UF coach Todd Golden and senior wing Will Richard are poised to build on their third season together after winning 24 games last season, the most for the program in seven years.
Harry Fodder: 2024-25 Basketball Schedule Breakdown
Wednesday, September 18, 2024 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
2024-25 MEN'S BASKETBALL TICKET PACKAGES Season Tickets for the upcoming 2024-25 men's basketball campaign are available, starting at less than $20 per game. Arena Passes, guaranteeing a ticket to all 16 home games with variable seat locations, can be secured for only $199 while supplies last. Two Mini Plans are also on sale including the 5-Game SEC Weekend Plan and the 5-Game SEC Weekend Plan + Virginia Plan. Fans interested in Group Tickets (15 or more) can secure seats in Exactech Arena at a discounted rate.
Get Swamp Certified today for early access to 2024-25 men's basketball single game tickets when they go on sale this fall. For additional information, please fill out this form to be contacted by a Gator Ticket Office representative. GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Schedule details trickle in here and there over the course of the offseason, but nothing is official until the Southeastern Conference says so, which the league did Tuesday morning.
Florida, in the third season under Todd Goldenand coming off its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2021 (as well as the program's winningest campaign since 2017), has a mostly light turn of non-conference opponents coming to the Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, along with one high-end neutral-site date and some decent others. We already knew about those. Now comes the lineup for the brutal league paddle wheel, this time with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma, both of who will come to the O'Dome.
Keep that in mind, perhaps, when stewing about Kentucky not venturing to Gainesville for the first time in 60 years. The UF-UK home-and-home rivalry, like some others around the league, took a hit due to the conference's expansion from 14 to 16 teams and decision to remain at an 18-game league season. If it's any consolation, the Gators and Wildcats will open the '25 SEC campaign for a second consecutive year, this time at Rupp Arena.
In fact, the start of SEC play looks particularly rough for Florida again. That was the narrative last January, also. The Gators withstood a 1-3 start in league play, but wound up winning 11 conference games (good enough for sixth place), made a ton of noise in the SEC Tournament and, eventually, lost a buzzer-beating heartbreaker against Colorado in first-round NCAA play.
What's in store for '24-25? Who knows, but the path to wherever the Gators are headed is set, with tip-off times to come.
Mark your calendars.
Nov. 4 South Florida (at Jacksonville)
VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena (14,091) is located to the west of EverBank Stadium on the St. Johns River.
At first glance, this looks like an ambitious opener, given the cross-state Bulls, in the first season under Amir Abdur-Rahim (by way of Kennesaw State), are coming off the winningest season in program history after going 25-8, capturing the American Athletic Conference regular-season title and playing in the National Invitational Tournament. USF, though, was raided by the transfer portal, with its top three scorers, including first-team all-league guard Chris Youngblood (15.2 ppg, 41.6 percent from 3), bolting for power conference teams. The leftover Bulls will build around returnees Kobe Knox (8.4 ppg), guard Jayden Reid (6.8 ppg, 3.0 apg) and Kasen Jennings (redshirt in '23-24 after transferring from Kennesaw), plus a pair of transfers in 6-11, 275-pound center Jamille Reynolds (5.5 ppg, 4.0 rpg at Cincinnati) and forward DeAnte Green (4.5 ppg at Florida State). The game will mark UF's first appearance in Jacksonville since 2016 when the Gators opened that season at Veterans Memorial Arena while the O'Dome was undergoing renovations.
Nov. 7 Jacksonville Jordan Mincy
Instead of playing at Jacksonville, the Gators will play against Jacksonville, as in the JU Dolphins, in their home opener. JU is coached by Jordan Mincy, who spent five seasons alongside former UF coach Mike White before taking on the reclamation project 90 minutes to the north. Mincy went 21-10 in his inaugural '21-22 season, but the Dolphins are a combine 29-33 with back-to-back losing seasons since, including a 5-11 mark in the Atlantic Sun Conference in '24 that put them next-to-last in the league. The game will mark the second for the Gators against a head coach who was a former member of White's staff. UF lost to Dusty May and Florida Atlantic at home in 2022.
Nov. 11 Grambling State
Florida and Grambling had never played in basketball before meeting last Dec. 22 at the O'Dome. The Tigers were invited back after being tamed 96-57 – UF shot 62 percent from the floor and went 11-for-21 from deep – in what stands as the most lopsided victory in Golden's two seasons. But guess what? Grambling bounced back big time by winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference and reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. The Tigers even won a postseason game, defeating Montana State in an overtime play-in before losing to No. 1 overall seed Purdue in first-round play. They're a respectable 46-24 the last two seasons, despite starting last year 0-10 against D-1 opponents and with no home games. Leading scorer Kintavious Dozier (13 ppg) is back.
Nov. 15 at Florida State
FSU guard Jamir Watkins led the Seminoles in scoring last season.
