Florida basketball enters a matchup against Michigan with a 2-3 record against Quadrant 1 and 2 opponents, but ESPN says the Gators are the favorites to win on Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina at the Jumpman Invitational.
Using the Basketball Power Index (BPI), ESPN is giving Florida 58.5% odds to come out on top by a projected 2.4 points.
“BPI is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of performance going forward,” the site reads. “BPI represents how many points above or below average a team is… Game predictions account for opponent strength, pace of play, site, travel distance, day’s rest and altitude, and are used to simulate the season 10,000 times to produce season projections.”
The Wolverines are off to a bumpy start, sporting a 6-5 record, but head coach Juwan Howard is now back with hopes of restoring some stability to the program. A 17-point win over Eastern Michigan on Saturday has spirits high in Ann Arbor, but this should be a bigger test for U of M.
Florida is looking for some stability of its own after dealing with suspensions and injuries that affected the rotation. Now with a full roster, Todd Golden is figuring out how to best dole out minutes.
Things looked pretty ugly on Thursday in a win over East Carolina. Hopefully, Golden and Co. can adjust and make good on ESPN’s predictions for Saturday.
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