Florida basketball earned a solid win against the Richmond Spiders in the Orange Bowl Classic on Saturday, giving the Gators two-straight wins while making them 2-0 so far in December with a 6-3 record overall.
Next up for the Orange and Blue are the East Carolina Pirates, who will face off with Todd Golden’s gang in Lakeland, Florida, for this year’s Florida Tip-Off on Dec. 14. The matchup should give the Orange and Blue a chance to calibrate before facing the Michigan Wolverines in the following game on Dec. 19.
According to ESPN’s Basketball Power Index predictions, the Gators have an 89.6% chance of earning the victory with a predicted 14.6-point differential. The matchup quality, however, has a measly 59.7-point value (out of 100), which is still good enough for the second-best matchup of the evening.
The Gators are ranked No. 43 in the NET rankings after the win over the Spiders while the Pirates are ranked No. 266 as of Monday, demonstrating a significant disparity between the two teams. East Carolina comes into the game at 6-4 after losing to the South Carolina Gamecocks last Saturday.
Thursday night’s game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. ET and the game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
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