Dawkins reflects on electrifying court storming moments and reveals strategies for UCF's tough upcoming road schedule.
As UCF (12-1, 1-0 Big 12) crept towards an upset win over No. 17 Kansas Saturday afternoon, the Knights' student section began to gather in the middle row as close to the court as possible - waiting for the clocks to hit zero.
When they did, deja vu struck, as UCF students stormed the court to celebrate with the players and staff. This was the third court-storming that I have seen at UCF, including the first upset win over Kansas back in 2024 and the home opening upset win over Texas A&M last season.
Head coach Johnny Dawkins spoke on what it means to provide students and fans with that opportunity following the game.
"You know I'm just, I'm just happy for our fans to have that opportunity, those moments. I mean these are moments that these students and these student athletes will remember for the rest of their lives, you know," Dawkins said. "I can remember you know great moments when I played in college and I just want our students and our student athletes to have those same type of experiences that I was able to have and share with my teammates and with my university and that's what you want to see and I'm glad no one got hurt. I thought it was done organized, but it was a time to celebrate you know, and that was something that you know, I was happy for them to have that moment."
Dawkins was part of Coach Mike Krzyzewski's early success when he first arrived at Duke. Dawkins had a stellar playing career, being named the 1986 Naismith Player of the Year and helping lead the Blue Devils to regular season and tournament ACC titles.
Immediately following the court-storming question, Dawkins locked back in to how the team can improve and what they need to do to continue winning. The team's next challenge comes Tuesday, Jan. 6 on the road against Oklahoma State.
Last season, UCF struggled away from its home building, going 2-8 and losing its last seven road contests. Dawkins spoke on what the team will need to do to start this year with a road victory.
"Well, we have to learn the lessons from this game, things that we can get better at, you know, when we give our guys feedback, it's because there are a lot of things we can still continue to improve on as we move forward. And then from there, we have to take a next play mentality, meaning that we have to, at the end of this day, this [win] needs to be behind us. We have to throw all of our preparation into Oklahoma State because that's how this league is. You're going to, like I said, 17 more games like we had tonight," Dawkins said. "None of them are going to be different. All of these teams are well coached. All of these teams have a lot of talent. And so, we have to prepare for it that way. And that's what we're going to do. And we're going to get right back at it. We're going to talk about, you know, what we have to do to give ourselves a chance to compete, you know, in Stillwater."
UCF will look to improve to a stellar 13-1 record while improving to 2-0 in conference play this Tuesday against Oklahoma State at 8:00 p.m.