It wasn't that long ago that this game provided some of the most passionate frustration for Florida fans, what with the Seminoles winning seven straight in the rivalry from 2014-20. The Gators snapped the skid in '21 and Golden is 2-0 in his two cracks, including a 19-point road comeback in his first season and 89-68 blowout at Gainesville last year in a game UF led by 30 at halftime. FSU had a nice run as an annual contender in the Atlantic Coast Conference, but the Seminoles have won a combined 26 games the last two seasons. That's the fewest over a two-year period since their last season under Steve Robinson (2001-02) and first under Leonard Hamilton ('02-03), now 76 and in his 23rd season in Tallahassee. FSU was gutted with seven exits via the portal, including guard Cam'Ron Fletcher and center Baba Miller, but leading scorer Jamir Watkins (15.6 ppg) is back after flirting with the NBA evaluation process. FSU's best incoming prep prospect is three-star forward Jerry Deng, who signed with Hampton then switched.
Nov. 19 Florida A&M
This will mark FAMU's third trip to the O'Dome in as many seasons, part of the UF scheduling strategy to stockpile easy home wins. It'll mark the first time since the Rattlers played here in 2009 that they're not coached by Robert McCullum, who was an assistant under Lon Kruger when the Gators reached their first Final Four in 1994. McCullum was fired after going 6-23 – including a 89-68 loss at UF – and posting a seventh losing record in as many seasons on the Rattlers' sideline. He was replaced by Patrick Crarey II, who was head coach at NAIA St. Thomas the last three seasons and won the Sun Conference title in 2024. Crarey, basically, will build from scratch, with no returnees who averaged in double-figure scoring and perhaps their most notable player 6-8 forward Shaqir O'Neal, who averaged 1.8 points at Texas Southern and is the son of a certain Hall-of-Famer with a similar name.
Nov. 22 Southern Illinois
The Salukis won 42 games the last two seasons, yet opted to fire Coach Bryan Mullins, a former SIU basketball star and Hall-of-Famer, after going 19-13 and finishing sixth in the Missouri Valley Conference. Eventually, the school found a replacement in 57-year-old Scott Nagy, whose 29 seasons and 585-359 record came via 21 years at South Dakota State and the last eight at Wright State, which he guided to two NCAA tournaments as champs of the Horizon Conference, plus one NIT berth. Nagy inherited a roster of just two players – the rest hit the portal – with the best being 6-6 guard Kennard Davis Jr., who averaged 4.2 points per game. The top incoming transfer probably is 6-4 guard Ali Dibba, who tallied 15.5 points 4.5 rebounds at Abilene Christian.
Nov. 28 (ESPN Events Invitational) vs Wake Forest, 2:30 p.m.
State Farm Field House (capacity 5,000) will be the site of the ESPN Events Invitational, which in 2024 will be reconfigured from an eight-team, three-games-each event to a four-team, two-game format.
The last time the Gators played in the annual Thanksgiving tournament at ESPN's Wide World of Sports was in 2016 when they finished fifth by going 2-1 in the three-game event, with wins over Miami and Seton Hall sandwiched around a loss to Gonzaga, which eventually played in the NCAA title game that season. That UF team won 27 games (the program's most in the last 10 seasons) and reached the Elite Eight. For the first time, the tournament field has been reduced from eight teams to four, meaning a two-game event at cozy State Farm Field House. UF-Wake Forest on Thanksgiving Day will tip off the tournament, which will give the Gators a chance to atone for last season's 82-71 loss at Winston-Salem, N.C., in the inaugural ACC/SEC Challenge. The Demon Deacons, who are coming off a 21-14 campaign that ended in the NIT, return four of their top six scorers, led by guard Hunter Sallis (18.0 ppg, 4.1 rpg)), and are projected to be in the upper half (maybe even upper quarter) of the ACC. In fact, this game could mark one of maybe two so-called Quadrant-1 opportunities, per the NCAA Evaluation Tool that ultimately seeds the NCAA Tournament. Depending on the outcome, Florida's second date in the event will be against either Minnesota or Wichita State. The Gophers went 19-15 last season and reached the NIT second round. The Shockers are coming off a 15-19 season in the program's first under Paul Mills, who did some impressive work at Oral Roberts the previous six years (including a win over the Gators and run to the Sweet 16 in the '21 NCAA Tournament). The ESPN second game will be the day after Thanksgiving at either 1 p.m. or 3:30.
Dec. 4 (SEC/ACC Challenge) Virginia
Virginia coach Tony Bennett, entering his 16th season in Charlottesville, has taken the Cavaliers to nine of the previous 10 NCAA tournaments and is one of just seven active Division I coaches to win a national championship (2019).
