Florida Men’s Basketball Opens No. 2 in KenPom ratings
The preseason KenPom ratings for the 2025-2026 NCAA basketball season were released Sunday, and the reigning national champion Florida Gators are ranked No. 2.
KenPom Ratings are a series of analytical predictive ratings that take into account offense, defense, tempo, luck and more to produce rankings of Division I basketball teams.
The Gators’ No. 2 ranking stems from a 121.3 offensive efficiency rating (No. 3) and a 91.9 defensive efficiency rating (No. 6).
The only team that tops Florida in the ranking is Houston, which UF defeated in last season’s National Championship Game.
Kentucky (No. 4) and Tennessee (No. 9) are the only other SEC teams featured in the Top 10.
let’s get to work
— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) October 13, 2025
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While it did lose Alijah Martin, Walter Clayton Jr and Will Richard to eligibility/the NBA, Florida retained top talent like Alex Condon, Reuben Chinyelu and Thomas Haugh.
Coach Todd Golden and his staff also did its work in the transfer portal by adding former Arkansas guard Boogie Fland and former Princeton guard Xavian Lee. They were considered two of the top prospects in the portal. Fland was ranked the sixth best prospect and Lee 29th according to 247Sports.
In the preseason Associated Press poll released Monday, Florida is ranked No. 3. The Gators open the season against No. 13 Arizona, which is No. 15 in KenPom, at the Hall of Fame Series Las Vegas on Nov. 3.
In 2024-2025, Florida finished as the No. 1 KenPom team and was the fifth-best team of all time, according to KenPom metrics.
When was Florida last ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in KenPom in back-to-back seasons? 2006 and 2007 under Hall of Fame coach Billy Donovan when the Gators won back-to-back National Championships with the likes of Al Horford, Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer and Taurean Price on the roster.
So that begs the question: Does history repeat itself?
Category: College Basketball, Feature Sports News, Gators Men's Basketball
