College basketball rankings: Florida looks to bounce back in home opener

Florida closed last season on a 12-game winning streak that allowed Todd Golden’s Gators to win both the 2025 SEC Tournament and the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Now, they are legitimate candidates to repeat. But the reigning national champions did not get off to a great start earlier this week in their potential back-to-back season, losing their opener to Arizona on Monday, 93-87, out in Las Vegas.

In simple terms, five-star freshman Koa Peat overwhelmed Florida’s frontcourt, finishing with 30 points, seven rebounds, five assists and three steals in 36 minutes. So, it’ll be interesting to see how the Gators respond when they return to the court Thursday night for their home-opener against North Florida.

Tip is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.

Tracking college basketball freshman debuts: Cameron Boozer, AJ Dybantsa impress, Koa Peat explodes

Cameron Salerno

“I think our bigs, as a group, we know we need to be the best frontcourt in the nation this year,” said Florida junior Thomas Haugh, a 6-foot-9 forward who finished with 27 points and four rebounds against Arizona but was still a part of the frontcourt that was dominated by an 18 year-old playing his first collegiate game. “We can’t let somebody like that come out here and score 30 points on us. It’s not acceptable, and it won’t happen moving forward.”

As always, we’ll see.

Worth noting: Florida plays Dec. 2 at Duke, which, of course, is led by another five-star freshman, namely Cameron Boozer. The 6-9 forward is among the legitimate candidates to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. He finished with 15 points, 13 rebounds, three steals, two assists and a block in Duke’s season-opening victory over Texas.

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