UCF Hoops Lands A Hometown Hero

The UCF Men's Basketball team earned the commitment of Orlando-native combo guard Donovan Williams Jr. on Wednesday, according to a post made by Williams on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Williams picked the Knights over the likes of Florida State, Arizona State, Illinois and South Florida.

247Sports rates him as a three-star and the 20th-best combo guard of the Class of 2026, while On3has him as the 147th-best overall recruit and the 27th-best point guard of the Class of 2026.

Williams has moved schools several times during his high school career. He played for The First Academy in Orlando as a freshman before moving to another Orlando-area school, Edgewater High School, as a sophomore, then to Virginia to play for Oak Hill Academy, a school in the EYBL Scholastic league, for his junior season. He returned to Orlando this summer, playing for Oak Ridge High School, but is returning to Oak Hill Academy for his senior season.

Both 247Sports and On3 have Williams ranked inside the Top 15 best prospects of the Class of 2026 out of Virginia.

During his summer back in Orlando, Williams played on the Nike EYBL circuit with the Florida Rebels, particularly shining during the Pearl Jam tournament, where he averaged 17.4 points per game, four assists per game and 6.2 rebounds per game.

Williams begins his EYBL Scholastic season with Oak Hill Academy at the Players Era event in Nevada on Nov. 28-29.

Four-Star Guard Commits To UCF

The UCF Knights Men's Basketball team gained a verbal commitment from shooting guard Christian Gibson on Sept. 20, according to a post from Gibson on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The announcement came one day after Gibson's official visit to campus, one of only two official visits he had scheduled with the other being to St. Louis set for Oct. 9. He was one of three four-star recruits that scheduled official visits to Orlando in September, but he was the only one that ended up committing to the Knights.

Gibson is rated as a four-star by 247Sports. His 247Sports composite score, 0.9768, would make him the second-highest rated recruit in Knights history, only coming behind the now-Cincinnati Bearcat Moustapha Thiam last season.

Gibson also ranks No. 58 overall on the ESPN100 list, a Top 10 shooting guard of the 2026 class, and the second-highest rated prospect out of the state of Tennessee.

He is coming off a Nike Elite Youth Basketball League in which he averaged 21.5 points per game and 5.5 rebounds per game. He also recorded 14 steals, 26 assists and 46 of 57 from the free-throw line in his 14 games of action.

A native of Houston, Texas, Gibson stayed in his hometown for his first three seasons of high school basketball at Mayde Creek High School, but transferred to Tennessee Collegiate Academy in July.

Tennessee Collegiate Academy is heading into its first season in the Nike EYBL Scholastic League alongside Central Florida-based Montverde Academy. It actually bookends its regular season with trips to Montverde, first playing in the Sunshine Classic hosted there to begin its season from Dec. 5-7 and then returning to face Montverde Academy itself on Feb. 27.