UCF and USF may no longer be conference rivals, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be bad blood when they face off in Tuesday’s first-round National Invitation Tournament (NIT) game.
UCF (17-15, 7-11 Big 12) hosts USF (24-7, 16-2 American) at Addition Financial Arena at 9 p.m. on ESPN+.
The winner would advance to the weekend to face the winner between top-seeded Villanova and VCU.
The Knights are making their second consecutive appearance in the NIT and third overall under coach Johnny Dawkins.
UCF advanced to the second round last season with a 67-49 win at Florida before falling at Oregon, 68-54. The Knights reached the NIT semifinals in Dawkins’ first season (2016-17), defeating Colorado, Illinois State and Illinois before falling to TCU, 68-53.
USF won the AAC regular season in its first season under new coach Amir Adbur-Rahim but lost in Saturday’s conference tournament semifinals to UAB, 93-83. The Bulls had won 22 of their last 24 games but failed to qualify for the 68-team field for the NCAA tournament.
UCF has won 12 of the last 17 meetings in this series but has lost two straight, with both losses coming last season. The Knights are 12-9 when hosting USF, having won eight of the last nine games at home.
Dawkins won the NIT championship twice while at Stanford during his 16-year head coaching career. He led the Cardinal to titles in 2011-12 and 2014-15.
This year’s NIT featured several changes to the selection process, including guaranteed spots for the two highest-ranked teams (based on the NCAA’s Evaluation Tool) from each of the six major conferences not to make the NCAA tourney. The 12 teams with automatic bids would also host a game.
The Big 12’s spots went to 2-seed Cincinnati (37), which hosts San Francisco, and UCF (61). Kansas State earned an at-large bid with the Wildcats set to face 3rd-seed Iowa.
Oklahoma would have earned one of those spots based on its NET (46), but the Sooners were one of several teams who requested not to be selected for the tournament.
Matt Murschel can be reached at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com
