Florida v Arizona tonight, and a random related Kentucky fact

[TheZookeeper]

I listen to the Eye on College Basketball podcast, and in their opening night preview Matt Norlander gave the following fact: Florida is the first defending national champion to schedule a high-major opponent to open their season since 2012/13 Kentucky.* UK played Maryland, in what I personally remember as the Jarrod Polson game, and won by 3...

*The caveat to that fact is Virginia opened with Syracuse the year after their recent title, but it was the weird year where the ACC had everyone in their league open the season with a conference game, so it wasn't a scheduling decision by Virginia.

Before Kentucky, it was Duke in '03 (I think?) but that was in Maui so it wasn't explicitly scheduled either.

And before that was UConn in '99.

Weird that it's so infrequent. I think the CBB powers-that-be ought to strongly encourage an opening-night high profile matchup with the defending national champ. All the professional sports do some version of that and I think it's great.

I'm picking Arizona to win. I think Florida will be good but not dominant this year.

[SportsFan]

I watched a little of the Arizona exhibition game against Saint Mary's, and they looked good, not great. It was also hard to gauge just how good because Saint Mary's didn't look like a very worthwhile caliber opponent to judge them by.

I won't be surprised if Arizona wins, but I'm not predicting it either. I don't think Florida stumbles out of the gate this early. I'll go with the Gators in this one.

[TrueblueCATfan]

I was just watching some if it

Boogie Fland plays For Florida now

[Davidmack]

Florida down 9 in 2nd half.

[Matt Dillon]

Gators lost.

[bthaunert]

I loved that UK-Maryland game. I love this picture taken by his sister of his parents watching that game on TV

[SportsFan]

I'm picking Arizona to win. I think Florida will be good but not dominant this year.

Good call

I underestimated the Boogie Fland effect. I remember all the forum threads where people were talking about how much better Arkansas played last year when Fland was out of the lineup. Hell, I personally watched so many overrated Five Star burger boys that Cal brought here for years! I should have known better...but I guess I didn't really take that into account as much as I should have.

That said, Florida isn't anywhere near as good this year as they were last year, so I actually feel good about getting it wrong and Florida taking the L. I'm liking our chances of winning the SEC this year a lot more after watching (part of) last night's Florida game.