Florida Gators basketball schedule for 2017-18 officially released

By Adam Silverstein
August 24, 2017

Basketball

Image Credit: ESPN Images

The Florida Gators took the Southeastern Conference‘s mandate for league teams to schedule tougher nonconference opponents to heart a few seasons ago, and their difficult booking continues entering the 2017-18 campaign to go along with their league slate.

Florida released its nonconference schedule months ago, and the SEC filled in the blanks by making public the league schedule on Thursday.

UF’s opponent for the annual Orange Bowl Basketball Classic in Sunrise, Florida, will be the Clemson Tigers. Florida will also face the Cincinnati Bearcats as part of the 2017 Never Forget Games on Dec. 9 in Newark, New Jersey. It is believed that game is replacing UF’s return contest with Michigan State, which was pushed to the 2018-19 slate.

The Gators will also play the Baylor Bears in the 2017 SEC-Big 12 Challenge and participate in the Phil Knight Invitational in Portland, Oregon. Florida is guaranteed to face Stanford to open the event before taking on either Gonzaga or Ohio State in the next round. UF may also play Butler, Duke and/or Texas all as part of the event.

The Gators played nearly the entire 2016-17 nonconference schedule away from home due to a massive renovation to the Stephen C. O’Connell Center. Florida will host Baylor and also have FSU travel to its home arena, meaning it will not play a single true road game until league play.

In SEC action, UF will face Alabama and South Carolina — along with its permanent home-and-home rivals in Georgia, Kentucky and Vanderbilt — twice each this season. Florida will also host Arkansas, Auburn, LSU and Mississippi State, while it will travel to Ole Miss, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas A&M.

Check out the entire schedule below.

Date	Gator Bait	Time/Score	TV/Rec.
11/7	Stony Brook	W 81-45	1-0
11/11	Kennesaw St.	W 88-78	2-0
11/14	FAU	L 74-76	2-1
11/18	at Florida St.	W 76-67	3-1
11/24	vs. Xavier Phil Knight	L 83-90	3-2
11/25	vs. Oregon St. Phil Knight	W 81-68	4-2
11/27	vs. W. Virginia Phil Knight	L 55-84	4-3
11/30	Florida A&M	W 102-62	5-3
12/4	Stetson	W 89-51	6-3
12/7	UConn	L 54-75	6-4
12/14	vs. Ohio Tampa	W 82-48	7-4
12/20	vs. Oklahoma Jumpman	L 53-62	7-5
12/28	at Auburn	L 58-61	7-6
1/4	Texas A&M	L 63-66	7-7
1/7	Georgia	W 82-75	8-7
1/10	at LSU	W 67-56	9-7
1/14	Missouri	W 73-64	10-7
1/18	at Texas A&M	L 52-54	10-8
1/21	at Miss. State	8:30 p.m.	SECN
1/25	South Carolina	7 p.m.	ESPN2
1/28	at Kansas State SEC-Big 12	6 p.m.	ESPN2
2/1	Tennessee	7 p.m.	ESPN2/U
2/4	at Kentucky	8:30 p.m.	ESPN
2/8	at Alabama	9 p.m.	ESPN2/U
2/11	Vanderbilt	3:30 p.m.	SECN
2/15	Ole Miss	6:30 p.m.	SECN
2/18	at Arkansas	2 p.m.	ESPN/2
2/22	Kentucky	7 p.m.	ESPN
2/25	at Vanderbilt	6 p.m.	ESPN2/U
2/28	at Georgia	7 p.m.	SECN
3/4	LSU	6 p.m.	SECN