{"id":444480,"date":"2026-11-01T19:30:25","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T19:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/444480\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T19:30:25","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T19:30:25","slug":"no-1-florida-vs-no-14-miami-monday-6-pm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/444480\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 1 Florida vs No. 14 Miami (Monday, 6 pm)"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 1\u00a0Florida vs. No. 14\u00a0Miami\u00a0
\n\"Chris
\n
\n\tWhat:\u00a0Orien180 Tip-Off Classic
\n\tWhen: Monday, 6 p.m. (ET)
\n\tWhere:\u00a0Benchmark International \/ Tampa, Fla.
\n\tRecords: Florida (0-0) \/ Miami\u00a0(0-0)
\n\tSeries\/Last meeting:\u00a0Florida defeated Miami 82-68 on Nov. 16, 2025 in the Jacksonville Hoops Shootout behind 19 points and 10 rebounds from junior forward Alex Condon<\/a>.
\n\tTV:\u00a0ESPN2\u00a0(Tom Hart\u00a0and\u00a0Jimmy Dykes)
\n\tRadio: Gator Sports Network (Stations list<\/a>)\u00a0with Sean Kelley, Lee Humphrey\u00a0and Steve Egan
\n\tTicket info<\/a> <\/p>\n

Projected Starters<\/p>\n

Florida<\/p>\n

\nFlorida Cumulative Stats<\/a><\/p>\n

Miami<\/p>\n


\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tPlayer
\n\t\t\tPos.
\n\t\t\tHt \/ Wt
\n\t\t\tClass
\n\t\t\t2025-26 Stats
\n\t\t
\n\t
\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tShelton Henderson
\n\t\t\tF
\n\t\t\t6-6 \/ 239
\n\t\t\tSo
\n\t\t\t13.8 pt \/ 4.9 reb 18.9 pts \/ 6.5 reb
\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tSomto Cyril
\n\t\t\tC
\n\t\t\t6-11 \/ 263
\n\t\t\tJr
\n\t\t\t9.3 pts \/ 5.4 reb (at Georgia)
\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tCaleb Gaskins
\n\t\t\tF
\n\t\t\t6-8 \/ 221
\n\t\t\tFr
\n\t\t\t13.8 pts \/ 4.9 reb
\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tDante Allen
\n\t\t\tG
\n\t\t\t6-4\u00a0\/ 225
\n\t\t\tSo
\n\t\t\t6.6 pts \/ 2.8 reb\u00a0
\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tAcaden Lewis
\n\t\t\tG
\n\t\t\t6-2 \/ 187
\n\t\t\tSo
\n\t\t\t12.2 pts \/ 3.0 reb \/ 5.3 ast (at Villanova)
\n\t\t
\n\t <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nBenchmark International Arena (capacity 21,500)\u00a0in downtown Tampa is home to NHL Tampa Bay Lightning and was sight of the top-seeded Gators’ crushing, season-ending loss to Iowa in the 2026 NCAA Tournament last March. <\/p>\n

The Setup<\/p>\n


\n\tTop-ranked Florida and No. 14 Miami will meet in the 2026-27 season opener for two teams, each with sky-high expectations. UF is the nation’s preseason No. 1 team for the first time since 2006 and was tabbed as the favorite\u00a0to repeat as the Southeastern Conference champs.\u00a0The\u00a0Hurricanes are\u00a0tabbed to finish\u00a0in the top 3-4\u00a0of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Early season dates against Florida\u00a0will represent every opponent’s Super Bowl, so look for the Canes to come out swinging in a contest\u00a0that\u00a0could rocket them into the national conversation.\u00a0
\n\tThe Gators went 27-8 last season, won their first SEC title\u00a0in 12 years and were a No. 1 seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament. The Hurricanes are coming off a\u00a026-9 campaign when they finished fourth in the ACC and were awarded a 7-seed in the NCAA field. Both teams were knocked out in second-round play.\u00a0
\n\tUF leads the all-time series 47-24, including three consecutive wins, but the two programs\u00a0have played just nine times this century and just\u00a016 times since UM resumed\u00a0men’s basketball in 1985 after the school shut down the program for 14 years.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Tale of the Tape<\/p>\n


