Florida basketball is off to a 4-0 start to the 2024-25 campaign and ranked among the top 25 in both the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll and AP Poll.
So far, the Gators have mostly faced fellow Sunshine State foes and that does not change much on Tuesday night when they host the Florida A&M Rattlers inside the O’Connell Center. Having already dispatched the Florida State Seminoles in Tallahassee last game, Todd Golden’s gang now gets a shot at the other school from the state’s capital.
Using the Basketball Power Index, ESPN predicts a dominant UF victory over FAMU, giving Florida 99.5% odds to win with a 31.1 predicted point differential. ESPN also gives the matchup a quality rating of 35.0, making it a middle-of-the-pack game of the evening.
“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.”
ESPN BPI Season Projections
The Gators are currently ranked 29th on the Basketball Power Index with a 13.2 index, while the Rattlers are 359th with a -14.9 BPI. FAMU struggles on both offense and defense, while Florida features a top-25 offense (8.6, 21st).
ESPN projects Florida to finish the season with a 19.5-10.5 overall record and a 9.1-8.9 record in conference play based on results so far and BPI-based projections for remaining scheduled games. The Gators only have 1.3% odds to win the conference. Florida faces the 44th-toughest schedule moving forward.
How to watch Florida-FAMU
The Gators and Rattlers tip off at 7 p.m. ET inside the O’Dome on Tuesday night. The game will be broadcast on the SEC Nework+ and can be heard on the Gators Sports Network.
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Here’s what BPI predicts for Florida-FAMU matchup Tuesday night
