UCF Men’s Basketball to Host Oklahoma Sooners on Nov. 28

Johnny Dawkins dropped some news during his press conference this Monday when he said the UCF Knights will “open up with Oklahoma” this season. The Sooners have released their full non-conference schedule and, sure enough, the Knights will host them on Nov. 28 inside Addition Financial Arena.

This adds to what already looked like a strong non-con sked for the Knights, who are slated to play the Florida State Seminoles in Tallahassee and begin a home-and-home series with a visit to the Michigan Wolverines. The Seminoles and Wolverines are both inside the top 25 of Andy Katz’s latest Power 36 rankings, while the Sooners are “Under consideration.”

The Knights fell just one point short against Oklahoma — 53-52 — when the two programs faced off in Norman, Okla. last December.

And UCF isn’t done adding to its non-conference schedule. The Knights are still looking to get into one of the at least eight multi-team events that will reportedly be played inside the ESPN Wide World of Sports property at Disney during November and December. The Knights were originally scheduled to be a part of this year’s Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament in Connecticut. Minnesota and Marquette were also in that field. But it was reported last month that UCF would not take in that tourney and was basically swapped out for Temple.

“I’ve never been this late in the season still trying to figure out what our schedule is going to look like,” Dawkins said on Monday. “But that’s just the world we’re living in right now.”

The AAC released its scheduling format earlier this month, and it calls for each team to play 20 league games in a double round-robin setup. So, besides facing Oklahoma, FSU, Michigan and other likely power-conference opponents to be announced, the Knights will also get two cracks each at Houston, Memphis, SMU, Cincinnati, etc.

Not too shabby.