In the event the Gators get a chance to exact some revenge on the Demon Deacons (above), they'll get to do the same to the Cavaliers in the second ACC/SEC Challenge. UVA struggled to score all season, but shot 47 percent against the Gators in a 73-70 victory played in Charlotte in the second game of the '23-24 season. In that game, 6-11 backup center Blake Buchanan, a freshman forward from Idaho, smashed UF for 18 points and seven rebounds. Note: Buchanan averaged 3.4 points in his other 28 games. UF star guard Walter Clayton Jr. had a pair of turnovers in the final minute to aid the Cavs, so expect him to be laser-focused for this one. Virginia, which went 23-11 and took a hideous round-one blowout defeat in the NCAA Tournament against Colorado State, lost a pair of standouts in two-time ACC Defensive Player of the Year and point guard Reece Beekman and forward Ryan Dunn to the NBA. The Cavs return sharp-shooting guard Isaac McKneely (12.3 ppg, 44.5 percent from 3) and added sophomore forward TJ Power, a former five-star recruit who saw little playing time in one season at Duke. The game will mark just the fifth meeting between the two programs and first on-campus face-off at either school.
Dec. 14 (Holiday Hoopsgiving at Atlanta) vs Arizona State Bobby Hurley
The Holiday Hoopsgiving, which combines several marquee high school matches alongside college games, is in its third year and will be played at State Farm Arena, home to the NBA Atlanta Hawks. The SEC has sent Georgia, Mississippi State, LSU and Auburn there, and now it's the Gators' turn. They get to go up against that otherHurley, as in Bobby, and the Sun Devils, who will be making their Big 12 Conference debut in '24-25. ASU bid farewell to the Pac-12 by going 14-18, making for a third sub-.500 season in the last four. Hurley, set to enter his 10th season in Tempe, has never reached the NCAA Tournament's second round and this year must replace point guard and leading scorer Frankie Collins, who transferred to Texas Christian. ASU filled that void with do-everything BJ Freeman, formerly of Milwaukee, where he average averaged 21.1 points, 6.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists and headlines a five-man transfer class. The Sun Devils also have an incoming freshman class rated in the top 10 and led by 6-9, 230-pound five-star Jayden Quaintance, a McDonald's All American who originally signed with Kentucky. The Hoopsgiving order of games has not been released, but the lineup will include Auburn vs. Ohio State and Georgia vs. Grand Canyon.
Dec. 17 (Jordan Brand Classic at Charlotte, N.C.) vs North Carolina, 7 p.m.
UNC All America guard RJ Davis (4) surprised some by opting to return to the Tar Heels.
The round-robin will be done this year, with the four original Jordan Brand schools – Florida, North Carolina, Michigan and Oklahoma – completing their rotation in the two-night men's and women's combined event. The Gators lost to Oklahoma two years ago, beat Michigan in double-overtime last year and now get UNC and the partisan home crowd at Spectrum Center in Charlotte. They also get RJ Davis, the spectacular guard who bypassed the NBA draft to return for a fifth-year Covid season, much along the lines of Amando Bacot, who did the same last year and exited his career with more 2,300 and 1,700 rebounds. The Tar Heels, now in the fourth season under alum Hubert Davis, went 29-8 last season, including 17-3 in ACC play, and lost to Alabama in the Sweet 16. Davis is the lone scorer among the Heels' top four returning, but five-star freshman Ian Jackson was a McDonald's All American and top-10 national prospect from The Bronx. Florida fans may also recall Vanderbilt forward Ven Allen-Lubin, the Orlando product who transferred to Chapel Hill. Allen-Lubin went for 25 points and 11 rebounds in the Commodores' home victory over the Gators in the regular season finale in March. UF and UNC will play for the first time since meeting in the 2014 Battle 4 Atlantis, a game won by the Tar Heels 75-64 in what turned out to be Billy Donovan's final season coaching the Gators. This will be the only for-certain Quad 1 opp for Florida before January.
Dec. 21 North Florida
UF is 10-0 all-time against UNF, five of them coming during a stretch from March 2016 to November 2019. The Ospreys, entering their 16th season under Matt Driscoll, have not finished with a winning record since their Atlantic Sun Conference championship season of 2015 when they reached the NCAA Tournament. Driscoll still plays the 3-point bombing style that earned the nickname "Birds of Trey," what with 54.7 percent of their shots coming from deep last season. That led the nation. Unfortunately for UNF, the team only made 35.9 percent of those shots and was one of the nation's worst defensive teams in total efficiency (318th). Scoring leader and first-team All-ASUN guard Chaz Lanier (19.7 ppg, 44 percent from 3, 4.8 rpg) transferred to Tennessee, but the second- and third-leading scorers, guards Ametri Moss (10.8 ppg) and Nate Literas (10.4 ppg), are back.
