Los Angeles College

2018 recruiting class

College recruiting information

Name	Hometown	School	Height	Weight	Commit date
Andreas Fuller Jr. SG	Saint Petersburg, FL	Saint Andrews School	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	190 lb (86 kg)
	Recruit ratings: Scout:    Rivals:    (75)
Overall recruit ranking:
Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, On3, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources: "2018 Team Ranking". Rivals. Retrieved November 12, 2017.

Roster

2018–19 UCF Knights men's basketball team
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Name Height Weight Year Previous school Hometown G 1 B. J. Taylor 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 200 lb (91 kg) RS Sr William R. Boone High School Orlando, Florida G 2 Terrell Allen 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 185 lb (84 kg) RS Jr Drexel Upper Marlboro, Maryland G 3 Dre Fuller Jr. 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 200 lb (91 kg) Fr Admiral Farragut Academy Fayetteville, North Carolina G 4 Ceasar DeJesus 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 195 lb (88 kg) RS So Mt. Zion Prep Jersey City, New Jersey F 5 Myles Douglas 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 215 lb (98 kg) So Aberdeen High School Edgewood, Maryland G 10 Dayon Griffin 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 208 lb (94 kg) RS Sr Louisiana Tech St. Petersburg, Florida F 11 Rokas Ulvydas 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 235 lb (107 kg) RS Jr Texas Tech Kaunas, Lithuania G 12 Xavier Grant (W) 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 180 lb (82 kg) Fr American Heritage School Fort Lauderdale, Florida G 13 Levy Renaud (W) 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 180 lb (82 kg) Fr NSU University School Fort Lauderdale, Florida F 14 Ibrahim Famouke Doumbia  6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 200 lb (91 kg) So South Carolina Bamako, Mali G/F 15 Aubrey Dawkins 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 205 lb (93 kg) RS Jr Michigan Palo Alto, California G 20 Frank Bertz 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 175 lb (79 kg) Jr East Los Angeles College Hesperia, California F 21 Chad Brown 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 240 lb (109 kg) Sr Deltona High School Deltona, Florida G 22 Chance McSpadden 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 184 lb (83 kg) RS Jr Winter Haven High School Winter Haven, Florida C 24 Tacko Fall 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m) 295 lb (134 kg) Sr Liberty Christian Prep Dakar, Senegal F 25 Ryan Anders (W) 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 220 lb (100 kg) Fr Wharton High School Tampa, Florida G 31 Anthony Catotti (W) 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 200 lb (91 kg) RS Sr Seminole High School Oviedo, Florida C 35 Collin Smith 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 235 lb (107 kg) RS So George Washington Jacksonville, Florida	Head coach Johnny Dawkins (Duke) Assistant coach(es) Kevin Norris (Miami (FL)) Vince Taylor (Duke) Robbie Laing (Troy) Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible (W) Walk-on Injured Current redshirt Roster

Schedule and results

On March 2, UCF defeated (#8 AP Poll/#6 Coaches Poll) Houston at Fertitta Center stopping the nation's longest home winning streak at 33.^[1] With the win UCF entered the AP Poll for the first time since the 2010–11 UCF Knights spent four weeks in the poll peaking at 19.^[2]

