Florida is wasting no time living up to the billing.
After opening 3-0, Todd Golden’s team has climbed to No. 1 in The Athletic’s latest men’s college basketball power rankings, a jump from No. 3 in CJ Moore’s preseason list. The Gators have moved past early heavyweights like Illinois and Duke, and the early case for Florida starts with a shot profile that looks a lot sharper than it did before the season.
The biggest change has come from deep. Florida is hitting 39.2% of its three-pointers, and the Gators have been especially dangerous from the corners, where they’ve buried 17 of their first 27 tries, according to Synergy Sports. That kind of perimeter efficiency changes everything for an offense.
But the shooting isn’t happening in a vacuum. Moore pointed to Florida’s ability to generate clean looks from the outside because of what’s happening inside. When defenses collapse on post-ups, the Gators are finding open perimeter chances, and they’ve made all five of those opportunities when help has come against the post.
Florida’s big men have also helped tilt the floor in transition, establishing early position and using their physicality and screening to open up scoring chances near the rim. Put it together, and the Gators have become a tough early-season problem: pressure inside, precision outside, and enough balance to make defenses pick their poison.
The rest of The Athletic’s top 10 features Houston, UCONN, Virginia, Kansas, Michigan State, Texas, UCLA, Texas Tech and Duke. Florida sits at the top of that group for now, and the early returns suggest the ranking isn’t just preseason hype catching up with reality.
In Other News...
Florida Faces A Huge In-State Recruiting Test For Elite WR
Florida is in the thick of a major in-state recruiting battle for one of the nations top young wide receivers, as Tyree Mannings Jr. has narrowed his list to Florida, Kentucky and Auburn. The Venice, Florida, standout is a four-star prospect in the 2028 class, and his final three gives the Gators a clear geographic edge as the only school from his home state still in the mix.
Mannings has already taken visits to Florida and Auburn during his recruitment, a sign that this race has been active and still open despite the early buzz around the Gators. Rivals is projecting a high probability that he ends up in Gainesville, but with two out-of-state contenders still standing, Floridas staff is facing the kind of test that can shape an entire recruiting cycle. [Read more 🡒]
Floridas Secondary Just Got More Uncertain Before Kentucky
Floridas secondary picked up another question mark heading into its matchup with Kentucky, with the latest SEC availability report listing cornerback Dijon Johnson as doubtful. The Gators already know they will be without Vernell Brown III, Bryce Thornton, Jaden Robinson and Evan Chieca, while Kofi Asare and DK Kalu remain questionable, leaving the staff to sort through a defense that is still trying to settle in before another conference test.
Kentucky is dealing with its own absences, with four players ruled out, but Floridas concern is the ripple effect in the back end if Johnson cannot go. The Gators have been managing injuries and availability all week, and the updated report only adds to the uncertainty around how they will line up in the secondary when they take the field. [Read more 🡒]
St. Thomas Aquinas Opens Playoff Run In A Rematch Florida Fans Know
The first Florida Open Division playoff bracket brings a familiar heavyweight matchup right back into the spotlight, with Lakeland set to visit St. Thomas Aquinas on Friday, Nov. 13. Aquinas enters as the No. 1 seed in Pool A and has turned the state championship into its own annual stage, winning seven straight titles since 2019, while Lakeland comes in seeded No. 5 after capturing the 2023 state crown.
For Florida fans, the appeal is obvious: this is a rematch of last years Class 5A state championship game, only now it arrives with even more at stake in the states inaugural eight-team Open Division playoffs. Lakeland gets the chance to test itself again against the program that has set the standard in Florida high school football, and Aquinas gets another shot to show why it remains the team everyone else is chasing. [Read more 🡒]