Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The first NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings of the college basketball season were released Monday. The metrics that ultimately (as in four months from now) will construct the 2023 NCAA Tournament field had some rather eye-opening reveals, such as Sam Houston State debuting at No. 7, Kent State at No. 24, preseason No. 1 North Carolina dropping to 39th and Louisville, in the midst of a disastrous start to its rebuild, at No. 361st out of possible 363 (just ahead of Houston Christian and Hartford). 

Closer to home, the Florida Gators checked in at 69th, which rates 10th among Southeastern Conference teams. UF's three losses to date have all come against opponents in the top 48 — Florida Atlantic (23rd), Xavier (48th) and West Virginia (11th) — with the Gators' best victory actually being Sunday's 89-51 rout of Stetson. 

Let's just go ahead and state the obvious here: Florida has a lot of work to do to play itself back into the tournament conversation. Here's another fact: It's incredibly early in the season and the Gators will have multiple opportunities to improve their numbers, what with a dozen games against teams currently with higher NET rankings. Three of those games are this month.

The first is Wednesday night. An historically sizable and rare opportunity, no less. 

[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here]

The Gators (6-3) get unbeaten and fifth-ranked Connecticut (9-0) at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center. The Huskies have a sterling early season resume, with all double-digit victories, including four straight over high-major programs (Oregon, Alabama, Iowa State to win the PK Invitational in Portland, plus last week's defeat of Oklahoma State) and now sit at No. 2 in the NET. 
 

The NET rewards ambitious scheduling and victories over quality opponents. Right now, Florida has none of the latter, but three of the next four games will represent so-called "Quadrant-1" opportunities. UF went 19-12 last season, but was 2-9 in Q-1 games and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six years.

UConn not only represents a gold-star Q-1 opportunity, but the Huskies will be just the 12th top-10, non-conference opponent team to come to Gainesville — only the ninth to venture into the O'Dome — in program history. UF is 4-7 in those games (2-6 in its current building), with the last win coming in 2016 against ninth-ranked West Virginia in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. 

"It's awesome. You get a top-five team in your gym," Florida coach Todd Golden said. "It's just a test for us. In my mind, it's another opportunity for us to see where we're at. How much have we grown? Did we learn a lot from the Portland trip? Are we going to be able to maintain that level of competitive nature?" 

The 29-point loss to West Virginia in their final game of the Phil Knight Legacy was only 10 days ago, but the Gators responded to that disappointment — and the no-nonsense challenges from the staff in its aftermath — with back-to-back wins over Florida A&M (by 40) and Stetson (38). Obviously, there are no comparisons between the Rattlers and Hatters versus the Huskies, led by potential All-America forward Adam Sanogo (18.7 points, 6.9 rebounds per game), but that's not the point. 

Golden will be watching the level of fight his players show against a formidable foe, especially if things aren't going well. And in the event things do go well, he'll be watching how his guys deal with prosperity because the Huskies won't be going anywhere. 

"Even though they're a more talented team, going to be a tougher team to beat, we can't allow that to impact our competitive nature," Golden said. "That's really one of the things that I'll be looking for early on in the game to see if, 'All right, are we growing? Are we getting better? Are we fighting? How are we responding to any adversity throughout the game?' But, yeah, this is awesome. If you're a baller, if you really are a competitor, you're looking forward to a game like this."

Some players can go their entire careers without playing a home game of this magnitude. UConn will be just the sixth non-league, top-five team to play a road game at UF. Ever.

"It would definitely hold a lot of weight to this organization to win," freshman guard Riley Kugel said. "It would just a big accomplishment and it would create a [better] journey for us moving on."

CHARTING THE GATORS  Florida is 8-30 all-time against non-Southeastern Conference teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 10 during the regular season, with only 11 of those games played in Gainesville, with all but three coming during the so-called "O'Dome Era" (since the building opened in 1980). The Gators are 4-7 in those games (compared to 4-10 at neutral sites and 0-13 on the road), with Wednesday night's house call from unbeaten and No. 5 Connecticut the next opportunity. Here's a look at those previous 11 home games. 

Date	Ranked Opponent	Outcome	The Buzz
Dec. 12, 1961	No. 3 Wake Forest	W 71-65	Demon Deacons won the ACC (with guard Billy Packer averaging 14.4 points per game) and lost to No. 1 Ohio State in national semifinals.
Dec. 1, 1971	No. 9 Louisville	W 70-69	First game in Cardinals' first season under future legend Denny Crum. UL went 26-5 and lost to No. 1 and unbeaten UCLA (with Bill Walton, Keith Wilkes, Henry Bibby) in NCAA semifinals.
Dec. 8, 1976	No. 2 Marquette	L 64-61	Al McGuire brought All-America guard Butch Lee to Alligator Alley for second game of what turned out to be Warriors' national championship season. Marquette defeated North Carolina (with Phil Ford and Walter Davis) in title game.
Dec. 5, 1989	No. 7 Illinois	L 74-69	Illini, coming off Final Four appearance (with Kendall Gill and Marcus Liberty) came to town to face the reigning SEC champs a couple weeks before the roof caved in on the Don DeVoe fiasco season.
Jan. 11, 1996	No. 4 Kansas	L 69-54	Paul Pierce, Raef LaFrentz, Jacque Vaughn went 29-5 and easily dispatched of Lon Kruger's last UF team along the way.
Dec. 9, 1996	No. 10 Wake Forest	L 77-53	Deacons center and future Hall of Famer Tim Duncan stuffed the box score with 14 pts, 14 rebounds, 9 assists and seven blocked shots.
Dec. 23, 2006	No. 3 Ohio State	W 86-60	An absolute massacre, as No. 5 UF, the reigning national champion, gives Buckeyes a preview of coming attractions (Taurean Green 24 points) when they meet three months later in the NCAA title game. In case anyone forgot: No. 3 Gators beat Greg Oden and No. 1 Buckeyes 84-75 at Atlanta.
Nov. 16, 2010	No. 4 Ohio State	L 93-75	Forward Jared Sullinger hits 13 of 17 shots on his way to 26 points and 10 rebounds, with guard David Lighty going 9-for-11 from the floor for 26 more in dismantling No. 9 Gators.
Jan. 30, 2016	No. 9 West Virginia	W 88-71	UF forward Dorian Finney-Smith scored 24 points, banging five of seven 3-pointers, and the Gators went 12-for-20 from deep (60 percent) in blowing out the Mountaineers in SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
Dec. 8, 2018	No. 10 Michigan State	L 63-59	Gators cut 12-point deficit to three in the final minutes, but KeVaughn Allen missed game-tying 3-pointer with 43 seconds to go. Spartans forward Xavier Tillman with 14 points (6-7 floor), 9 rebounds off the bench.
Jan. 25, 2020	No. 1 Baylor	L 72-61	Top-ranked Bears actually came in as slight underdogs, but MaCio Teague and Devonte Bandoo scored 16 points each and left with a 16th straight win in SEC/Big 12 Challenge. Gators just 4-for-17 from 3.