Sunday, November 1, 2026 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
No. 1 Florida vs. No. 14 Miami
- What: Orien180 Tip-Off Classic
- When: Monday, 6 p.m. (ET)
- Where: Benchmark International / Tampa, Fla.
- Records: Florida (0-0) / Miami (0-0)
- Series/Last meeting: Florida defeated Miami 82-68 on Nov. 16, 2025 in the Jacksonville Hoops Shootout behind 19 points and 10 rebounds from junior forward Alex Condon.
- TV: ESPN2 (Tom Hart and Jimmy Dykes)
- Radio: Gator Sports Network (Stations list) with Sean Kelley, Lee Humphrey and Steve Egan
- Ticket info
Projected Starters
Florida
| Player | Pos. | Ht / Wt | Class | 2025-26 Stats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Condon | F | 6-11 / 236 | Sr | 15.1 pts / 7.5 reb |
| Rueben Chinyelu | C | 6-10 / 265 | Sr | 10.9 pts / 11.2 reb |
| Thomas Haugh | F | 6-9 / 215 | Sr | 17.1 pts / 6.1 reb |
| Denzel Aberdeen | G | 6-5 / 190 | 5th | 13.5 pts / 3.4 reb (at Kentucky) |
| Boogie Fland | G | 6-3 / 185 | Jr | 11.6 pts / 2.5 reb / 3.4 ast |
Florida Cumulative Stats
Miami
| Player | Pos. | Ht / Wt | Class | 2025-26 Stats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shelton Henderson | F | 6-6 / 239 | So | 13.8 pt / 4.9 reb 18.9 pts / 6.5 reb |
| Somto Cyril | C | 6-11 / 263 | Jr | 9.3 pts / 5.4 reb (at Georgia) |
| Caleb Gaskins | F | 6-8 / 221 | Fr | 13.8 pts / 4.9 reb |
| Dante Allen | G | 6-4 / 225 | So | 6.6 pts / 2.8 reb |
| Acaden Lewis | G | 6-2 / 187 | So | 12.2 pts / 3.0 reb / 5.3 ast (at Villanova) |
The Setup
- Top-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 to repeat as the Southeastern Conference champs. The Hurricanes are tabbed to finish in the top 3-4 of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Early season dates against Florida will represent every opponent's Super Bowl, so look for the Canes to come out swinging in a contest that could rocket them into the national conversation.
- The Gators went 27-8 last season, won their first SEC title in 12 years and were a No. 1 seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament. The Hurricanes are coming off a 26-9 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.
- UF leads the all-time series 47-24, including three consecutive wins, but the two programs have played just nine times this century and just 16 times since UM resumed men's basketball in 1985 after the school shut down the program for 14 years.
Tale of the Tape
| Florida | Statistics | Opponent |
|---|---|---|
| 87.1 | Scoring | 81.5 |
| .484 | Field-goal percentage | .497 |
| .312 | 3-point percentage | .349 |
| 71.5 | Scoring defense | 71.3 |
| .487 | Field-goal percentage defense | .444 |
| .321 | 3-point percentage defense | .358 |
| 2nd | *KenPom.com overall ranking | 22nd |
| 1st | *KenPom.com offensive efficiency | 27th |
| 7th | *KenPom.com defensive efficiency | 18th |
| 25th | *KenPom.com adjusted tempo | 172nd |
| N/A | NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking | N/A |
| N/A | Overall strength of schedule ranking | N/A |
The Breakdown
About the Gators
- Coach Todd Golden 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 history, 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 SEC regular season, league tournament and national crown on his resume.
- UF played a pair of preseason scrimmages, losing 82-76 against Baylor at Jacksonville on Oct. 18 and defeating Stetson 85-68 at home last Tuesday.
- The Gators return four starters and 81.8% of their scoring, led by forward Thomas Haugh, 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 garnering most of the preseason accolades, yet it was center Rueben Chinyelu 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.
- Point guard Boogie Fland and Gator-turned-Wildcat-turned-Gator-again Denzel Aberdeen 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 and 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 (9.6 ppg, 40.6% from 3-point line last season) was the 2026 SEC Sixth Man of the Year.
- The Gators led the nation in rebounding margin last season at plus-14.7 and ranked No. 2 in offensive rebounding percentage (43.3), but will have to find someone to help fill the void left by the graduation of 7-1 Micah Handlogten. They also need to improve on their '25-26 long-range shooting, when the Gators made just 31.2%, marking the third-lowest in program history. The lack of long-range consistency undermined the league's most efficient team from the 2-point area (58.2% in SEC play).
- UF was far from at its best in the exhibition test against Baylor. In that one, the Gators shot 34% for the game and made just four of 29 shots from the 3-point line (13.7.), with Aberdeen and Klavzar going 0-for-15 combined. In the follow-up exhibition vs. Stetson, though, the duo (with Klavzar starting for Fland) combined to score 46 points by making 17 of 26 shots, including 10-for-17 from deep.
About the Hurricanes
- Two seasons ago, they went 7-24, finished dead-last in the ACC and saw their iconic head coach, Jim Larranaga, bail on the program over 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 years ago, Lucas was a McDonald's All America point 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.
- The Hurricanes' defeated Vanderbilt 109-96 in an Oct. 23 exhibition game and lost a close scrimmage two weeks earlier against South Florida by two.
- Miami 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.
- Forward 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).
- UM'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 at the face of Chinyelu. Power forward DeSean Goode starred last season at Robert Morris, where at 6-8, 230 he led the 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.
Numbers of Note
* 315th — 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.
* 1928 — The first year Florida and Miami played in basketball, with the Gators prevailing 40-39 in Gainesville.
Bottom Line
They're getting everyone's best shot. Better be ready.Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu. Catch up on the Gators with more of his stories on FloridaGators.com.
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