{"id":336658,"date":"2026-07-11T05:12:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T05:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/336658\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T05:12:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T05:12:24","slug":"florida-basketball-vs-duke-among-top-acc-sec-challenge-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/336658\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida basketball vs Duke among top ACC-SEC Challenge games"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>July 10, 2026, 5:51 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The <a data-autotag=\"13e400dd-2caf-4743-8f66-2d6e34ba4e99\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/sports\/college-sports\/sec\/florida\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Florida Gators<\/a> once again headline the ACC-SEC Men&#8217;s Challenge with a highly anticipated rematch against <a href=\"https:\/\/dukewire.usatoday.com\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Duke<\/a>, which was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7335769\/2026\/06\/05\/acc-sec-challenge-college-basketball-schedule-matchups\/?redirected=1\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ranked the No. 1 game of the event<\/a> by The Athletic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The rematch comes after a marquee non-conference game last season that saw the Blue Devils beat out Florida 67-66 in Durham in a nail-biter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Both programs went on to capture their respective regular-season conference championships and earn No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, setting the stage for yet another showdown between two of college basketball&#8217;s title contenders this December.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">They are also both returning high-level contributors, with Florida retaining their stellar frontcourt of Alex Condon, Thomas Haugh and Rueben Chinyelu. Duke also retained talent and depth with Caleb Foster, Cayden Boozer, and Dame Sarr all returning to the brotherhood. Duke also added Wisconsin transfer John Blackwell to the mix.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The Gators will enter the season looking to regain their national championship glory, and a victory over Duke would provide another signature nonconference win, strengthen Florida&#8217;s resume before the start of SEC play, and allow the Gators to avenge last season&#8217;s one-point defeat at Cameron Indoor Stadium. This year&#8217;s game will take place on Dec. 1 inside the O&#8217;Connell Center.<\/p>\n<p>Need a news break? <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (play)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/play.usatoday.com\/?itm_source=SPIKE&amp;itm_campaign=PLAYSPIKE&amp;itm_medium=ONSITE\">Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><img class=\"gnt_em_cp_cw_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/82604684007-20250322-t-011042-z-779806020-mt-1-usatoday-25734617-rtrmadp-3-ncaabasketballncaatournam.webp\" data-gl- decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Follow us <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GatorsWire\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@GatorsWire<\/a> on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/gatorswire.bsky.social\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bluesky<\/a>, and like our page on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GatorsWire\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> to follow ongoing coverage of <a data-autotag=\"3b888813-f087-4637-8d3d-c90e4608afae\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/ncaab\/teams\/florida-gators\/1407\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Florida Gators<\/a> news, notes and opinions.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July 10, 2026, 5:51 p.m. ET The Florida Gators once again headline the ACC-SEC Men&#8217;s Challenge with a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31,28,30,29,113869,22150,22151,8913,299,4814,14014,4819,96,14013,4821,300,34],"class_list":["post-336658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-accessfree","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-sourcegators-wire","tag-sstssportscollegegatorsmens-basketball","tag-sstsnmens-basketball","tag-tagbasketball","tag-tagcollege-sports","tag-tagflorida-gators","tag-tagflorida-gators-mens-basketball","tag-tagncaa-southeastern-conference","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsec-conference-mens-basketball","tag-tagsec-hub","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336658","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=336658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}