Preview: Florida Gators Basketball’s Season Opener Against Arizona

LAS VEGAS– The No. 3 Florida Gators’ title-defense season begins Monday night with a matchup in Sin City against No. 13 Arizona. With a new guard rotation to pair with returning leadership on the frontcourt, head coach Todd Golden is confident the Gators can make another run in the NCAA Tournament in his fourth season leading the program. First, Florida must get past Arizona before continuing a non-conference slate that includes UConn and Duke on the schedule. “We’ll definitely learn a lot. I think our opportunity to scrimmage against Illinois was really good for us. I think having the opportunity to play a really, really good team prior to Arizona was important, and I think a lot of the same things that showed up, both good and negative, could show up on Monday night,” Golden said last week. “So I think we’ll be able to hopefully prepare well for that. But Arizona is really good. They’re just really good. “I’m cautiously optimistic, but really understand that this is going to be a really difficult game. AnRead More