Dec. 29 StetsonDonnie Jones
It's been 41 years since the Hatters beat the Gators – Nov. 26, 1983 at the O'Dome – with UF winning 19 in a row in a series that includes just two meetings since 2012. It's worth noting, though, that Stetson, now in the sixth season with former UF assistant Donnie Jones at the helm, beat UCF last season and both FSU and USF the year before, so they get geared up for the home state boys. Worth mentioning even more: the Hatters won the ASUN Tournament last season and reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. As a 16-seed, Stetson was matched against defending champion Connecticut and the result was predictable, but it was a historic year for the Hatters, who will have trouble building on their prosperity. Of the seven players who averaged at least four points per game, only guard Tristan Gross (4.0 ppg) returns.
Jan. 4 at Kentucky
Kentucky brought home former UK player and favorite son Mark Pope, by way of Brigham Young, to coach the Cats.
The seismic developments in Lexington last spring were positively mind-blowing ... and the season-ending first-round NCAA loss to 14th-seeded Oakland was not even at the top of the list. John Calipari chose not to deal with what would have been the hottest seat in college basketball. After 15 seasons, 533 wins, six regular-season league championships, five tournament titles and the 2012 national crown, "Cal" bolted for Arkansas (more on that later) and eventually took three Wildcats with him. Big Blue Nation, of course, thought it would have its pick of the world's best coaches – nope – and ultimately turned to native son Mark Pope, who had four 20-win seasons in his five at Brigham Young. Pope came home to the place he won a national title as a forward for Rick Pitino in 1996 and basically had to build a roster from scratch, what with the four Cats going to the NBA (led by No. 3 overall pick Reed Sheppard) and six more transferring. UK '24-25 will be headlined by a nine-member transfer class considered among the best in the country, starring 6-11 Brandon Garrison (7.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg at Oklahoma State) and 6-9 Andrew Carr (13.5 ppg, 6.8 rpg at Wake Forest) in the front court and athletic guards Jaxson Robinson (14.2 ppg at BYU), Koby Brea (11.1 ppg Dayton), Otega Oweh (11.4 ppg Oklahoma), Lamont Butler Jr. (9.2 ppg at San Diego State) and Kerr Kriisa (11.0 ppg, 4.7 apg at West Virginia by way of Arizona) in the backcourt. Pope is considered a very good X's and O's coach and his UK pedigree should have him prepped for the sky-high (and unrealistic) Kentucky expectations. Make it two straight years the Gators open against the Cats, after going 25 years (1999-2024) without doing so. Florida won at Rupp last January, ending a five-game losing skid in the series, and will try to make it two straight in Lexington for the first time since winning the '06-07 back-to-back NCAA championship seasons.
Jan. 7 Tennessee
Tennessee, which won the conference regular-season title in 2024, lost SEC Player of the Year Dalton Knecht to the NBA, but returns SEC Defensive Player of the Year Zakai Zeigler (5), the diminutive but lighning fast point guard.
The Volunteers, one of UF's three home-and-home league opponents in '24, will make just their third visit to the O'Dome in six seasons (compared to the Gators going to Knoxville for a fifth time since '20). UT lost 2024 SEC Player of the Dalton Knecht, the one-year wonder by way of Northern Colorado, to the NBA, but Rick Barnes has it going in Knoxville. He's averaged 26.3 wins over the last three seasons, won his second SEC crown in '24, then fell one victory shy (against No. 1 overall seed Purdue, no less) of the second Final Four of his 38-year Hall of Fame career, which enters Year 10 at Tennessee. The Vols, as the fanbase is painfully aware, have never been to a Final Four. As far as '24-25, Barnes had some rebuilding to do after, in addition to Knecht, also losing program five-year fixture Santiago Vescovi (graduation) and low-post beast Jonas Aidoo (to Arkansas). Reigning SEC Defensive Player of the Year Zakai Zeigler (11.9 ppg, 6.1 apg) returns at point guard, as does role-playing guard Jordan Gainey (6.8 ppg), but UT will need instant impact from its four transfers, starting with the previously mentioned Chaz Lanier (from UNF), 6-10 Igor Milicic (12.8 ppg, 8.5 rpg at Charlotte) and guard Darlinstone Dunbar (17.8 ppg, 6.8 rpg at Hofstra).
Jan. 11 at Arkansas
John Calipari went 410-123 in his 15 seasons at Kentucky before shocking the college basketball world and callin' them Hogs.
