The Florida Gators men’s basketball team released its conference schedule Tuesday, paving the way for a highly anticipated year after the Gators fell in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last season.
In a conference as talented as the SEC, Florida may struggle to replicate the success it had in 2023. The Gators finished 24-12 overall with an 11-7 record in conference play.
Five of Florida’s SEC opponents this season were ranked inside last year’s final AP Top 25 poll: No. 3 Alabama, No. 5 Tennessee, No. 18 Auburn, No. 20 Kentucky and No. 24 South Carolina.
The Gators will open their conference schedule on the road against the Kentucky Wildcats Jan. 4 at Rupp Arena, where they came away with an overtime victory against UK last season. The Wildcats will be without 15-year head coach John Calipari, who left the program April 9 for the head coaching position at Arkansas.
Instead, Kentucky will be led by Mark Pope, an alum of the program and former head coach at Brigham Young University.
Following its matchup with the Wildcats, Florida will go toe-to-toe with the Tennessee Volunteers at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center Jan. 7 or 8. The Volunteers defeated the Gators 85-66 last season in Knoxville. However, when the two last faced in Gainesville in 2022, Florida upset then-ranked No. 2 Tennessee, 67-54.
The Gators will play 18 conference games and wrap up its regular season slate against Ole Miss March 8. Florida’s first game of its regular season will play out Nov. 4 against South Florida. The matchup will be played at a neutral site at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville.
Contact Luke Adragna at ladragna@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @lukeadrag.
Luke Adragna is a third-year journalism student and the Florida Gators football reporter at The Alligator. He is a cat ethusiast and completes the NYT Daily Mini in less than a minute each day.
