After a lengthy offseason, college basketball is finally back with the Florida Gators kicking off the season with a marquee matchup against the Arizona Wildcats on Monday, November 3rd in Las Vegas.
In recent years, one of the issues facing the college sport is that there weren’t big matchups in the first week or two of the season, with coaches scared to play games with big resume implications early before their teams are operating at 100%. This meant there weren’t many games to get excited about for the hardcore or casual college basketball fan, and it often meant the first week fell flat. Well, this won’t be the case this year with the Gators and Wildcats kicking off the opening night of the year in a game that will have all eyes on it from around the college basketball universe.
For Florida, it’s a major departure to play a challenging non-conference schedule and kick things off with a major opponent. Golden has traditionally preferred playing softer non-conference schedules, positioning his team to get most of their resume work done in league play. For Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd, things have been the exact opposite. Presumably because Lloyd was a longtime Gonzaga assistant, where they had to schedule aggressively in the non-conference, Lloyd has always played some of the most challenging non-conference schedules in the country, and while it has meant some losses–ultimately things have been going extremely well. Entering his fifth year at Arizona, Lloyd hasn’t missed an NCAA Tournament and already has three Sweet Sixteens, and the Wildcats are expected to be near the top of the Big 12 once again. Arizona begins the season ranked 15th in KenPom, and with this game being played on a neutral floor you can bet that this will be a huge quadrant-1 game by the time things are said and done and whoever comes out victorious will have a jewel in their NCAA Tournament resume from the jump.
What makes this matchup most interesting is the fact that Florida and Arizona play such similar styles, and whoever executes that style the best is likely to be victorious. It’s also probably not a surprise why both Golden and Lloyd see the game similarly, as both were influenced by Mark Few and Gonzaga, but in different ways. As mentioned earlier, Lloyd was a long-time assistant with Gonzaga, and for Golden getting his head coaching start at San Francisco, it was the Bulldogs setting the tone in the league from a style of play standpoint. Like Gonzaga, this meant that Lloyd and Golden have built their teams around playing a ton of size in the frontcourt, but doing so while not sacrificing pace. Both Arizona and Florida want to play at an extremely fast tempo, and with both teams also strong on the offensive glass every missed shot is going to be a battle. Look for this to be a very high-scoring affair, and the type of TV battle that will be perfect for the opening night of the season.
Arizona’s frontcourt group isn’t as long as Florida’s, but it features a bit more bulk and below the rim physicality. Tobe Awake, a 6’8”, 250 pound battering ram plays with as much contact as possible and he does have the length and physicality to make up for his shorter frame, to the point you might still be surprised after seeing him play that he’s 6’8”. A player who does have length is Motiejus Krivas, a 7’2” Lithuanian who had a strong freshman season before missing the 2024-25 season with injury, and he is expected to play a huge role with a mix of size and excellent hands.
From a returning standpoint, Arizona’s most dynamic playmaker is guard Jaden Bradley who averaged 12.1 points and 3.7 assists. The former IMG Academy guard did have to share the backcourt with Caleb Love who took a lot of the shots and had the ball a ton, and this year Bradley will have more freedom, and responsibility, to make plays. Leading the way at point guard, a lot will be on Bradley’s shoulders as the Wildcats look to go even deeper in the NCAA Tournament this year.
While most teams were building out rosters through the transfer portal, Arizona went fairly freshman heavy and brought in a ton of talent including Koa Peat, Brayden Burries, and Dwayne Aristotle, as well as Lebron James’ son Bryce–who isn’t expected to play much of a role this season. The star of the class is Peat, the prototypical NBA-style 6’8” shotmaking wing that is probably more likely to be in college for one year than anything past that. Given that Arizona didn’t bring in much production in the transfer portal and graduated a lot of scoring, look for Peat to play a key role right away. Buries and Aristotle will also have to play big minutes, and this could be an area where Florida has an advantage with this game being played on the opening night of the season, given that Arizona is much younger and will have key pieces playing their first college basketball action.
Actually, there is one more freshman to talk about–Ivan Kharchenkov. Kharchenkov is a skilled, savvy, and physical 6’6” wing. The reason why he might slip your mind when thinking about Arizona freshmen is the fact that he is one of the European pros that is entering college basketball this year after spending multiple years in the FC Bayern Munich system–one of the top talent developers in Europe. Kharchenkov wasn’t just a part of the development system, however, and ended up playing on Bayern Munich’s top club competing in one of the best leagues in Europe playing against players that were near NBA caliber. Boasting offers from many of the best teams in college basketball, Kharchenkov chose to attend Arizona where he will be one of the most important pieces, though he likely isn’t being talked about enough. Look for Kharchenkov to have a huge impact in this game, and impress the people you’re watching it with by explaining you know where he came from.
In a season opening game it can be hard to know what to expect, but this game will be played with a lot of new pieces with the Gators bringing in a brand new backcourt and Arizona expected to rely on four freshmen playing heavy rotation minutes. It’s going to be a huge game from a resume standpoint and a huge game from a perspective standpoint, as all the eyes of the college basketball sphere are going to be on this game, and whatever happens, it will likely lead all the college basketball news on the day after. KenPom predicts an 84-79 win for the Gators, and with Florida being the more experienced team, look for that to give them an edge in the early matchup.
Florida and Arizona will tip off Monday, November 3rd at 7 PM ET, and the game will be televised on TNT.