As much as die-hard Cats had grown weary of Calipari's schtick – and March flameouts, also – they're ecstatic in Fayetteville about the possibilities of his P.T. Barnum act coming toBud Walton Arena. Not that the Razorbacks had been down and out of late. Over his middle three seasons, Eric Musselman guided the Hogs to back-to-back Elite Eights ('21 and '22), then to the Sweet 16 ('23), but the program reportedly dealt with some chemistry issues in '23-24 on the way to going 16-17, with Musselman bolting for Southern Cal. The Calipari development came out of nowhere. Eventually, he brought a UK duo of guards DJ Wagner (9.9 ppg, 3.3 apg) and Adou Thiero (7.2 ppg, 5.0 rpg), plus 7-2 Zvonimir Ivisic (5.5 ppg, 3.3 rpg). He also hit portal homers – several publications ranked Arkansas transfer class No. 1 nationally – with the aforementioned 6-11, 230-pound Jonas Aidoo (11.4 ppg, 7.3 rpg at Tennessee) and Florida Atlantic superstar guard Johnell Davis, who averaged 15.9 points and shot nearly 39 percent from deep the last two seasons in leading the Owls to 60 wins, two NCAA berths and the 2023 Final Four. The three-man freshman class, led by a pair of McDonald's All Americans Kentucky flips in guard Boogie Fland and Tampa wing Karter Knox, also was a consensus top five haul. Forward Trevon Brazile (8.6 ppg, 5.9 rpg) was a surprise pull-out from the NBA process and opted to come back as the lone returning Hog of note.
Jan. 14 Missouri
Missouri guard Tamar Bates (2), the transfer from Indiana, ripped Micah Handlogten (left) and Florida for a career-high 36 points last January, but the Gators prevailed on the road.
Mizzou's '23-24 season was historically awful. The Tigers became just the second team in SEC history (joining Vanderbilt 2018-19) to go winless in an 18-game league season, and dropped their lone conference tournament game for an 8-24 mark in Year 2 under Coach Dennis Gates, who the year before guided the program to the NCAA Tournament (and won a game). History will not repeat itself. Gates is a good coach and the Tigers will be a good team in '24-25; maybe a very good team. Among the (small) handful of players Gates brought back is guard Tamar Bates (13.5 ppg), who UF fans might remember hanging a career-high 36 on the Gators in their win at Columbia. Mizzou's incoming freshmen include four four-stars, led by forward Annor Boateng and 7-foot Peyton Marshall and represent half of a consensus top-10 class. The best of the four transfers? Take your pick: forward Mark Mitchell (11.5 ppg, 6.0 rpg) from Duke; guard Marques Warrick (19.9 ppg) from Northern Kentucky; point guard Tony Perkins (14.0 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 4.6 apg) from Iowa; or forward Jacob Crews (19.1 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 41 percent from3) at UT-Martin.
Jan. 18 Texas
Obviously, the Texas mascot won't make the trip to Gainesville, but we might as well get used to seeing Bevo.
Rodney Terry got a battlefield promotion to head coach of the Longhorns when Chris Beard was suspended eight games into the '22-23 season and ultimately fired for a domestic violence incident. Terry got that UT team to the Elite Eight, went 21-13 last season in the program's final Big 12 swing and figures to have a very good squad in the Horns' first SEC season, with a trio of starters back, led by guard Tyrese Hunter (11.1 ppg), combined with solid transfer and freshmen classes. Forward Arthur Kaluma (14.4 ppg, 7.0 rpg at Kansas State), guard Jordan Pope (17.6 ppg, 3.4 rpg at Oregon State) and guard Tramon Mark (16.2 ppg, 4.3 rpg) will bring instant impact. Freshman Tre Johnson was a McDonald's All American, top-10 national prospect and the No. 2-rated small forward in the recruiting class. The Gators and Longhorns will play for the first time since 1997 and for the first time in Gainesville since '96. Memo to Rowdy Reptiles: Whatever you do, do not flash the "Horns Down" sign, as UT folks consider that the ultimate sign of disrepect. It's been known to make Terry very, very upset.
Jan. 22 at South Carolina
Gamecocks forward Collin Murray-Boyles (30) was named to the 2024 SEC All-Freshman Team.
After finishing 10 games below .500 in his first season on the USC sidelines, Lamont Paris rebuilt the Gamecocks to the tune of 26 wins (including a 13-5 conference mark), the program's first NCAA Tournament berth in seven years and was named 2024 SEC Coach of the Year. Paris, who came from Chattanooga, might be hard-pressed to build on that breakout season after losing his top three bucket-getters (scoring leader and point guard Meechie Johnson, who transferred to USC from Ohio State, transferred back to Ohio State) and replacing the roster with mostly role-playing transfers and just one freshman. The Gamecocks, though, get back 6-7 sophomore Collin Murray-Boyles, named to the league's All-Freshman team after scoring 10.4 points and grabbing 5.7 rebounds. Guard Myles Stute (8.3 ppg), a 38.8-percent 3-point shooter during his USC and Vanderbilt career, returns also. A couple "bigs" from other SEC schools, 6-10, 225-pound grad Nick Pringle (6.8 ppag, 5.1 rpg at Alabama) and 7-foot sophomore Jordan Butler (2.0 ppg, 1.9 rpg at Missouri) will patrol the paint. Freshman guard Cam Scott was the state's prep player of the year and rates as the second highest-ranked signee in program history.
