The first measuring stick matchup of Luke Loucks’ tenure begins tonight as Florida State men’s basketball (2-0, 0-0) takes on the defending national champions, Florida (1-1, 0-0), in Gainesville.
After two straight home blowouts to begin the season, FSU hits the road for the first time in 2025 to try to stem the tide in the FSU-UF rivalry. The Seminoles have lost four straight games to the Gators, all by nine points or more, and have not defeated UF since before COVID. It will not be easy to leave Gainesville with a win after Florida head coach Todd Golden reloaded in the portal and kept some key pieces from last year’s group as his program attempts to win back-to-back national titles.
Not only will tonight’s game be a vital barometer during the dawn of the Loucks era, but both teams try to play similarly and are heavily based on analytics. While FSU will most likely try to play faster, and UF’s monstrous size does not compare to the smaller Seminole lineup, it will be noteworthy to see how far the Noles need to go to reach a national championship level.
The Seminoles are 16.5-point underdogs according to FanDuel, and the over/under for tonight’s game is 180.5
Florida State Seminoles vs. Florida Gators: How to watch, stream, odds