No. 15 Florida at No. 4 Duke
* What: ACC/SEC Challenge
* When: Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Cameron Indoor Stadium / Durham, N.C.
* Records: Florida (5-2) / Duke (8-0)
* Series/Last meeting: Duke leads 14-4. The two teams last met on Nov. 26, 2017 in the championship game of the PK80 Invitational at Portland, Oregon, where the No. 1 Blue Devils rallied from an 18-point second-half deficit — and down 10 with inside four minutes to go — for an 87-84 win that handed the seventh-ranked Gators their first loss of the ’17-18 season. UF led 82-72, but got outscored 15-2 to end the game. Duke freshman forward Marvin Bagley III scored 30 points and 15 rebounds, with freshman guard Gary Trent (15 points) hitting a pair of free throws for the lead, then two more to ice the game after UF guard Jalen Hudson (24 points, 10 rebounds) missed the front end of a one-and-one with 54 seconds remaining. Senior guard Grayson Allen hit a huge 3-pointer late in the comeback on his way to 14 points and seven assists.
* TV: ESPN (Dan Shulman, Jay Bilas and Kris Budden)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD / Stations list
(with Sean Kelley, Brian Hogan and Steve Egan)
* Ticket info
Projected Starters
Duke forward Cameron Boozer
Duke
Position
Height / Weight
Class
Statistics
Cameron Boozer
F
6-9 / 250
Freshman
22.9 pts / 9.8 reb / 3.9 ast
Patrick Ngongba
F
6-11 / 250
Sophomore
12.8 pts / 6.5 reb
Dame Sarr
F
6-8 / 190
Freshman
7.5 pts / 4.1 reb
Isaiah Evans
G
6-6 / 180
Sophomore
12.5 pts / 3.6 reb
Caleb Foster
G
6-5 / 205
Junior
9.2 pts / 3.2 reb
The Setup
Historic Cameron Indoor Arena (capacity 9,314), on the campus of Duke University, opened in 1940
Florida and Duke, two teams that reached the 2025 Final Four in San Antonio last March, will square off in one of the marquee matchups of the third ACC/SEC Challenge, an ESPN-contrived event of 16 games over two days pitting teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference against teams from the Southeastern Conference. The game is a notable one for the 15th-ranked Gators because they’ll be making just their fourth appearance at Cameron Indoor Stadium, one of the nation’s most revered collegiate basketball cathedrals and home to fourth-ranked Blue Devils since 1940. … Duke has won 21 straight on its home floor. … Florida last played at Cameron on Dec. 9, 1998 when the Gators lost 116-86 in the third season under Billy Donovan. UF, which fell five spots in the latest Associated Press Top 25, is coming off a two-game split at the Rady Children’s Invitational last week in San Diego, where the Gators were upset by Texas Christian in first-round play Thanksgiving Day, then bounced back on Black Friday with a 90-78 defeat of Providence in the consolation game. The Blue Devils had gone most unchallenged through their first seven games, but were tested by No. 22 Arkansas in their neutral-site meeting Thursday at Chicago, with Duke coming from behind late in the second half for an 80-71 victory. … Both teams are 1-1 in the ACC/SEC Challenge. Florida lost at Wake Forest in ’23 and defeated Virginia at home in ’24, while Duke lost at Arkansas in ’23 and beat Auburn in ’24.
Tale of the Tape
Gators senior guard Xaivian Lee (1)
Florida
Statistics
Duke
85.9
Scoring
91.9
.440
Field-goal percentage
.520
.277
3-point percentage
.370
72.6
Scoring defense
68.4
.381
Field-goal percentage defense
.340
.261
3-point percentage defense
.260
16th
KenPom.com overall ranking
3rd
23rd
KenPom.com offensive efficiency
5th
10th
KenPom.com defensive efficiency
4th
23rd
KenPom.com adjusted tempo
203rd
N/A
NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking
N/A
37th
Overall strength of schedule ranking
253rd
The Breakdown
UF junior guard Urban Klavzar
About the Gators: They started the season ranked No. 3, but the opening-game loss in Las Vegas to Arizona, still undefeated and now ranked second, got things off to a somewhat rocky start, as the Gators followed by playing unevenly in stringing together four consecutive wins before blowing a 10-point second-half lead to TCU last week. The conversation and concern about 3-point shooting and turnovers was quelled, at least for a game, against Providence, as the Gators hit a season-high 12 from deep and turned it over just eight times (only four in the final 36 minutes) after 19 giveaways against the Horned Frogs. … Florida started the season in the top five in both offense and defensive efficiency, per KenPom.com, but dropped more than 20 spots on offense (mostly because of 3-point shooting), and now sits on the edge of the top 10 in defense. … Forward Alex Condon (15.7 ppg, 8.8 rpg), who was held out of the Providence game for precautionary reasons after taking a blow to the head against TCU, will be a game-time decision. If Condon can’t get go, Micah Handlogten (5.3 ppg, 7.0 rpg) will get his second start over the last two seasons. … The most encouraging development that came out of San Diego was the consolation-game performance of shooting guard Xaivian Lee, who entered the game struggling mightily from the floor (22.6% overall, 15.6 from 3). Against the Friars, Lee scored a UF career-high 20 points, went 4-for-9 from the arc, grabbed seven rebounds and pitched four assists. If going 3,000 miles to split two games got Lee’s confidence and productivity back to his Princeton levels, the trip will have been more than worth it. … Center Rueben Chinyelu has four double-doubles in his last five games, is shooting 59% from the floor and has increased his free-throw shooting to 70% (up from 53.9 for his career). … Point guard Boogie Fland had his best offensive outing as a Gator, dropping four 3s (one of his career best). … Forward Thomas Haugh made just three of nine shots and one of five 3 attempts, but still finished with 16 points, 12 rebounds and five assists over 34 minutes. He got to the free-throw line 11 times and made nine. … Backup guard Urban Klavzar (10.6 ppg) averaged 19.0 points and drilled seven of 15 from deep in San Diego. He’s at 38% for the season (after starting 21.4 through the first four games). … Reserve guard Isaiah Brown (3.4 ppg, 2.6 rpg) made all three of his field-goal attempts in 12 minutes.
