UCF Men's Basketball Earns NCAA Tournament Bid, Heads to Philadelphia as No. 10 Seed

Jordan Burks buried six three-pointers and nearly willed UCF back from a 14-point second-half deficit, but seventh-seeded UCLA withstood every serious challenge and beat 10th-seeded UCF 75-71 Friday night in the NCAA Tournament at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia, ending a remarkable season for the Knights.

Making just their second at-large appearance in program history, UCF battled to the final buzzer but came up just short. In his 10th season at the helm, head coach Johnny Dawkins guided a retooled 2025-26 roster featuring 13 newcomers to a breakthrough year, exceeding expectations and delivering the program's best record since joining the Big 12.

Burks did everything he could to keep UCF within striking distance, scoring a team-high 22 points and knocking down 6 of 11 from three-point range. Riley Kugel added 13 points, Jamichael Stillwell posted a 10-point, 13-rebound double-double, and Themus Fulks finished with 10 points and eight assists. Burks hit a three-pointer that made it 72-69 with 10 seconds left to almost single-handedly carry UCF into the second round.

The Knights' offense ran into the same issues that had plagued them in the first half, and within four minutes of the start of the second half they trailed by 14. But after forcing back-to-back stops on the Bruins' inbounds plays, momentum began to shift. The Knights burst out on an 11-0 run, sparked by consecutive three-pointers from Burks, to cut the deficit to just three. Still, every time the Knights seemed ready to fully turn the pressure on UCLA, the Bruins answered.

The Knights shot just 37.5 percent from the field, went 5-of-16 at the foul line and turned it over 17 times. UCLA, meanwhile, shot 40.6 percent, won the free-throw battle 13-5 and committed only eight turnovers. Eric Dailey Jr. scored 20 points and Xaiver Booker had 15 points and eight rebounds to make up for the absence of leading scorer Tyler Biloudeau.

Dawkins said UCLA established the tone early, especially with its activity on the defensive end. "They disrupted some of the things we wanted to do offensively," Dawkins said. "They were very active. They got a lot of deflections and that led them out in transition, especially in the first half."

The tournament appearance itself was the product of one of UCF's most decorated regular seasons in recent memory. UCF pulled out a gutsy road win at Texas A&M early in its non-conference schedule and went on to upset three ranked teams during conference play — No. 17 Kansas, No. 11 Texas Tech and No. 19 BYU — tying a school record for the most wins over Top 25 opponents in a season. After edging Kansas in their Big 12 Conference opener, the Knights cracked into the Associated Press national poll for the first time since 2019 at No. 25.

UCF opened the season by winning 11 of its first 12 non-conference games, with the only blemish being a 105-93 loss to Vanderbilt on Nov. 8 — the best start to a season since the 2010-11 campaign. Defeating nationally ranked BYU 97-84 on the road in late February appeared to lock the Knights into the 68-team field, but they proceeded to lose four of their last five games. UCF then needed to rally from eight points down in the final two-plus minutes and prevail in overtime to escape against Cincinnati in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament. The final score of that overtime escape was 66-65, played at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.

It was a year in which the Knights made their sixth NCAA Tournament in program history, tallying 21 victories along the way. UCF posted back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since 2012-13, and a trio of ranked wins cracked the program back into the top 25 of the AP Poll for the first time since 2019.

The program's NCAA Tournament history stretches back to automatic qualifier bids in 1994, 1996, 2004 and 2005, when UCF won the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament. This year's bid marked the team's return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in seven years. The 2019 team, which earned UCF's first at-large selection, made history by recording the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament victory before falling to top-ranked Duke.

Even in defeat, Dawkins made it clear he believes this team established something meaningful for the program. "They've left the foundation for what we want to build on," Dawkins said.