{"id":227585,"date":"2026-04-11T13:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T13:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/227585\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T13:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T13:25:07","slug":"ucfs-carmelo-pacheco-returning-for-2026-27-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/227585\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF’s Carmelo Pacheco returning for 2026-27 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carmelo Pacheco is returning to the UCF<\/a> men\u2019s basketball program for the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-6, 190-pound guard averaged 4.6 points and 1.3 rebounds in 31 games this season for the Knights. He was the top 3-point shooter on the team, connecting on 39% (43 of 109) of his shots from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n

The Virginia native shot 40% from the floor and his top scoring game was against Florida A&M when he scored 17 points in a 97-60 win on Nov. 11.<\/p>\n

He served as one of the primary backups to shooting guard Riley Kugel<\/a> this season.<\/p>\n

Before joining UCF, Pacheco spent one season with UVA Wise (2023-24) and another with Mount St. Mary\u2019s (2024-25).<\/p>\n

Pacheco becomes the first player to announce his decision to return next season.<\/p>\n

Guards Chris Johnson<\/a> and Poopha Warakulnukroh announced their decisions to enter the transfer portal.<\/p>\n

UCF is coming off a 21-12 season in which the Knights made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2018-19 season.<\/p>\n

The Knights already have to replace five players whose eligibility has expired, led by Themus Fulks, Jamichael Stillwell, Devan Cambridge, George Beale Jr., and Kugel.<\/p>\n

Guard Arturo Dean is also joining the roster next season.<\/p>\n

Dean played at Oklahoma State in 2024-25, averaging 11 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game for the Cowboys. He transferred to UCF last season but was forced to sit out.<\/p>\n

Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. Sign up for the Sentinel\u2019s Knights Weekly newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carmelo Pacheco is returning to the UCF men\u2019s basketball program for the 2026-27 season. The 6-foot-6, 190-pound guard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[111,28,114,1335,139,141,140,76046,110,3865],"class_list":["post-227585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-college-sports","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social-sports","tag-sports","tag-ucf-knights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}