ORLANDO, Fla. — College basketball is right around the corner as UCF men's and women's basketball are set to become the next Knights programs to begin their inaugural Big 12 seasons. At media day on Wednesday, both programs showed off new players who are hoping to shock the conference.

What You Need To Know

  • UCF's basketball teams are preparing for their first seasons in the Big 12

  • Both men's and women's programs were ranked last in the Big 12 preseason polls

  • UCF men's basketball welcomes 10 new players this season

  • Sytia Messer enters her second season as UCF women's basketball's head coach and has previous Big 12 experience

Both men's and women's programs had up-and-down seasons in 2022-23 as the men finished 19-15 and the women went 14-15 in their final seasons in the American Athletic Conference.

Their new conference, the Big 12, boasts some of the top basketball programs in the country. Both UCF basketball teams were ranked last in the conference's preseason polls. 

Women's coach Sytia Messer, who enters her second season with the Knights, said these low expectations for the program only make the team more gritty and eager to prove others wrong. 

"Women's basketball is tough in the Big 12," said Messer, who was an assistant coach on Kim Mulkey's staff at Baylor from 2013-14 through 2020-21. "It is, but what we do as a coaching staff is we challenge our players to get 1% better, and that's how you manage it. You get better and better, and there's great opportunities to move up and do what we expect to do in the Big 12."

Sophomore point guard Sierra Godbolt said the word "grit" describes the identity of this team.

"I think we’re seeing where we’re at, where we’re placed this year, and we’re gonna prove everybody wrong," she said. "We're gritty. We're gonna get down and to it, and we're gonna play hard."

In the UCF men's program, last season's star player, Taylor Hendricks, moved on to the NBA after one season and the Utah Jazz drafted him ninth overall.

Ten new players joined the program, which returns leaders like fifth-year forward C.J. Walker, junior guard Darius Johnson and fifth-year forward Omar Payne.

Coach Johnny Dawkins describes his group as a new team that is eager to prove the conference wrong. 

"We don't expect anything to be given," Dawkins said. "We understand we're going to a new conference, so there's a lot of unknowns with that, but the one thing we do know that always shines through is we know that if you go out there and you play as hard as you can play, you're gonna earn what you can get."

The low expectations are a motivation to Walker.

"Alright, well, they picked us last, you know, so just anything to show that we're not that," Walker said. "But I understand where it comes from. I definitely understand they don't know what we have cooking, so they're gonna put us last. They have to. Just proving them wrong."

UCF opens its season on Nov. 6 with a doubleheader at home, beginning with the women's team hosting Bethune-Cookman University, followed by the men's team facing FIU at Addition Arena.