\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tFlorida
\n\t\t\tStatistics
\n\t\t\tOpponent
\n\t\t
\n\t
\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t87.1
\n\t\t\tScoring
\n\t\t\t81.5
\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t.484
\n\t\t\tField-goal percentage
\n\t\t\t.497
\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t.312
\n\t\t\t3-point percentage
\n\t\t\t.349
\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t71.5
\n\t\t\tScoring defense
\n\t\t\t71.3
\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t.487
\n\t\t\tField-goal percentage defense
\n\t\t\t.444
\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t.321
\n\t\t\t3-point percentage defense
\n\t\t\t.358
\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t2nd
\n\t\t\t*KenPom.com overall ranking
\n\t\t\t22nd
\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t1st
\n\t\t\t*KenPom.com offensive efficiency
\n\t\t\t27th
\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t7th
\n\t\t\t*KenPom.com defensive efficiency
\n\t\t\t18th
\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t25th
\n\t\t\t*KenPom.com adjusted tempo
\n\t\t\t172nd
\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tN\/A
\n\t\t\tNCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking
\n\t\t\tN\/A
\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tN\/A
\n\t\t\tOverall strength of schedule ranking
\n\t\t\tN\/A
\n\t\t
\n\t <\/p>\n

* Preseason projection<\/p>\n

The Breakdown\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nJai Lucas, once a starting point guard for Billy Donovan and the Gators, last season became the first ACC first-time head coach to reach 20 wins since North Carolina’s Bill Guthridge in 1997-98, while leading Miami to the 13th NCAA Tournament in program\u00a0history. <\/p>\n

About the Gators<\/p>\n


\n\tCoach Todd Golden<\/a> enters his fifth season on the Florida sideline, with a record of 103-41, making him (easily) the program’s fastest coach to reach 100 wins. His UF winning percentage of .715 is the second-best in school\u00a0history, but first among coaches with more than one season. Golden is one of just seven active NCAA Division coaches with a national championship and one of only two in the SEC (along with Arkansas’ John Calipari) to have to have a\u00a0SEC regular season, league tournament and national crown on his resume.\u00a0
\n\tUF played a pair of preseason scrimmages, losing 82-76 against Baylor at Jacksonville on Oct. 18 and defeating Stetson 85-68\u00a0at home last Tuesday.
\n\tThe Gators return four starters and 81.8% of their scoring, led by forward Thomas Haugh<\/a>, who was voted as both a first-team preseason All American and SEC Player of the Year. This time last season, it was forward Alex Condon<\/a> garnering most of the preseason accolades, yet it was center Rueben Chinyelu<\/a> who had the biggest impact on his way to being named both conference and national defensive player of the year honors. Having all three back in the front court is both astounding as well as a testament to the program’s NIL commitment and the players’ affinity for the coaching staff.
\n\tPoint guard Boogie Fland<\/a> and Gator-turned-Wildcat-turned-Gator-again Denzel Aberdeen<\/a> will start in backcourt. Fland, who missed the Stetson exhibition due to illness, had a difficult shooting stretch last season, but climbed out of it in February\u00a0and was terrific all summer in running the team. Aberdeen, the top reserve guard on UF’s 2025 national-championship team, started 35 games at Kentucky last season, transferred back home in the spring, won a temporary injunction for a fifth season of eligibility and made an easy transition back into the system. Backup guard Urban Klavzar<\/a> (9.6 ppg, 40.6% from 3-point line last season) was the 2026 SEC Sixth Man of the Year.\u00a0
\n\tThe Gators led the nation in rebounding margin last season at plus-14.7 and ranked No. 2 in offensive rebounding percentage\u00a0(43.3), but will have to find someone to help fill the void left by the graduation of 7-1 Micah Handlogten<\/a>. They also need to improve on their ’25-26 long-range shooting, when\u00a0the Gators\u00a0made just 31.2%, marking\u00a0the third-lowest in program history. The lack of long-range consistency undermined the league’s most efficient team\u00a0from the 2-point area (58.2% in SEC play).
\n\tUF was far from at its best in the\u00a0exhibition test against Baylor. In that one, the Gators shot 34% for the game and made just four of 29\u00a0shots from the 3-point line (13.7.), with Aberdeen and Klavzar going 0-for-15 combined. In the follow-up exhibition\u00a0vs. Stetson, though, the duo (with Klavzar starting for Fland) combined to score 46 points by making\u00a017 of 26 shots, including 10-for-17 from deep.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

