The NCAA college basketball season is in full swing and on Monday night one of the best early matchups is on the schedule, as the Florida Gators will visit the UConn Huskies at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion in Connecticut and the game will live on ESPN2 and the WatchESPN website starting at 7:00 pm and is a matchup of two ranked teams.
The Gators are coming into the matchup after a one point win against the Florida State Seminoles on Friday and now the team plays one of the toughest teams in the nation in UConn. The schedule doesn't get any easier for the Gators after this, as they have a looming matchup with the number six Kansas Jayhawks and Andrew Wiggins and this should give the Gators some much needed experience heading into the back stretch of the year and the beginning of the SEC schedule. The Gators have only lost one game this season and that was to a ranked team in the Wisconsin Badgers and now they will play back to back ranked teams after losing that game and winning their next five.
Check here for the ESPN coverage of the game.
The Gators come in averaging over 70 points per game and while they have struggled shooting the ball a bit, that is something that should improve as the season goes on for Billy Donovan's team and the schedule continues with their third straight ranked opponent in Memphis, who will be on the schedule after Kansas. Apart from Kentucky the SEC is fairly weak this season and while Florida will be one of the top teams, both the Wildcats and the Gators will have to establish themselves over teams in other conferences when it comes to seeding.
UConn is in nice position heading into the game, as they are undefeated with a 7-0 record and are coming off of a win against Loyola that saw Shabazz Napier snag seven assists and Ryan Boatright was solid as well with eight rebounds to lead the team. Napier is tops on the team in scoring and the team already has some nice wins this season, including against Indiana, Boston College and Maryland and they will have to deal with defending champions Louisville in the conference as well as Memphis. The team is averaging over 75 points per game and they are ranked in the top 50 in field goal percentage.
The Huskies won the 2K Sports Classic to get things started right early in the season and the team will be trying hard to fight the Gators on the boards, as that is the biggest weak spot for the team. Both the gators and Huskies have struggled in stretches this season and now they will get the chance for an early ranked matchup in the top 25 on ESPN2 starting up at 7 pm.
