The Central Florida Knights and the Memphis Tigers have faced off ten times on the basketball court, seven times as members of Conference USA and Memphis has come out victorious in all ten matchups. At first, the match-ups were mostly lopsided affairs, but the games have been closer of late and UCF nearly pulled off the upset last year in Orlando.
After opening the season with 14 victories, including one against then-ranked Florida at the Amway Arena, UCF hosted a favored Memphis and was leading 62-60 with just 17 seconds left in front of a sellout crowd. The team needed the victory, and the fanbase needed the victory to end the frustration. Then, this happened:
Memphis vs. UCF - A. Barton Game Winner (via Aeruchin)
UCF went onto lose one more before righting the season and getting into the CBI tournament to close the season but the Memphis loss was a bitter pill to swallow for the team last season as UCF had held the lead for 15:57 of the final 16 minutes of that contest.
Memphis comes into this game winners of six straight including a 34 point drubbing of the Houston Cougars on Saturday night while UCF was losing by one point at Marshall in a heated contest. A win tonight would extend UCF's 15 game home winning streak as well as leave UAB alone on the list of Conference USA schools they have never defeated on the basketball court. Tip-off is at 8pm tonight and the game is being shown on CBS College Sports Television as well.