The Florida Gators find themselves in the thick of preseason practice as they look to repeat as National Champions.
Last year, the Gators chose to play an easier non-conference schedule in order to build confidence–perhaps not knowing that they would ultimately be a Championship team. This year, things have completely flipped. Todd Golden and his staff scheduled a difficult non-conference loaded with opportunities to build a resume that would ensure a 1-seed, and even the number one overall seed if everything breaks right.
With the non-conference portion of the season being so important, Florida will start to use their practice time to prepare for some of the marquee games on their calendar. As they prepare for different players, coaches, and style play, they will think about how they can best generate a win, as well as use these experiences as preparation for the SEC season in another year where it could be the best league in college basketball.
Looking towards Florida’s non-conference season, here are some styles of play and general concepts that they’ll need to be prepared for.
Arizona
Physicality And Pace
Florida and Arizona will be kicking off the college basketball season with a massive opening night game, and it will be the perfect test for the Gators who want to play fast, and feature their size in the frontcourt. How does Arizona play, you might ask? Well, they play fast–and they play with a lot of size in the frontcourt. This matchup will be strength on strength, with the Wildcats rolling out Tobe Awaka, Motiejunas Krivas, and Koa Peat among others to make for a tall, physical frontcourt. This will be a tremendous game.
Miami
Perimeter Defense
Entering the first year of the Jai Lucas era, the Miami culture has been clearly defined–defense. Lucas is a defensive coach who didn’t only preach that defense would be the priority, he backed it up with his portal additions. Tru Washington was one of the best perimeter defenders in the country last season and he’ll make things tough on either Boogie Fland or Xaivian Lee, and Tre Donaldson and Marcus Allen will also be pests. This will be a nice test for Florida’s offense, particularly for the guards.
Merrimack
The 2-3 Zone
Merrimack is unique in that they will exclusively play a 2-3 zone, and head coach Joe Gallo is one of if not the best zone coaches in the country. Florida will go into this game knowing exactly what they’ll need to do and that makes it an interesting test to see just how prepared they’re going to be. Merrimack doesn’t have close to the same level of athlete as Florida, but they play that zone better than anyone.
TCU
Aggressive Man To Man Defense
Under head coach Jamie Dixon the TCU Horned Frogs have been all about aggressive defense, denying passing lanes and ball reversals and forcing a lot of turnovers, and they were one of the best high-major teams in the country at coming up with steals a year ago. Florida is hoping to really limit their turnovers this year by having two star point guards, and their ball security will be tested by TCU.
Duke
Tough Road Environment
This SEC-ACC Challenge game is taking place at famed Cameron Indoor Stadium which is one of the toughest places for road teams to play in the country. There are some difficult places to play in the SEC, so the Gators getting some early experience in a hostile environment should be helpful as they move throughout their schedule.
UConn
Offensive Brilliance
After falling to the Gators in the Round Of 32 last season the UConn Huskies have reloaded their roster and are expected to push for yet another Final Four in 2025-26, and they’re going to do it with their patented complexity on the offensive end. Known for running the most complicated offensive actions in college basketball, this will be an excellent test for Florida’s defense and communication.
Colgate
Fighting Complacency
Coming off a National Championship it can sometimes be difficult for teams to stay focused for every single game in a long regular season, as they look toward the conference and NCAA Tournaments. Now in the transfer portal era it could be easier for teams like Florida to stay focused with Xaivian Lee and Boogie Fland wanting to push for their first Championships, and we’ll see just how focused the Gators are against Colgate. Not only is Colgate a really skilled mid-major team that could give a high-major team issues, but the game is taking place December 21st–the last non-conference game before the holiday break. If Florida is able to remain locked in for this game, they should be able to stay focused throughout the day to day grind of the SEC.