{"id":234559,"date":"2025-09-17T19:29:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T19:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/234559\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T19:29:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T19:29:09","slug":"ucf-mens-basketball-unveils-2025-nonconference-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/234559\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF men’s basketball unveils 2025 nonconference schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UCF<\/a> men\u2019s basketball team has announced its preseason schedule for the 2025-26 season, which includes two matchups against SEC teams.<\/p>\n

The Knights tip off the season by hosting Hofstra at Addition Financial Arena on Nov. 3, marking the first-ever meeting between the two programs.<\/p>\n

Next up, UCF welcomes Vanderbilt on Nov. 8, followed by FAMU on Nov. 11. This will also be the inaugural meeting with the Commodores, who qualified for the NCAA tournament last season.<\/p>\n

Their next game is a road contest at Texas A&M in College Station. It\u2019s the second of a home-and-home series between the two programs. Last season UCF upset the visiting Aggies, 64-61<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Knights will return home to host Oakland (Nov. 17), before heading to one of two neutral-site matchups, taking on Pittsburgh<\/a> (Nov. 20) in the Legends Classic at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach. This marks their second encounter with the Panthers, who previously defeated the Knights 55-44 on March 19, 2004.<\/p>\n

UCF returns home to host Quinnipiac (Nov. 25), VMI (Nov. 29), Towson (Dec. 7), Mercer (Dec. 17) and Florida Gulf Coast (Dec. 20).<\/p>\n

The Knights conclude their non-conference schedule against FAU at a neutral site on Dec. 23. It\u2019s the 33rd meeting in the program\u2019s history, with UCF holding a 23-10 advantage.<\/p>\n

UCF will travel to Cameron Indoor Stadium for a rare exhibition game against Duke<\/a> on Oct. 21. It\u2019s a homecoming of sorts for coach Johnny Dawkins, who was an All-American with the Blue Devils before eventually joining the coaching staff as an assistant under then-coach Mike Krzyzewski.<\/p>\n

\n

UCF softball coach Cindy Ball-Malone agrees to contract extension<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe always want to continue to challenge ourselves in the preseason,\u201d Dawkins<\/a> told the Sentinel in July. \u201cWe also want to continue to challenge ourselves in exhibition games, for that matter. We play Duke in Cameron on Oct. 21. It\u2019s a great test for our guys right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Knights are gearing up for the new season with an overhauled roster, bringing in 13 newcomers, including 11 players through the transfer portal. The only returning players are reserves Poohpha Warakulnukroh and Elijah Hulsewe.<\/p>\n

Last season, UCF (20-17, 7-13) finished in 12th place in the Big 12, marking its second year in the conference. They qualified for the inaugural Crown Invitational Tournament, where the Knights reached the championship game but fell short against Nebraska, losing 77-66.<\/p>\n

UCF 2025 NONCONFERENCE SCHEDULE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oct. 21<\/strong> \u2014 at Duke (exhibition)
Nov. 3<\/strong> \u2014 Hofstra
Nov. 8<\/strong> \u2014 Vanderbilt
Nov. 11<\/strong> \u2014 FAMU
Nov. 14<\/strong> \u2014 at Texas A&M
Nov. 17<\/strong> \u2014 Oakland
Nov. 20<\/strong> \u2014 vs. Pittsburgh#
Nov. 25<\/strong> \u2014 Quinnipiac
Nov. 29<\/strong> \u2014 VMI
Dec. 7<\/strong> \u2014 Towson
Dec. 17<\/strong> \u2014 Mercer
Dec. 20<\/strong> \u2014 Florida Gulf Coast
Dec. 23<\/strong> \u2014 FAU%<\/p>\n

# \u2014 Legends Classic at Ocean Center in Daytona Beach
% \u2014 Festiball \u2013 Neutral Site TBD<\/p>\n

Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. Sign up for the Sentinel\u2019s Knights Weekly<\/a> newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UCF men\u2019s basketball team has announced its preseason schedule for the 2025-26 season, which includes two matchups…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":234560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,1369,723,1370,1317,1337,1338,1036,6063,62,35595,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-234559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-sports","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-ncaa","13":"tag-ncaa-basketball","14":"tag-ncaabasketball","15":"tag-orange-county","16":"tag-orlando","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-ucf-knights","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115221296878782778","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}