Florida Basketball: 2017-18 season preview for the Gators

Key Non-Conference games

Nov. 23 – Stanford (PK80)

Nov. 24 – Ohio State or Gonzaga (PK80)

Nov. 25 – Duke, Butler, Texas or Portland State (PK80)

Dec. 4 – Florida State

Dec. 9 – Cincinnati

Dec. 16 – Clemson

Jan. 27 – Baylor (SEC/Big 12 Challenge)

One of the more impressive feats of the Gators’ season last year was their non-conference schedule; no home games. Due to renovations, Florida had to play either road or neutral games and won most of them.

This time, it’s the complete opposite with no true road games on the schedule. All games outside of the PK80 Tournament will be played in Gainesville. The downside this time will be that the Gators won’t have the impressive metrics for their resume that helped them out with seeding like last year.

Unless the Phil Knight Invitational goes their way in terms of opponents, the rest of the schedule looks uncertain. Florida State, Cincinnati, and Baylor all lost a ton of pieces and none are locks to make the NCAA tournament.

The good news is that the Gators had a good draw in the previously mentioned PK80 tournament. First, they seem likely to avoid both Portland State and Ohio State, two RPI bombs in waiting. The likeliest scene would be Stanford, Gonzaga in a rematch from last year, then Duke. This would be a number of top-50 opponents to pad the resume.