Jan. 25 Georgia
Mike White is 36-33 in his two seasons at Georgia.
White bolted UF in 2022 and inherited a 6-26 mess from Tom Crean. In his second season, White won 20 games and got the Bulldogs to the third round of the NIT. In 13 seasons at three different schools, White has never finished with a losing record and just might build on '23-24 despite losing four starters. Guard Silas Demary (9.7 ppg, 3.6 rpg. 2.5 apg) had a promising freshman year and shooting guard classmate Blue Cain (7.4 ppg, 35.5 percent from 3) figures to be better. Of the five incoming transfers, guard Tyrin Lawrence (13.8 ppg, 5.1 rpg) proved himself in SEC play at Vandy, RJ Goldfrey (6.1 ppg, 3.4 rpg) was a tough role-playing forward for a Clemson team that reached the Elite Eight last season and guard Dakota Leffew (17.6 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 3.9 apg at Mount St. Mary's) stuffed stat lines. But the player UGA fans are most amped about is 6-9 forward Asa Newell, who was part of Montverde (Fla.) Academy's 35-0 national prep championship team and is the first five-star to join the Bulldogs since Anthony Edwards. Newell will be paired alongside 6-10, 240-pound classmate Somto Cyril and guard Savo Drezgic (Bradenton IMG Academy), who together helped the Dogs land a signing class rated among the nation's top 15. The Gators have won 11 straight in the series, dating to the 2020 season.
Feb. 1 at Tennessee
This will mark the fifth time in seven seasons the Gators have played in Knoxville, compared to three trips for the Vols to Gainesville during the same time. UF has lost seven straight at Thompson-Boling Arena, dating to 2016, and hasn't been very competitive in those outings, either.
Feb. 4 Vanderbilt Kevin Byington
James Madison coach Kevin Byington was going to get a high-major job. He won 54 games the last two seasons in Harrisonburg, Va., including a 32-4 rampage to the Sun Belt Conference title and first-round NCAA upset of Wisconsin in '24. The dream season ended with an ugly loss to Duke, but the Commodores came calling after moving on from five seasons (and zero NCAA bids) under former NBA star Jerry Stackhouse. Like Calipari in Arkansas and Pope in Kentucky, Byington basically had to acquire an entire team, but Vandy bears little resemblance to those two programs relative to pedigree. Byington, with no returning player averaging more than two points a game, signed a whopping 10 transfers, including guards Jason Edwards (19.1 ppg at North Texas), Grant Hoffman (12.8 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 5.3 apg at Davidson) and AJ Hoggard (10.7 ppg, 5.7 apg at Michigan State). The '24-25 roster lists 18 players, with the tallest Commodore 6-9 sophomore Kijani Wright, who averaged 3.6 points and 2.6 boards at Southern Cal last season.
Feb. 8 at Auburn
Two-time first-team All-SEC forward Johni Broome (4) is back for more low-post beasting for the Tigers.
The Tigers won their final three regular-season conference games to finish second in the SEC standings (just one game behind Tennessee), then steamrolled through the league tournament to their second SEC Tournament championship under program-builder extraordinaire Bruce Pearl. Oh, and then they lost to 13th-seeded Yale in first-round NCAA play, thus spoiling an otherwise magnificent 27-8 campaign. Not to worry. The Tigers had some transfer turnover, but have plenty coming back, starting with two-time first-team All-SEC forward Johni Broome, the club's leader in scoring (16.8 pg) and rebounding (8.5 pg), wing Chad Baker-Mazara (10.0 ppg, 3.7 rpg) and guard Denver Jones (9.1 ppg), who represent three of the top scorers on last season's team. The Tigers' trio of front line guards – KD Johnson (George Mason), Tre Donaldson (Michigan) and Aden Holloway (Alabama, which should be interesting) – hit the portal, but McDonald's All American Tahaad Pettiford, out of New Jersey, was the No. 2-ranked point guard in his prep class and freshman classmate Jakhi Howard won the national slam-dunk competition. Incoming transfers to watch figure to be guards JP Pegues (18.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 4.8 apg at Furman) and wing Miles Kelly (13.9 ppg, 5.5 rpg at Georgia Tech). Auburn will get some preseason buzz to win the league.
Feb. 11 at Mississippi State
Guard Riley Kugel, now at Missississippi State, had back-to-back games of 24 and 25 points against Baylor and Wake Forest, respectively, but his productivity fell off later in the season for the Gators.
