Kentucky basketball will match up with the National Champion Florida Gators twice this season

One of the most exciting games of the season last year for Mark Pope's Kentucky Wildcats was the matchup with the Florida Gators. Kentucky was able to take down the Gators 106-100 in one of the best shootouts of the season in Rupp Arena.

This was the only time these two teams met last season, but that won't be the case during the 2025-26 season as, according to Jon Rothstein, the Wildcats and Gators will meet twice.

While the Gators did lose their star player, Walter Clayton Jr., they did return a ton of elite frontcourt production, as Alex Condon, Rueben Chinyelu, and Thomas Haugh are all back this season.

The Gators are reloading in the backcourt as well as they added Princeton transfer Xaivian Lee and former Arkansas Razorback (and Kentucky signee) Boogie Fland.

One of the Gators guards from the National Championship team, Denzel Aberdeen, transferred from Todd Golden over to Coach Pope and will play for the Wildcats this season. He is a player who many believe is set to breakout for the Wildcats and Florida fans were very sorry to see him go.

The Gators and Wildcats are both going to be top ten teams heading into the season, meaning these two matchups should be some of the best in SEC play.

Pope and Golden are two young star coaches in the industry, which will make the matchups between Kentucky and Florida very exciting for a long time. The Rupp Arena crowd will be great once again when the Gators are in town.