The Florida Gators and William & Mary are opening the NCAA college basketball season for the men's game and the matchup from the Stephen C. O'Connell Center starts up at 6 pm ET and will be on the SEC Network and WatchESPN website on Friday and it comes with UF ranked seventh in the nation to open the season.
The Gators come into the game after another strong season and they did not lose an SEC game last season and went 18-0 in the conference. The team dropped only three games last season and looked very impressive doing it and they come in at seventh in the nation this season and are the favorites in their conference again. Right now Kentucky and Florida are the only dominant teams in the SEC and while there are some good teams, this isn't football and this conference is not one of the dominant ones in the nation.
The Gators play against the Miami Hurricanes for their next game and after another easy one, the team has back to back tough games with solid opponents. The Gators will play against Georgetown and Kansas next after that and after another stretch of season games, including against Yale and Texas Southern, the team has Wake Forest. The schedule picks up after that with Florida State and UConn and that is the next ranked game after the team plays the Jayhawks.
The SEC schedule picks up with South Carolina, Mississippi State and Auburn, while Georgia and LSU are next before the team has Mississippi and Alabama. The team plays against Kentucky in the final game if the season and that will be no the road and it comes after some tough games, including a stretch of matchups on the road with LSU and Mizzou.
Billy Donovan has defended his team quite a bit and he feels that they should be in the top five and he is looking to get off to a great start this season. The team won 30 straight games last year and they went undefeated in their conference and they looked very good throughout the season. Chris Walker is out for the first two games of the season and they also will not have Alex Murphy after he transferred, but they still have a deep roster and plenty of talent.
Scottie Wilbekin and Patric Young are gone and now the team has to find a way to bounce back without those players. The Tribe comes into the game after a solid season and they nearly made the NCAA tournament and they just missed out. Florida will be one of the favorites in the nation and Billy Donovan has high hopes for them this year.
Check here for the Florida Gators and William & Mary live coverage.
