Duke basketball vs Florida video preview, players to watch, predictions
Anna Snyder and Andrew Abadie of the USA Today Network give their storylines, players to watch and predictions for Duke basketball vs. Florida.
- The Florida Gators men’s basketball team will travel to play Duke in the SEC-ACC Challenge on December 2.
- The author argues the game should have been held in Gainesville, as Florida is the defending national champion.
- Florida’s non-conference schedule involves over 12,000 air miles with games across the country.
- Duke has not played a men’s basketball game in Gainesville since 1938.
We take a break from our regularly scheduled Florda football coaching coverage for this announcement:
Florida basketball is playing at Duke in the SEC-ACC Challenge on Dec. 2 (7:30 p.m., ESPN), a third plane trip in a non-conference schedule that will wind up traversing more than 12,000 air miles with games in Las Vegas, San Diego, Calif., Raleigh, N.C., and New York City.
It didn’t have to be this way.
The Florida Gators should be playing Duke at the O’Connell Center.
Why? Merit. Florida didn’t crumble down the stretch against Houston in the Final Four. Duke did. The powers that be in both conferences should have respected that and given UF its due as defending national champions.
The darling Dukies tend to get their way in college basketball as an established national brand. But let’s consider that the Gators have won as many national championships (3) as the Blue Devils (3) this century.
A Florida-Duke matchup in the O’Dome would have been electric and given local fans a marquee non-conference game before the grind of the SEC schedule. Instead, Florida’s best home non-conference matchup this season came against in-state rival Florida State, a game the Gators squeaked out 78-76 on Nov. 11.
Florida is 3-13 all-time against Duke, with its last win against the Blue Devils coming in the 2000 Sweet 16 in Syracuse N.Y. (87-78).
The Gators last played at Duke on Dec, 6, 1998, a game that Florida lost 116-86 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. There was hope Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski would return the favor and play Florida in Gainesville, but it never materialized. Duke hasn’t played in Gainesville since 1938, an era closer to peach baskets and hand scoreboards than Air Jordans.
Why Florida basketball isn’t playing Duke at home
From the SEC side, the conference wanted to keep its home-road rotations consistent. Florida played its first SEC-ACC Challenge at Wake Forest in 2023, then at home to Virginia last year.
From the ACC, side, the conference wanted to ensure that one of the powers from the Tar Heel state was playing at home in this round. North Carolina is playing at Kentucky, while N.C. State is playing at Auburn.
At 5-2 with losses to Arizona in Las Vegas and TCU in San Diego, Florida is already dealing with adversity as defending national champions. The No. 14 Gators have struggled with inconsistent backcourt play, though Princeton transfer guard Xaivian Lee broke out with a 20-point performance in UF’s 90-78 win over Providence on Nov. 28.
Florida dealt with a similar rocky start to the season in losing to Kansas and Florida State during the 2006-07 non-conference slate as defending national champs. But the Gators regrouped to play their best basketball in March, winning 10 in a row to clinch their second national title in school history.
There’s a chance Florida could wind up with as many as four non-conference losses this season, considering UF is playing at No. 4 Duke and No. 5 UConn on Dec. 9 at the Jimmy V Classic in New York City, which will serve as a de-facto home game for the Huskies.
Next March, the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee should take into account all the miles traveled by Florida and playing in a high number of road and pseudo-road environments. If the Gators can take care of business in the SEC, their chances of earning a top four seed in the NCAA and playing close to home in the first round of the NCAA Tournament (Tampa) are still attainable.
The Rowdy Reptiles deserved the Florida-Duke matchup this season, not the Cameron Crazies. Here’s hoping that Florida won’t be forced to wait another 87 years to see Duke take the court in Gainesville again.
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1. Read his coverage of the Gators’ national championship basketball season in “CHOMP-IONS!” — a hardcover coffee-table collector’s book from The Sun. Details at Florida.ChampsBook.com
