College Basketball: Previewing Opening Night's Florida-Arizona Matchup

College basketball is only around a month away, and opening night features two must-watch games. Projected top-three pick AJ Dybantsa goes up against Villanova, while the reigning champion Florida Gators are home against a talented Arizona team. Here's who to watch in the opening night Florida-Arizona matchup.

Arizona @ Florida

Florida Gators

Despite losing key players like Walter Clayton Jr, Will Richard, Alijah Martin, and Denzel Aberdeen this past offseason, Florida revitalized their roster -- mostly through the transfer portal. Florida added multiple key transfers, including Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee. Fland averaged 13.5 points, 5.1 assists, 3.2 rebounds, 1.5 steals, and 1.4 turnovers per game as a freshman for Arkansas last season while recording an impressive 30.5 assist percentage as well. Fland has an opportunity to be a first round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.

Florida also picked up former-Princeton guard Xaivian Lee in the portal, a crafty primary ball-handler who averaged 17 points and 5.5 assists in the Ivy last season.

In addition to making waves in the portal, Florida retained two players who would have gotten drafted had they declared for the 2025 NBA Draft: Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh. Both players will be looking to solidify themselves as first round picks this upcoming season.

Condon is a 6-foot-11 big who averaged 10.6 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 2.2 stocks per game last season while recording a 12.5 offensive rebound percentage, 19.3 defensive rebound percentage, 15 assist percentage, a steal percentage of two, and a 5.5 block percentage.

Haugh is a 6-foot-9 wing who averaged 9.8 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.6 stocks per game while shooting 66.4% at the rim (110 attempts), 29.6% on non-rim twos (27 attempts), 34% from three (103 attempts), and 79.4% from the free throw line (155 attempts).

Both Condon and Haugh's production last season were enough for them to both meet the Productive Sophomore Query -- 68% of the 47 players who met the criteria play five-plus years in the NBA.

Lastly, Florida also signed a top-thirty recruit in the 2025 high school class: CJ Ingram. He's a 6-foot-6 wing known for his physical style of play, length, athleticism, and effectiveness in transition.

Arizona Wildcats

This Arizona team is a talented group, highlighted by their two top-ten recruit freshmen in Koa Peat and Brayden Burries. Peat is a 6-foot-8, 235-pound forward known for the productivity he's had at every level. He's known for his soft touch around the rim, has a solid feel for the game, and is likely to be impactful immediately at Arizona. Burries is a 6-foot-4 guard known for his ability to create for others off of drives and hit midrange pull-ups. Both freshmen have an opportunity to be first round picks in the 2026 NBA Draft.

Other players to watch include 7-foot-2 big Montiejus Krivas, who is a rising junior, and 6-foot-3 guard Jaden Bradley, who is a rising senior. Krivas suffered a foot injury as a sophomore, limiting him to only eight games last season. However, the mobility at his size stood out his freshman season at Arizona. He hadn't consistently put it together yet as a freshman, but he was impactful as a rebounder and showed flashes of rim protection -- recording a 14.7 offensive rebounding percentage, 22.8 defensive rebounding percentage, 4.6 block percentage and 1.4 steal percentage. Krivas' mobility flashed on the offensive end as a roller at times, and Krivas has knocked down a noticeable 75.3% of his free throws during his college career (93 attempts).

Bradley averaged 12.1 points, 3.7 assists, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.8 steals per game last season and is known for his ability to create rim pressure.

Both the Gators and Wildcats have talented teams and it will be intriguing to see how the handful of prospects match up on November 3rd.