Knights add ECU transfer Suggs
Just a couple of days after landing a commitment from Indiana big-man transfer Brandon Durr, UCF men’s basketball has landed East Carolina swingman Brandon Suggs from the NCAA transfer portal.
A three-year starter for the Pirates, the 6-foot-6, 185-pound Suggs is coming off his best season scoring-wise after averaging a career-high 10.1 points while grabbing 4.1 rebounds and dishing out 2.6 assists.
Suggs played in 24 games last year and shot 41% from the field. In his last game against the Knights on Feb. 20, he scored 13 points off the bench to go along with four rebounds and three assists in a 69-66 loss to UCF.
“I would like to thank God for blessing me to be in the position I’m in today,” Suggs wrote on Twitter. “I would like to thank my family for believing in me.
“I also would like to thank all the schools [that] reached out to me over the last few weeks,” he added. “I will play at UCF.”
Suggs will be immediately eligible for the Knights and have at least two years of eligibility remaining at UCF.
The Georgia native made a splash in the AAC as a true freshman in the 2019-20 season scoring in double figures in 15 games for the Pirates. The next year he tied for second on the team in rebounding and was third in scoring and assists.
This past season, Suggs was third on the team in scoring getting to the free-throw line the secondmost shooting 77% from the charity stripe.
The addition of Suggs is muchneeded for UCF’s depleted roster.
Since the end of the season, six Knights — sharpshooter Darin Green, sophomore forwards Isaiah Adams and Jamille Reynolds, redshirt junior guard Dre Fuller Jr., sophomore guard Tony Johnson
Jr. and freshman forward Ed’Xavior Rhodes — all have entered the transfer portal.
Additionally, Darius Perry, Brandon Mahan and Cheikh Mbacke Diong are out of eligibility.
With Suggs and Durr on their way in, UCF coach Johnny Dawkins has once again turned to the portal to help rebuild his roster. Dawkins has had success doing so in the past.
Perry, Mahan and Diong all came to UCF through the transfer portal. This past season the veteran trio helped the Knights win nine conference games — the most in three years.
Still, the past season was disappointing for the Knights. UCF struggled in January to ultimately finish 18-12 overall and 9-9 in the AAC missing out on any post-season play.
Dawkins is hoping to get the Knights back to the NCAA tournament and adding key pieces from the portal is a start.
Suggs and Durr join returning Knights senior forward CJ Walker, rising sophomore Darius Johnson — who earned a spot on the freshman all-conference team — and guards Ty Freeman and P.J. Edwards.
That group will be joined by incoming freshman brothers Taylor Hendricks and Tyler Hendricks from Fort Lauderdale’s Calvary Christian Academy.
Taylor is viewed as a 4-star recruit and ranks as the No. 13 overall power forward in the country for the 2022 recruiting class, according to 247Sports. Tyler is a 3-star guard who averaged 7 points and three rebounds last season.