After making it to the NCAA Tournament last season, UCF men’s basketball is attempting to make back-to-back tournament appearances for only the second time in school history. With key players returning and the retaining of coach Johnny Dawkins, the Knights are in prime position to make it to the dance.
“We want to sustain that excellence,” Dawkins said at UCF media day. “I thought last year’s team did an amazing job at establishing what we wanted to have happen that year, and now we need to build on it.”
Returning faces
Riley Kugel, UCF’s second-leading scorer from last season, is back for his fifth year of college basketball. The former Florida Gator averaged a career-high and team-high 14.4 points for the Knights and scored 13 in their tournament loss to UCLA.
The Knights retained another starter in John Bol, who led the team in field goal percentage at 71.7%. A fan favorite during his first year in Orlando, Bol is looking to continue to improve in his junior year.
“Retaining players from the previous season can be very beneficial, especially when those players had success, and our players did have success,” Dawkins said. “That really helps us. And then going forward with this year’s season, we need to make sure that our guys understand that we can’t dwell on the past, even looking forward to now. We have to live right now in the present.”
On the bench, UCF has two returning contributors as Carmelo Pacheco and Elijah Hulsewe are both staying for their senior years. Pacheco led the Knights with a 39.4% mark from three while Hulsewe was second in field goal percentage behind Bol last year.
“It’s been very important to have our current players, guys that we retain, have input in what we’re doing because they understand our standard,” Dawkins said. “They understand how hard we want to work, how hard we want to compete.”
Tanner Jones and Arturo Dean, two Knights that did not see action in 2026, are also back. Jones was sidelined due to injury in his freshman campaign while Dean was a mid-season transfer from Oklahoma State.
New Knights
Arturo’s younger brother, Mister Dean, transferred to UCF in the offseason, giving the brothers an opportunity to play together. Mister is coming off of a torn ACL he suffered while at Charleston last season.
A familiar face is back in Orlando, as Dior Johnson returns to UCF after spending last season at Tarleton State. Johnson was named the Western Athletic Conference Sixth Man of the Year after averaging 24 points, which would have been the second highest mark in Division I if he had played more games.
“I’m excited for Dior,” Dawkins said. “I enjoyed coaching him when we had him the one year, and I think he did a great job when he transferred of really taking a lot of things we talked about, a lot of lessons he’s learned. He applied them where he went at Tarleton and had a lot of success. And I think it speaks volumes that he wanted to come back. He had options to go anywhere he wanted to in the country…and he wanted to come back.”
UCF added another impactful transfer in Isaiah Malone, the reigning ASUN Defensive Player of the Year at FGCU, who will remain in the Sunshine State. Malone recorded five double-doubles and 64 blocks, the second most in a season in FGCU history.
“[Malone] can help us in a lot of ways,” Dawkins said. “He’s another versatile player; he can play multiple positions. He has a really good feel defensively of what he’s doing out there, and offensively, he’s a capable player as well.”
Finally, the Knights landed four more three-star transfers, including three in the frontcourt (Lewis Walker, Churchill Abass, and Jason Asemota). Rounding out the roster, UCF brought in three freshmen, headlined by two four-stars (Ladarius Givan and Jahda Swann).
Non-conference preview
Before entering Big 12 conference play, the Knights have 14 games with out-of-conference opponents, including 11 in Central Florida, with two neutral site games taking place at ESPN Wide World of Sports (Boston College and Georgia). UCF’s two road games will be against No. 24 Vanderbilt and Indiana, while the game against Virginia Tech will be in Ft. Lauderdale.
In the 2025-26 season, Dawkins and the Knights went 11-1 in non-conference play, with the lone loss coming against Vanderbilt.
“We always try to play a competitive non-conference schedule,” Dawkins said. “I think the only way you can get prepared for the Big 12 is to play teams of that caliber. And last year, although we didn’t have as many Power Four teams or Power Five teams on our schedule, it was still the same. We’re going to play great teams. We’re going to try to play in great environments to expose our kids to everything they need to see before we hit conference play. And I think we’ve done it again this year.”
To kick start the season, UCF will host FGCU for a possible revenge game for Malone. The Knights beat FGCU in Addition Financial Arena last season and held Malone to two points and zero blocks.
“It begins, and we have to see what we can accomplish, but I’m excited about the group and I’m excited about how hard they’ve worked this offseason,” Dawkins said.
Tip-off against FGCU is set for 7 p.m. on November 2.