Even though Florida basketball stands at 5-4 through nine games, ESPN has the Gators inside its top 25 power rankings.

Leonardo Bettiol is a similar story. The 6'8" forward out of Italy was fine for Abilene Christian last year, but has increased his production to 16 PPG and 8.1 RPG. He only averaged 3.9 RPG last year, but he's more than doubled his defensive rebound rate.

CBS Sports grades and ranks the top frontcourt lineups in all of men's college basketball, with the Florida Gators among the top five in the country.

In April, Golden made his own history by leading Florida to its third national championship. Considering Donovan is one of just three coaches in the modern era to win consecutive championships, along with Mike Krzyzewski and Dan Hurley, Golden phoned Billy D to pick his brain ahead of Florida’s quest to repeat.

Notably, Florida’s 3-point shooting defense was the culprit in the loss. The Gators entered the matchup top 20 in that statistical category, as opponents were shooting just 26% from beyond the arc against the Gators. However, UConn shot 44% and went 8 of 18 from the 3-point line.

Florida basketball slipped once again in the AP Top 25 Poll after taking a one-point loss at the Duke Blue Devils last Tuesday.

No. 18 Florida (5-3) faces No. 5 UConn (8-1) in Jimmy V Classic at MSG with multiple streaming options including free trials from Fubo and DirecTV Stream

After winning championships in 2023 and 2024 UConn was slightly “down” last season, though it speaks to just where they are as a program where they can have a down year and that equals an NCAA Tournament appearance where they won their first game and then gave Florida a competitive game,

Stacker compiled a list of the highest-rated Class of 2026 basketball recruits from Florida using data from 247Sports.

See every Florida boys high school basketball final score from December 9, 2025

Florida will continue its challenging non-conference slate when it faces George Washington (8-3) at the Orange Bowl Classic in Sunrise on Dec. 13 (2:30 p.m., ESPN2). The Colonials are coming off a 70-58 loss to Delaware on Dec. 10 but have posted wins over USF (99-95) and Old Dominion (96-73) earlier this season.