The Bulldogs are 2-for-2 making the NCAA Tournament under Chris Jans, who came to Starkville in 2022 after winning at least 25 games in four of his previous five seasons at New Mexico State. His second MSU team finished 21-14, including 8-10 in conference play (9th place), but upset Tennessee in the SEC Tournament, earned a No. 8 seed in the NCAA field, only to drop a first-rounder to Michigan State. Jans' third team returns seven from a 10-man rotation, but unfortunately for the Bulldogs 6-10, 245-pound, three-time All-SEC forward Tolu Smith is not one of them. He's gone. So is guard Shakeel Moore (Kansas), but leading scorer and volume shooter Josh Hubbard (17.1 ppg), who as a freshman averaged nearly nine 3 attempts per game (that led the conference) at 35.5 percent, is back to bomb away. So is senior forward Cameron Matthews (9.6 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 2.9 apg). A five-man transfer class includes guard Riley Kugel (9.2 ppg), whose sophomore season with the Gators began with great promise but went south due to bouts of inconsistency in games and practice. UF fans will recall forward RJ Melendez (9.6 ppg, 4.1 rpg), who shredded the Gators for a career-high 35 points off the bench for Georgia at the O'Dome last January. Point guard Kanye Clary (16.7 ppg, 37.7 from 3 at Penn State) and off-guard Claudell Harris Jr. (13.7 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 37 from 3 at Boston College) will play a lot.
Feb. 15
South Carolina
Whether this rematch gets the O'Dome juices going could very well depend on how the first meeting goes.
Feb. 18
Oklahoma
Porter Moser is 3-0 coaching against Florida, with two of those winnings coming at Oklahoma and one at the O'Dome in December 2017 when his Loyola-Chicago team upset the Gators early in a season that ended with a Cinderella run to the Final Four.
In 2017, UF handed OU the worst home loss in program history. The Gators went to Norman and woodshedded the Sooners 84-52 in the now-defunct Big 12/SEC Challenge in one of the most impressive victories of Florida's best season the last decade. The teams have met three times since, however, with Oklahoma winning all three, including the last two under Coach Porter Moser. Now the teams will meet annually, with this one marking the Sooners' first trip to Gainesville. OU went 20-12 in its farewell Big 12 campaign, including 8-10 in league play, and did not make the NCAA field. The Sooners return two of their top eight scorers in forwards Jalen Moore (11.2 ppg, 6.7 rpg) and Sam Godwin (6.7 ppg, 5.2 rpg). The transfer class didn't make the nation's Top 75, but OU will need production from guards Brycen Goodine (13.9 ppg at Fairfield) and Duke Miles (17.5 ppg at High Point) and up front from 6-10, 225-pound Mohamed Wague (3.1 ppg, 2.5 rebounds and a nasty elbow to the head of UF's Alex Condon at Alabama). Don't discount Moser's ability to make this work. There's probably a reason some of his most productive players transferred -- Javian McCollum (13.3 ppg) to Georgia Tech, Oweh (11.4 ppg) to Kentucky, point guard Milos Uzon (9.0 ppg, 4.4 apg) to Houston -- and it probably had to do with results.
Feb. 22 at LSU
Incoming LSU guard Jordan Sears was a stat machine at Tennessee-Martin, where he averaged 21.6 points, shot 42 percent from 3-point range and was twice named first-team All-Ohio Valley Conference.
Matt McMahon handed Golden his last defeat as coach at the University of San Francisco. It came at Indianapolis in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The next day, Golden was named coach of the Gators. McMahon, a finalist for the UF job, bolted the next week for LSU. Golden has gone 3-0 against McMahon since and hopes to maintain that edge again in '24-25. The Tigers went 17-16 last season and lost in first-round NIT play. They said bye to their three top scorers, but return forward Jalen Reed (7.9 ppg, 4.1 rpg), the one-time UF commit, and guard Mike Williams (7.2 ppg). Guard Cam Carter (14.6 ppg at Kansas State) may ring a bell (he played at Mississippi State two years ago), but watch out for 5-11 Jordan Sears, a gunner from Ormond Beach, Fla., who averaged 21.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.5 assists at Tennessee-Martin the last two seasons after transferring from Gardner-Webb. The incoming freshman class rates in the top 20, led by 6-10, 225-pound power forward Robert Miller, all-name teamer Vyctorious Miller and 7-foot Noah Boyde, who was the top-ranked junior-college center in his class.
Feb. 25 at Georgia
Florida last lost at Athens in 2019, which was also the last year the Gators were swept by the Bulldogs. Golden is 5-0 against White after winning all three meetings last year, each of them very competitive contests, including a 102-98 overtime thriller when the Bulldogs erased a 21-point second-half deficit. UGA built a 13-point lead on the Gators in Athens in the rematch before eventually losing 88-82 and UF's 85-80 victory in the SEC Tournament wasn't decided until the final half-minute.
March 1 Texas A&M
Guard Wade Taylor IV, who finished fourth in the SEC in scoring last season at 19.1 points per game, attempted 304 shots from the 3-point line last season, second-most among league players.