Date time, TV	Rank#	Opponent#	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Exhibition
October 29, 2018* 7:00 pm		Flagler	W 86–69		CFE Arena  Orlando, FL
Non-conference regular season
November 6, 2018* 6:30 pm, ESPN3		Rider	W 84–70	1–0	CFE Arena (4,870) Orlando, FL
November 11, 2018* 3:00 pm, ESPN3		Florida Atlantic	L 79–80	1–1	CFE Arena (4,304) Orlando, FL
November 15, 2018* 1:30 pm, ESPN3		vs. Cal State Fullerton Myrtle Beach Invitational quarterfinal	W 68–52	2–1	HTC Center (1,317) Conway, SC
November 16, 2018* 1:00 pm, ESPN2		vs. Saint Joseph's Myrtle Beach Invitational semifinal	W 77–57	3–1	HTC Center (1,050) Conway, SC
November 18, 2018* 6:30 pm, ESPN2		vs. Western Kentucky Myrtle Beach Invitational championship	W 78–62	4–1	HTC Center (3,018) Conway, SC
November 24, 2018* 6:00 pm, ESPN3		Northern Kentucky	W 66–53	5–1	CFE Arena (3,374) Orlando, FL
November 29, 2018* 7:00 pm, ESPNU		Alabama	W 70–64	6–1	CFE Arena (4,449) Orlando, FL
December 2, 2018* 3:00 pm, ESPNU		at Missouri	L 62–64 OT	6–2	Mizzou Arena (10,067) Columbia, MO
December 8, 2018* 1:00 pm, ESPN3		Grambling State	W 70–45	7–2	CFE Arena (3,798) Orlando, FL
December 11, 2018* 7:00 pm, ESPN3		Georgia Southern	W 95–88	8–2	CFE Arena (3,632) Orlando, FL
December 16, 2018* 3:00 pm, ESPN3		Stetson	W 90–65	9–2	CFE Arena (3,660) Orlando, FL
December 21, 2018* 7:00 pm, ESPN3		Illinois State	W 77–56	10–2	CFE Arena (3,885) Orlando, FL
AAC regular season
January 2, 2019 7:00 pm, ESPNews		Temple	W 78–73	11–2 (1–0)	CFE Arena (3,884) Orlando, FL
January 5, 2019 12:00 pm, ESPNews		at UConn	W 65–53	12–2 (2–0)	XL Center (10,541) Hartford, CT
January 13, 2019 4:00 pm, ESPNU		East Carolina	W 76–65	13–2 (3–0)	CFE Arena (4,692) Orlando, FL
January 16, 2019 10:00 pm, CBSSN		at Wichita State	L 67–75	13–3 (3–1)	Charles Koch Arena (10,506) Wichita, KS
January 19, 2019 12:00 pm, ESPNU		Tulsa	W 64–62	14–3 (4–1)	CFE Arena (4,155) Orlando, FL
January 23, 2019 8:00 pm, ESPN3		at Tulane	W 75–50	15–3 (5–1)	Devlin Fieldhouse (1,308) New Orleans, LA
January 27, 2019 4:00 pm, CBSSN		at Memphis	L 57–77	15–4 (5–2)	FedEx Forum (17,046) Memphis, TN
January 31, 2019 9:00 pm, ESPNU		UConn	W 73–67	16–4 (6–2)	CFE Arena (5,016) Orlando, FL
February 7, 2019 7:00 pm, CBSSN		No. 12 Houston	L 68–77	16–5 (6–3)	CFE Arena (6,292) Orlando, FL
February 10, 2019 2:00 pm, ESPNews		at SMU	W 71–65	17–5 (7–3)	Moody Coliseum (5,989) Dallas, TX
February 13, 2019 7:00 pm, ESPNews		South Florida War on I-4	W 78–65	18–5 (8–3)	CFE Arena (4,719) Orlando, FL
February 16, 2019 6:00 pm, ESPN2		Memphis	W 79–72	19–5 (9–3)	CFE Arena (5,458) Orlando, FL
February 21, 2019 7:00 pm, ESPN2		at Cincinnati	L 55–60	19–6 (9–4)	Fifth Third Arena (12,377) Cincinnati, OH
February 24, 2019 12:00 pm, CBSSN		SMU	W 95–48	20–6 (10–4)	CFE Arena (4,978) Orlando, FL
February 27, 2019 7:00 pm, ESPNews		at South Florida War on I-4	W 75–63	21–6 (11–4)	Yuengling Center (7,231) Tampa, FL
March 2, 2019 4:00 pm, ESPN		at No. 8 Houston	W 69–64	22–6 (12–4)	Fertitta Center (7,039) Houston, TX
March 7, 2019 7:00 pm, ESPN2	No. 25	No. 20 Cincinnati	W 58–55	23–6 (13–4)	CFE Arena (9,141) Orlando, FL
March 9, 2019 4:00 pm, ESPN2	No. 25	at Temple	L 62–67	23–7 (13–5)	Liacouras Center (9,951) Philadelphia, PA
American Athletic Conference tournament
March 15, 2019 3:00 pm, ESPN2	(4)	at (5) Memphis Quarterfinals	L 55–79	23–8	FedEx Forum (7,610) Memphis, TN
NCAA tournament
March 22, 2019* 9:40 pm, CBS	(9 E)	vs. (8 E) VCU First Round	W 73–58	24–8	Colonial Life Arena (16,219) Columbia, SC
March 24, 2019* 5:15 pm, CBS	(9 E)	vs. (1 E) No. 1 Duke Second Round	L 76–77	24–9	Colonial Life Arena (16,332) Columbia, SC
*Non-conference game. #Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. E=East. All times are in Eastern Time.

Rankings

Main article: 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
— = Not ranked RV = Received votes

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Final
AP	RV	—	—	—	RV	—	—	—	—	—	RV	RV	—	—	—	—	—	—	25	RV	Not released
Coaches	RV	RV^	RV	RV	RV	—	RV	—	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	—	—	—	—	—	RV	RV	RV

*AP does not release post-NCAA Tournament rankings
^Coaches did not release a Week 2 poll.