Todd Golden's Biggest Question Mark for the Gators Entering 2025-26 Season

While Golden is confident in the team he assembled, which also includes returning bigs Alex Condon, Rueben Chinyelu and Micah Handlogten, he still believes there are unknowns with this group heading into the title-defense season.

"It's not like there's one specific thing on a team that I'm like, 'Oh, man, like, I'm really worried about this.' I wouldn't say that. I think our team's pretty well rounded. I think we have a really good understanding what it takes to be good. I think our role allocation is in a good spot. 
So, it's more, I imagine there's going to be a thing or two that pop up. Maybe it's Monday night, maybe it's the first couple weeks of the season that we're like, 'Alright, we need to figure this issue out to be the best we can be.'"

 Arguably the biggest outside question mark will be how Fland, who missed a section of the offseason with an injury and did not play in the secret scrimmage against Illinois, and Lee play together.

Additionally, depth remains a question with Denzel Aberdeen transferring to Kentucky, elevating reserve Urban Klavzar in the rotation.

“Feel like there’s a lot of people out there questioning it or whatever, but I think we’re going to be pretty good,” Lee said last week. “Everyone talks about our frontcourt, I think our backcourt is also pretty good as well, so I’m excited to just go out there and show that.”

Florida is confident it can make another run in the NCAA Tournament, but the unknowns still remain a concern. Even if Florida identifies issues on Monday, there won't be much time to address them before facing another top-tier non-conference opponent.

Notable non-conference games for Florida this year include FSU at home on Nov. 11, Miami in Jacksonville on Nov. 16, the Rady Children's Invitational against TCU (Nov. 27) and either Providence or Wisconsin (Nov. 28), at Duke on Dec. 2 and against UConn in Brooklyn on Dec. 9.

Yet, last year's national title run remains a reminder that despite question marks and despite losing multiple high-profile contributors, Florida is still one of the top teams in the country entering the season.

"I think we've been able to get our program after winning the national championship last year to a level where, you know, people respect what we've done, they respect our program," Golden said. "And for me, the challenge is to continue to keep it at that level. And so, you know, there's not as much worry about proving who we are. I'm just more concerned about putting our program in the best place that we can be to win games."

Tip-off between the third-ranked Gators and Wildcats is at 7 p.m. ET with television coverage on TNT.