Buzz Williams and his Aggies rarely get a lot of preseason hype, but maybe they should this season. Though a middling conference team last season, A&M still went 21-15 (9-9 in league play) and reached the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year, winning a first-round game before being ousted by No. 1-seed Houston. The Aggies return seven of their top eight scorers, including two-time first-team All-SEC guard Wade Taylor IV (19.1 ppg), a volume bomber (8.4 attempts from 3 per game) but solid assist guy (4.0 pg), as well. Also back are forwards Henry Coleman III (8.8 ppg, 5.6 rpg) and Solomon Washington (7.4 ppg, 5.7 rpg), along with guard Manny Obaski (7.0 ppg, 40 percent from 3). Shooting guard Andre Mills projects as the best of three newcomers, all freshmen, as the Aggies signed zero transfers. A&M had a five-game winning streak against UF snapped in the SEC Tournament semifinals when the Gators rallied from 18 for one of the biggest victories of the season. The previous six UF-A&M meetings have been decided by a combined 15 points.
March 5
at Alabama
The 2024 SEC Player of the Year could just as well have gone to Bama stat-stuffing point guard Mark Sears.
When you win 25 games, go to the first Final Four in school history, return your best guard and forward, including the No. 2 scorer in the league, and sign the No. 2 recruiting class in the country you're probably going to be picked to win the conference (maybe even a national championship). Take a bow, Nate Oats, who has won at least 25 games each of the last three seasons, as well as two regular-season SEC times and two tournament titles. Two-time first-team All-SEC point guard Mark Sears (21.5 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 4.0 apg) and forward Grant Nelson (11.9 ppg, 5.9 rpg) are the key returnees after the Crimson Tide lost four rotation players to – get this – Kansas, South Carolina, Michigan and Oklahoma, respectively. Not to worry. Oats has shown he knows how to find transfers and roll them into one of the best offenses in the country (No. 2 in '23-24). Keep an eye on 6-11, 240-pound Clifford Omoruyi (10.4 ppg, 8.3 rpg at Rutgers) and Chris Youngblood (15.3 ppg, 41.6 percent from 3 at South Florida). Oh yeah. Bama also signed two McDonald's All Americans in wing Derrion Reid from California and 6-11 Aiden Sherrill from Detroit. They'll be loaded again in Tuscaloosa.
March 8 Ole Miss
Rebels guard Matthew Murrell (left) and Coach Chris Beard.
How's this for a stat? The home team has won 11 straight meetings, dating to Feb. 9, 2016. Good thing this one is at the O'Dome, considering the Rebels have won the four in Oxford during that span by an average of more than 14 points, including last season's embarrassing 103-85 blowout that was an early SEC harbinger for UF's defensive woes. Mississippi went 20-12 and reached the second round of the NIT in the first season under Chris Beard, who will get back four of his top five scorers, including guard Matthew Murrell (16.2 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 2.4 apg) and forward Jaemyn Brakefield (12.9 ppg, 4.9 rpg). Beard's transfer class goes five strong and rates in the nation's top 20, led by point guard Sean Pedulla (16.4 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 4.6 apg at Virginia Tech), off-guard Malik Dia (16.9 ppg, 5.8 rpg at Belmont) and forward Dre Davis (15.0 ppg, 5.9 rpg at Seton Hall). The Rebels also landed a McDonald's All-America center in 7-1, 210-pound John Bol, out of St. Louis. The game will mark "Senior Day" for a trio of Gators: Clayton, Will Richard and FAU transfer Alijah Martin.
March 12-16 SEC Tournament at Nashville (Bridgestone Arena)
Bridgestone Arena (capacity 20,000) in Nashville sits on Broadway, in the heart of the most happening part of the Music City, and is an ideal venue for the SEC postseason tournament.
The conference tournament had not been a friend to the Gators for a decade; not since they won it in 2014 at Atlanta during that historic unbeaten rampage through the conference on the way to the Final Four. Only once since had UF even made it to the Saturday semifinals – a 5-8 record in the previous eight tournaments – until the run to the '24 championship game that included upsets of No. 2-seed Alabama and No. 7-seed Texas A&M. The Gators were beaten soundly, 86-67, by second-seed and No. 12 Auburn in the title game that began (not two minutes in) with 7-1 center Micah Handlogten suffering a lower leg fracture to the horror of the sellout crowd. Handlogten will redshirt in '24-25 and hopes to be sitting on the bench for another Florida tournament run in the Music City, which is contracted to host the event through 2035.
Florida, in the third season under Todd Golden and coming off its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2021 (as well as the program's winningest campaign since 2017), has a mostly light turn of non-conference opponents coming to the Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, along with one high-end neutral-site date and some decent others. We already knew about those. Now comes the lineup for the brutal league paddle wheel, this time with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma, both of who will come to the O'Dome. 
