UCF, USF take War on I-4 into NIT on Tuesday night

ORLANDO, Fla. — While the First Four games tip off the NCAA Tournament on Tuesday night, UCF and USF are beginning their postseason with a War on I-4 matchup in the opening round of the NIT at 9 p.m. in Orlando.

The regular season was big for both teams this season — for completely different reasons. 

The Bulls saw a major turnaround. After going 14-18 overall and 7-11 in the 2022-23 season, USF finished 24-7 and won the American Athletic Conference regular season 16-1 before falling to UAB 93-83 in the league tournament’s championship game. The Bulls even were ranked in the Top 25 for a time, and they had hoped to get an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament.

“Basketball in March is not an easy thing to do, not an easy thing to accomplish, so the message to the group was we’re going to be grateful for the opportunity,” USF coach Amir Abdur-Rahim said. “Yeah, it’s not what we, in our opinion, what we earned or feel like we deserved, but instead of complaining about it, let’s be grateful for the opportunity to continue to go to battle with one another, to continue to grow, continue to get better.”

The Knights played their first season in the Big 12, going 17-15 overall and 7-11 in one of the nation’s top college basketball conferences.

UCF is no stranger to the NIT. The Knights are making their second appearance in a row in the NIT and their third overall under coach Johnny Dawkins, who won the event twice while coaching at Stanford.

The teams have not played a non-conference game since 2013. The Knights have won eight of their past nine games against the Bulls in Orlando, although USF has won their past two meetings overall.

But Dawkins is more focused on what the game means for the future of his program.

“To be the first year in the Big 12 and to go to a postseason tournament, especially you couldn’t make the NCAA but you go to the NIT, it’s a really good first step for the group that we have in establishing the culture of playing beyond the regular season. It’s something that’s very important for us to establish here at UCF,” Dawkins said.

Knights guard Darius Johnson sees the game as a chance to improve the way they end the season at home.

“All eyes are on us now. We have another opportunity to play at home, in front of our fans,” Johnson said. “Last time, we went out we didn’t go out the way we wanted to, especially for our seniors, so I feel like we have another chance to prove our fans the right way. To continue on with the rivalry is huge. We have a lot of new guys on the team, so some of them don’t realize how big the rivalry is. So, I just try to relate to them about their high school rivalries, or their AAU rivalries that they had and translate it over to college.”