About the Hurricanes<\/p>\n


\n\tTwo seasons ago, they went 7-24, finished dead-last in the ACC and saw their iconic head coach, Jim Larranaga, bail on the program\u00a0over Christmas break. UM eventually turned to Jai Lucas, the son of college basketball Hall of Famer and longtime NBA guard John Lucas, who apprenticed as an assistant for seven seasons at his alma mater of Texas, two seasons at Kentucky and three seasons at Duke. The program’s 19-win improvement last season tied for the biggest tournament in NCAA history. Twenty\u00a0years ago, Lucas was a McDonald’s All America\u00a0point guard out of Houston who signed with the Gators and averaged 8.5 points and 2.3 assists as a true freshman before transferring to Texas after one season.
\n\tThe Hurricanes’ defeated Vanderbilt 109-96 in an Oct. 23 exhibition game and lost a close scrimmage two weeks earlier against South Florida by two.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tMiami was a lock to be a preseason top-20 team, but took a jump in the rankings when 6-9 forward Malik Reneau (18.9 ppg, 6.5 rpg), who signed over the summer with the Orlando Magic, got a temporary injunction earlier this month for a fifth season of eligibility. Reneau, who orignally signed with UF under Mike White, shot 54% from the floor, 34.7 from the arc and gives the Canes one of the most formidable front courts in their league, if not the country. Reneau played in the exhibition against USF, but was banged up and held out of the USF scrimmage. He will play.
\n\tForward Shelton Henderson flirted with jumping to the NBA after an outstanding freshman season last spring. A projected first-round pick in ’27, he is an elite athlete and defender who is expected to improve on all his rookie numbers (56.7% floor, 25.5 from 3, 57.6 at free-throw line), while expanding his game away from the basket (66% of his shots were around the rim last season).\u00a0
\n\tUM’s transfer class ranked among the nation’s top 10, led by sophomore point guard Acaden Lewis, who last season became the first player at Villanova to average more than five assists since 1999. The Gators will get reacquainted with massive center Somto Cyril, who patrolled the paint for Georgia the last two seasons and was ejected from a game at Gainesville last January for throwing a forearm\u00a0at the face of Chinyelu. Power forward DeSean Goode\u00a0starred last season at Robert Morris, where at 6-8, 230 he led\u00a0the Horizon League in rebounding on his way to league player of the year honors. Guard Nick Doran hit 60 3-pointers for Indiana in ’25-26.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Numbers of Note\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nFlorida backup wing Isaiah Brown <\/p>\n

* minus-54\u00a0\u2014 The Gators’ plus-minus in bench scoring during their two exhibition games, based on Baylor and Stetson reserves out-pointing UF’s by a whopping 61-7. Florida needs Isaiah Brown<\/a>, who was terrific during fall practice but a non-factor in the preseason games (1 point, 0-for-4 from floor, 3 rebounds in 26 minutes), to find the comfort zone that made him a reliable player off the bench in SEC play last season when he averaged 6.6 points and 2.6 rebounds, while shooting 50.6% from the floor and 41.9% from the 3-point line. UF is banking on Brown to be its seventh man in the rotation, but the coaching staff is waiting for an eighth (maybe even a ninth) to step up and contribute minutes. Look for junior newcomer Domen Petrovic<\/a>, a 6-9, 230-pounder from Serbia, to get the first look.<\/p>\n

* 315th \u2014 Where UF ranked nationally in 3-point shooting last season (out of 365), based on a 31.2% marksmanship that was the third-worst in program history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

* 1928\u00a0\u2014 The first year Florida and Miami played in basketball, with the Gators prevailing 40-39 in Gainesville.\u00a0
\n \n<\/p>\n

Bottom Line
\nThey’re getting everyone’s best shot. Better be ready.<\/p>\n

Email senior writer\u00a0Chris Harry<\/a> at\u00a0chrish@gators.ufl.edu<\/a>. Catch up on the Gators with more of his stories on FloridaGators.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No. 1\u00a0Florida vs. No. 14\u00a0Miami\u00a0 What:\u00a0Orien180 Tip-Off Classic When: Monday, 6 p.m. (ET) Where:\u00a0Benchmark International \/ Tampa,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-444480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444480","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=444480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}