Florida men’s basketball to host preseason Orange and Blue game

It’s almost time for college basketball, and Florida is hosting an intersquad scrimmage to finish off the preseason.

Instead of facing another school in a traditional exhibition game before the college basketball season starts, the Florida Gators are planning to hold an intrasquad scrimmage on Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. EDT. The program announced the game early Thursday morning.

Admission will be free to the Orange and Blue game with doors opening an hour before tipoff. Students will compete in contests and take home plenty of goodies as part of the event, including a team photo card for the first 1,000 fans through the gates. There will also be an interactive video/photo booth for fans to take pictures with the 2006 and 2007 National Championship trophies. One fan will win a pair of season tickets for the upcoming Florida Gators basketball season.

Capping off the preseason with an intrasquad scrimmage is new for the Gators. Florida has hosted an exhibition before the start of the season since 2004-05, most recently taking down Embry-Riddle last year.

The regular season (and [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag] era) will begin less than a week after the scrimmage takes place. Stony Brook comes into town on Nov. 7 and then Kennesaw State is in Gainesville on Nov. 11. Those should be wonderful opportunities for the Gators to start off strong, but the Florida State game on Nov. 18 will be the team’s first genuine test under new leadership.

247Sports’ Jacob Rudner is reporting that Florida will play “secret scrimmages” against Miami and Jacksonville before the season begins, so the scrimmage won’t be the only form of game-speed preparation the Gators undergo.

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