By Make5Media | November 6, 2026
Deuce McDuffie had bigger brands on his offer list, including Wisconsin, where his father played. He chose the school that saw him clearest. The 6-foot-6, 195-pound small forward out of Milwaukee, now at Monarch Academy in Kansas City, committed to UCF on November 5. He’s a four-star in the 2027 class and the Knights’ second four-star pledge in the class, joining fellow wing Jacoby Briscoe.
McDuffie’s value lives in the plays that don’t make a highlight reel. With Team Herro on the EYBL circuit, he averaged a modest 8.6 points and 3.9 rebounds while guarding the other team’s best perimeter player, switching across three positions, running the floor, and letting the game come to him. He’s a long, switchable defender with quick feet, a capable spot-up jumper (34% from three this season, 39% the year before), and enough handle to initiate possessions or slide into a combo-guard role. Dawkins sees him as a big wing who can play the one, the two, or the three.
UCF’s identity is fast, physical, and connected, and Dawkins has spent years chasing “Big 12 bodies” built to survive an 18-game league slate. McDuffie is that body, with that motor. He won’t arrive as the star..the Knights are built around scoring guard Dior Johnson but as the defender and transition threat who earns minutes early and grows into a bigger role. In a system that needs pace without chaos, a wing who can guard, handle, slash, and spot up is the piece that lets everything else work.
Wisconsin offered the homecoming story. UCF offered a role, a belief, and a system built for a player exactly like him. If the jumper holds and the frame fills out, this won’t be remembered as a nice four-star get. It’ll be remembered as the day UCF found its wing.