{"id":296806,"date":"2026-06-05T05:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T05:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/296806\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T05:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T05:16:13","slug":"florida-duke-set-for-top-5-showdown-in-odome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/296806\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida, Duke set for top-5 showdown in O’Dome"},"content":{"rendered":"

GAINESVILLE \u2014 Florida will host Duke<\/a> in the marquee match of the annual ACC\/SEC Challenge, a source confirmed.<\/p>\n

CBS Sports\u2019 Jon Rothstein reported the Blue Devils will visit the O\u2019Connell Center during the 2026-27 a season. The meeting comes one year after Florida traveled to Durham<\/a> and suffered a 67-66 loss at Cameron Indoor Stadium.<\/p>\n

Both programs are expected to enter the season ranked among the nation\u2019s top five teams, with the Gators likely in the top spot after returning six of their top seven scorers along with the frontcourt of Rueben Chinyelu<\/a>, Alex Condon<\/a> and Thomas Haugh<\/a>. Each received postseason recognition after the Gators led the nation in rebounding, won the SEC regular season and earned a No. 1 national seed in the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n

The Gators\u2019 73-72 loss to Iowa<\/a> in the second round spurred the trio to return<\/a> to school for their senior seasons. Chinyelu, Condon and Haugh combined for an average of 43.1 points and 24.8 rebounds.<\/p>\n

Florida also returns starting point guard Boogie Fland and SEC Sixth Man of the Year Urban Klavzar.<\/p>\n

Guard Denzel Aberdeen also transferred back from Kentucky after spending a season with the Wildcats after the Orlando native helped the Gators to the 2025 national title. Aberdeen, a former Dr. Phillips standout, has applied for an NCAA waiver for a fifth season and could join a deep guard rotation that includes Fland, Klavzar, Isaiah Brown, AJ Brown and Alex Lloyd.<\/p>\n

Golden also added two intriguing international prospects: 6-foot-10 forward Arturas Butajevas of Lithuania and 6-foot-9 Domen Petrovic of Slovenia.<\/p>\n

Duke, meanwhile, lost All-American center Cameron Boozer to the NBA Draft after one season in Durham. But Jon Scheyer\u2019s squad returns starting point guard Cayden Boozer, veteran guard Caleb Foster and center Patrick Ngongba II, a projected first-round pick in 2027.<\/p>\n

The Blue Devils also added Wisconsin transfer guard John Blackwell, who aveaged 19.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists while shooting nearly 39% from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAINESVILLE \u2014 Florida will host Duke in the marquee match of the annual ACC\/SEC Challenge, a source confirmed.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[111,28,2530,30,29,2496,114,76046,110],"class_list":["post-296806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-college-sports","tag-florida","tag-florida-gators","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-gainesville","tag-latest-headlines","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}