UCF guard Aubrey Dawkins to miss entire 2017-18 season

March 12, 2015: Michigan's Aubrey Dawkins (24) looks to pass after colliding with Illinois' Leron Black (12) during the Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament game between the Illinois Fighting Illini and the Michigan Wolverines at the United Center in Chicago, IL. (Photo by Paul Bergstrom/Icon Sportswire/Corbis via Getty Images) /

Aubrey Dawkins transferred to UCF to play for his dad, but that will have to wait until the 2018-19 season now.

The UCF Knights went 24-12 and made it to the NIT Semifinals last year in their first year under head coach Johnny Dawkins. A little extra boost was to come this year, with Aubrey Dawkins sitting out last year after transferring from Michigan. But the coach’s son will have to wait another year to take the floor for his dad, as a shoulder injury will sideline him for the entire coming season.

Dawkins played two seasons under John Beilein at Michigan, starting 22 of 66 games while averaging 6.7 points and 2.3 rebounds per game and making close to 44 percent of his 3-pointers over that span. As a sophomore in 2015-16, he averaged 6.5 points and 2.5 rebounds per game on his way to being named the team’s Sixth Man of the Year. But a downturn in playing time (15.8 minutes per game) may have spurred Dawkins to transfer to Central Florida in 2016 after his father was fired at Stanford and hired there.

Dawkins posted a video about his status on the UCF Men’s Basketball Twitter feed.

https://twitter.com/UCF_MBB/status/925157132596588544

Bad news from UCF: Guard Aubrey Dawkins has suffered a season-ending shoulder injury. He had transferred from Michigan to play for his dad.
— Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops) October 31, 2017

Dawkins reportedly suffered his shoulder injury last week and has already undergone surgery. So he is already starting on the road to recovery, but the need for surgery and the subsequent declaration he won’t play this coming season points to a fairly serious injury.

As recently as media day last week, Johnny Dawkins was openly looking forward to coaching his son.

"“I’m excited to have the opportunity to coach him. I never have,” Dawkins said at media day last week, according to the Orlando Sentinel. “I’ve always worked him out and trained him, but I’ve never had the chance to actually coach him on the floor.”"

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The Knights will open their 2017-18 campaign at home against Mercer on Friday, Nov. 10. As they look to build on last year’s success and make it to the NCAA Tournament, Dawkins will be in street clothes as a cheerleader from the bench.