2016-2017 Florida Gators basketball schedule released

On Tuesday afternoon, the Florida Gators men’s basketball schedule was released to the public. This season the Gators have 13 non-conference games slated on the schedule. However, with Exactech Arena currently under $65 million worth of renovations, the Gators schedule will look a little bit different this year.

The Gators will kick off their 2016 season with a match-up against Florida Gulf Coast in Jacksonville, FL on November 11^th. The city of Jacksonville will host three games this fall for the Gators basketball team. The cities of Tampa, Sunrise, and Lakeland will also host games with Exactech Arena under construction.

During the Thanksgiving holiday, Florida will participate in the three day AdvoCare Invitational in Orlando, FL. The Gators open up the mid-season tournament with Seton Hall at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN, the first of 12 nationally televised games for the Gators this year. There 12 nationally televised games is second best in the conference, only behind Kentucky.

The Gators don’t leave the state of Florida until early December, when they square off against the Duke Blue Devils in New York City. Florida and Duke will be shown on ESPN at 9 p.m. in Madison Square Garden.

Following the trip up the East coast, Florida will then head to Tallahassee to play in-state rival Florida State. Florida will then conclude its non-conference schedule with their first home basketball game of the year against the University of Arkansas Little Rock on December 21^st.

After Christmas break, SEC play begins for the Orange and Blue. All 18 SEC games for Florida will be televised, including two featured on CBS. The Gators will head to Fayetteville, Arkansas on December 29^th to take on the Razorbacks to begin conference play.

Florida will then have two home games in a row for the first time all season, when they host Ole Miss and Tennessee. Ole Miss will be the SEC home-opener for the Gators this season. Florida only plays back-to-back games in Gainesville twice this season because of the construction to the arena. Florida then steps out of conference play Saturday January 28th, when they travel to Norman, Oklahoma to take on the Sooners.

In the following month, Florida plays Kentucky twice within a three week span. The first match-up in Gainesville will either be at 2p.m. or 8p.m., and either televised on ESPN or ESPN2 network February 4^th. Outside of playing Kentucky twice, Florida will also play versus Georgia, Vanderbilt, South Carolina and Arkansas two times.

The Gators senior day will be held on March 1^st against Arkansas, their final home game of the season. The basketball team will conclude their regular season on the road versus Vanderbilt on March 4^th. This is the second consecutive year the Gators will not end the season with Kentucky as the final game.

One week after making the trip to Nashville, the Gators will head back to the Volunteer state to play in the SEC Basketball Tournament.

2016-17 SEC Schedule