The SEC has announced its men’s basketball conference schedule for the 2020-21 season.
It is an 18-game schedule for each team, with a built-in “open day” on March 6. That is an extra time slot to schedule a game should it need to be rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the non-conference slate this season was reduced from 13 games in 2019-20 to just nine this season, in-conference games remain unchanged. Eighteen in-conference games is typical for SEC basketball. The conference tournament, as it will this season, usually starts about a week later.
The Gators SEC slate tips off on Dec. 30 in Music City, as Florida will play Vanderbilt that night in Memorial Gym in Nashville, Tennessee. UF’s conference stint will end with Missouri at home on March 3.
UF plays Kentucky much sooner than it has in the recent past this season, facing the Wildcats in just the fourth game of SEC play on Jan. 9 at home. The Gators haven’t played UK in January since the 2017-18 season. Per usual, that will be a Saturday game, most likely during the day on CBS.
Florida also welcomes LSU, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Texas A&M, Georgia and Missouri to the O’Connell Center this season. The Gators traveling schedule includes trips to play Vanderbilt, Alabama, Mississippi State, Georgia, LSU, Tennessee, Arkansas, Auburn and Kentucky.
As always, the only break in conference play once it gets rolling will be Florida’s Big12/SEC matchup against West Virginia on Jan. 30. That game will be on the road in Morgantown, Virginia.
A big takeaway from the schedule is that the Gators only have back-to-back home games one time, a two-game homestand when they play Kentucky on Jan. 9 and then when they play Ole Miss the following Tuesday.
On the flip side, coach Mike White’s group has two huge away games back-to-back when it travels to LSU to face the Tigers on Feb. 6 and then to Knoxville, Tennessee, to face the Volunteers on Feb. 10.
Not long after that, two more crucial road games loom. Late into the season, Florida heads to Auburn to play the Tigers on Feb. 23, right before a Feb. 27 matchup against Kentucky in Lexington.
After the regular season ends, Florida will head back to Nashville for the SEC Tournament, which will be held from March 10-14.
Contact Graham Marsh at gmarsh@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @GrahamMarshUF.
The SEC released its men's basketball conference schedule Friday. The Gators will play LSU at home and away in the 2020-21 season.
