To be fair, White did get Georgia back into the NCAAs after more than a decade of absence. That's a good start. But, I loved what Todd Golden has done in the last couple of years at Florida: two SEC-T Final appearances and much more.
Here is another Top 25 that has Florida rated as the highest yet. Florida, Houston rise in our men's NCAA top 25 after NBA draft withdrawal deadline 1. Purdue (prev 1) 2. Florida (prev 18) <-- Highest Riser! 3. Houston (prev 4) 4. UConn (prev 2) 5. St Johns (prev 3) 6. BYU 7. Louisville 8. Michigan 9. Kentucky (prev 11) 10. Texas Tech 11. Arkansas (prev 10) 12. Duke (prev 6) <- Big Drop! 13. Arizona 14. Auburn 15. UCLA 16. Illinois 17. Alabama (prev 24) <- Nate Oats did something! 18. Iowa St (prev 13) <- Significant Drop! 19. Gonzaga (prev 22) 20. Wisconsin (prev 16) 21. Kansas 22. Creighton 23. Tennessee (prev 20) 24. NC State 25. North Carolina ^ Nice to see "Blue Bloods" (i.e, NC, KU, Duke, etc.) start off lower in the rankings for a change. In the 2025-26 nonconference season, Florida will play #13 Arizona & #4 UConn. In the SEC, only two teams in the top 10 (2 UF, 9 UK) and four SEC teams in the later top 25 (11-25): 11 Ark, 14 AU, 17 AL, 23 Tenn.
I'm not quite as bullish on our postseason prospects without our veteran guards (Stan Van Gundy called it a cheat code last fall, and he is exactly right). I also agree with others that most preliminary rankings have us top 4-6 or so, though it's all guesswork at this stage until we see how the pieces fit together--for us, and for everyone else. I love the fit of our guards together, the size, experience, depth, rebounding, and rim protection of the front line, and the versatility and balance we are going to have across the board. I think our floor is going to be pretty high (top 10-15, maybe 3-seed). There are a few big questions for me, though, that will determine our upside: - Can Haugh defend SEC wings in space and get jumpers offensively without the benefit of bigs helping off him? - If so, can we effectively play Chinyelu and Handlogten together for 4-8 minutes a game or so? - If not, can AJ Brown get healthy, have a relatively full offseason, and defend well enoughn to be a full-time (or mostly full-time) three? - Can Klavzar defend well enough to stay on the court and get into a groove offensively? - Can either Lloyd or Ingram play early? - Will Isaiah Brown make a leap? I don't see us adding anyone else who will compete for time. This is kind of who we are, and really we have all the elements Golden has been after the last few years: size, rebounding, and rim protection up front to control the paint, high usage rate playmakers in the backcourt to play fast, and length and experience everywhere.
We return what I believe to be this past season's best frontcourt. Consider that bigs tend to get a little bit better each season. So if Condo, Chins, Haugh, and the Handyman all improve individually, PLUS have another season of experience in our system, the results could be awesome. I see that as our new cheat code. We will always be pounding the glass and getting second and third chances. Now we will miss Clayton, Martin, Richard, and Aberdeen, but I think we're going to be very happy with Xaivian and Fland. And we'll get good bench production from the Brown Bros. and Urban for an 8-man rotation, and will have minutes from Ingram, Lloyd, or Mikic if we choose to go to a 9-man rotation. Ingram and Lloyd might even compete for starting roles. I think that's unlikely, but one or both might move into the 8-man group. Of course, we WILL have injuries, illness, or foul trouble at some point, so any one reserve guy might move up. I love where the program is. Lose three awesome guys but still be in that top tier.
https://floridagators.com/watch/?Archive=24556&type=Archive No need to watch the whole thing. We know what happened on the court. But just watch 00:23 to 00:43. Twenty seconds that will give you goosebumps as you realize the truth Coach spoke.
Man that makes me feel poor. I saw boogie shopping for his brand new $100 thousand plus Mercedes on YouTube. The rest of us are in real life struggling to make ends meet in this economy.
Me too. I wonder if he'll get most of his minutes at the 1 or the 2. Since we have 2 starting point guards already, I suspect when one of them takes a seat, the other will be the 1, and Urbie will come in at the 2.
I think that with his limited minutes he will be balls out energetic on D and moving like a madman off the ball on O to get open. If he is open with his feet set he is money.
I don’t see it under the terms of the settlement, which will kick in for basketball for the 2026-2027 season. UK will have approximately $21 million to pay its players in all sports. It seems unlikely that the men’s basketball team players will get more than $5 million or $6 million. All NIL payments to players are required to be market value, based on the economic benefit to the payor. Good luck with that. For example, if a Lexington business will generate a few hundred thousand dollars of gross revenue from a player promoting its business, what is a fair amount to pay the player? It ain’t going to be much.
We always seem to play these big non-conference games on the road or in neutral site situations. At least we get Kentucky in Gainesville this time.
This is the big unknown... Can Haugh defend SEC wings in space and get jumpers offensively without the benefit of bigs helping off him? - If so, can we effectively play Chinyelu and Handlogten together for 4-8 minutes a game or so? Ideally, Haugh could play a minimum of 20 mpg at the "3" and 5-10 mpg at the "4" if Chinyelu and Handlogten duplicate rather than complement each other.
I'm not worried about Tommy's perimeter defense. He's fundamentally sound and has good lateral quickness. And better height than most wings.