About the Blue Devils: It’s the fourth season under Jon Scheyer, who is 97-22 at his alma mater, having won his first ACC title as coach last season and guiding the Blue Devils to their first Final Four 2022 (and just the second over the previous nine seasons). Duke is unbeaten through eight games for the first time since the 2017-18 season when it started 11-0. As far as metrics go, the Blue Devils are elite at practically everything, evidenced by their top-five ratings in both offense and defense, including the second-best 2-point percentage in college basketball (65.2) and best effective field-goal percentage defense (40.0). … Forward Cameron Boozer, who chose Duke following a recruiting battle with Florida and Miami, may not be gaining Cooper Flagg accolades as a freshman, but the kid has no weaknesses and will be a top-3 selection in the 2026 NBA Draft. He’s shooting 65.4% from 2, nearly 39 from 3, leads the team in assists and is listed among the top 150 in virtually every advanced metric, including a top-60 in usage. The son of former Duke and 13-year NBA veteran Carlos Boozer gets wherever he wants on the floor and does everything well. … Point guard Caleb Foster, a starter for the bulk of his three seasons in Durham, is shooting 52% from 2 and nearly 50 from the arc, while posting a 20.6% assist rate. … Isaiah Evans is another highly efficient inside-out offensive player, as well as an excellent shot-blocker at the guard position. As far as the former, apply the same to rookie forward Dame Sarr (59% from 2, nearly 36 from 3). … Backup 6-8 freshman forward Nikolas Khamenia (7.0 ppg, 4.1 rpg) joined the aforementioned Boozer and his younger brother, 6-4 backup guard Cayden Boozer (7.2 ppg, 3.1 apg), on the 2025 McDonald’s All America Team.
Numbers of Note
2025 NCAA Player of the Year Cooper Flagg (2) walks dejected off the floor after the Final Four loss to Houston last March in San Antonio.
* 14 — Duke’s lead on Houston with inside eight minutes to go in the 2025 Final Four, a game the Blue Devils eventually gassed away 70-67. Duke led by nine with 2:15 to play, but Houston turned up the heat of its NCAA-best defense and outscored the Blue Devils 15-3 down the stretch, including a star-struck 9-0 over the final 33 seconds to finish one of the biggest comebacks (and meltdowns) in Final Four history. Note: In case anyone forget, Florida trailed by 12 in the second half of the national-championship game two nights later and won 65-63.
* 1937 — The last time Duke played in Gainesville. This will be the 11th meeting between the programs since, with four at Cameron and six at neutral sites, including two in the NCAA Tournament, with one of those in Charlotte at the 1994 Final Four, where the Blue Devils won 70-65.
* 2000 — Just 15 months after being pummeled by 30 at Cameron, the fifth-seeded Gators, in the fourth season under Donovan, faced the No. 1-seed Blue Devils in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA East Region at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York, where UF shocked the tournament’s top overall seed 87-78 by scoring the game’s last 13 points over the final four minutes. Freshman point guard Brett Nelson led the Gators with 15 points, who outplayed All-America freshman Jay Williams, now the popular ESPN analyst. Sophomore forward Mike Miller added 10 points. The win was UF’s first ever over a No. 1-ranked team and advanced the Gators to the Elite Eight for just the second time in program history. They defeated Oklahoma State in the regional final, then beat North Carolina at the Final Four in Indianapolis to reach the NCAA title game for the first time. UF lost to Michigan State 89-76.
Bottom Line
This will be a tough ask for the Gators, but it’s all part of the process — and plan — of this 2025-26 season and its elements of a rebuild that are very much a work in progress.
Email senior writer Chris Harry at [email protected]. Find his story archives here.
