{"id":429135,"date":"2026-10-16T02:48:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T02:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/429135\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T02:48:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T02:48:21","slug":"ucf-basketball-adds-free-exhibition-game-against-rollins-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/429135\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF basketball adds free exhibition game against Rollins College"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/tag\/ucf-knights\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UCF<\/a> men\u2019s basketball team will host a free exhibition game against Rollins College on Oct. 25 at <a href=\"https:\/\/ucfknights.com\/facilities\/addition-financial-arena\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Addition Financial Arena<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The game, scheduled to tip off at 4 p.m., marks the Knights\u2019 first home appearance of the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n<p>It will be the 42nd encounter between the two programs, but the first since 2006. UCF holds a 26-15 overall record against Rollins.<\/p>\n<p>The Knights opened their exhibition schedule Wednesday, losing to LSU <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2026\/10\/14\/ucf-knights-big-12-basketball-lsu-tigers-exhibition-lewis-walker-jason-asemota\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">85-81<\/a> in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.<\/p>\n<p>After playing Rollins, UCF travels to Kentucky to face the Wildcats in an exhibition game at Rupp Arena on Oct. 28 at 6 p.m. (SECN+).<\/p>\n<p>The team opens the regular season by hosting Florida Gulf Coast University on Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. (ESPN+).<\/p>\n<p>The Knights feature a rebuilt roster with 11 newcomers and four returning players, led by starting center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2026\/04\/15\/ucf-center-john-bol-returning-to-the-knights-in-2026-27\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jon Bol<\/a>, reserve guards Carmelo Pacheco and Tanner Jones, and reserve center Elijah Hulsewe.<\/p>\n<p>The Big 12 preseason coaches\u2019 poll, released Thursday, projected UCF to finish 13th out of 16 teams in the conference, ahead of Colorado, Kansas State and Utah.<\/p>\n<p>The Knights are coming off a 21-12 campaign that included a program-best nine conference victories and bid to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2018-19 season.<\/p>\n<p>Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram at @osmattmurschel. Email: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/2026\/10\/15\/ucf-knights-big-12-mens-basketball-exhibition-game-rollins-college\/mailto:mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. Sign up for the Sentinel\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/newsletters\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Knights Weekly<\/a> newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0UCF men\u2019s basketball team will host a free exhibition game against Rollins College on Oct. 25 at Addition&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429136,"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-429135","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\/429135","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=429135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}