The Florida Gators and the Wisconsin Badgers are playing one of the more entertaining games on Tuesday night from the Kohl Center and the matchup has two top 25 teams facing off and the matchup will start up at 9:00 pm and streaming online on WatchESPN.
The Gators come into the matchup after a big win over North Florida and the Wisconsin game marks the first matchup against a ranked team and the Gators are looking very strong out of the SEC and they are only one of two teams ranked in the top 15 from the conference with Kentucky and the next big matchup for the team comes against UConn later next month. The team plays a string of three ranked teams in a row, as they will face off against Connecticut, Kansas and then Memphis in a stretch and later on in the season they have road games against Kentucky as well as Tennessee and Alabama. The team finishes the season with a home game against number one Kentucky and that could end up being a huge matchup in the conference before the tournament.
Check here for the ESPN coverage of Wisconsin and the Florida Gators.
Billy Donovan knows what his team needs to do to win and Casey Prather s is going to be one of the biggest factors for the team and he started off very well with 28 points in the opening win on Friday and that is an excellent start for him as the team tries to make a championship run and they will be without three of their top players after Scottie Wilbekin, Dorian Finney-Smith and center Damontre Harris violated team rules and that will hurt with depth, but the team should be ready to play Wisconsin. Playing in Madison is always tough, as the Badgers have lost just seven of 97 matchups against teams not in the Big Ten and now they will have a chance to continue that streak against one of the best teams in the nation.
The Badgers come into the game after a nice win against St. John's on Friday to open the season and now they will play against a much better team in Florida. The Badgers played some fantastic defense while holding the red Storm to less than 25 points in the first half and that's the type of play they will be expecting on Tuesday. Wisconsin comes in with freshman point guard Kasey Hill and he should have the focus on him heading into the game and the gators know that the Badgers can score and it should be one of the best early matchups of the season.
The game is part of a nice lineup that also includes Michigan State and Kentucky playing each other in the Champions Classic and that puts the number one and two teams in a matchup together, while the Duke Blue Devils and the Kansas Jayhawks will play after that. The teams all make up four of the top five ranked teams in the nation and there are a number of big names in the matchup's, including Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker and those two players will have the focus on Tuesday night. The Gators and the Badgers will play at the Kohl Center on Tuesday night starting at 9 pm.