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UCF Men’s Basketball’s Win at Houston Gets Big TV Ratings

More than half a million viewers watched UCF spoil Houston’s party.

NCAA Basketball: Central Florida at Houston Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports

The UCF Knights’ win at Houston on March 2nd was watched by 581,000 viewers on ESPN. It is the most-watched UCF regular season basketball game in cable television history, surpassing last year’s home loss to Wichita State that aired on ESPN with 535,000 viewers.

ESPN’s College Gameday, which was live from Houston that morning, had 587,000 viewers.

UCF’s win over Cincinnati on March 7th garnered 287,000 viewers on ESPN2, which is the most-watched UCF regular season game ever on ESPN2. The Knights’ loss at Temple this past Saturday had 196,000 viewers.

The Houston game was the 3rd-most watched overall UCF Basketball game on cable television behind only UCF’s NIT semifinal game against TCU two years ago, which was watched by 678,000 viewers on ESPN. That is the most-watched UCF Basketball game on cable television in the program’s history.

UCF’s road win at Illinois State in the round of 16 in the NIT garnered 597,000 viewers on ESPN which is second-most viewed game. The Houston win had more viewers than UCF’s win vs. Illinois in the Elite 8 of the NIT, with 573,000 viewers on ESPN2.

Most watched UCF Basketball games on Cable Television.

  1. UCF vs. TCU (March 28, 2017) - 678,000* on ESPN
  2. UCF at Illinois State (March 20, 2017) - 597,000* on ESPN
  3. UCF at Houston (March 2, 2019) - 581,000 on ESPN
  4. Illinois at UCF (March 22, 2017) - 573,000* on ESPN2
  5. Wichita State at UCF (March 1, 2018) 535,000 on ESPN

*NIT games

UCF will be back on ESPN2 on Friday when they play in the American Athletic Conference Tournament at 2 p.m.