Gators Open Exhibition Play vs. Baylor in Jacksonville: How to Watch and What to Watch

As of 5 p.m. ET, Saturday, Oct. 17, 2026.

Florida men's basketball's first public game of the 2026-27 season is Sunday. The Gators play Baylor in an exhibition at 2 p.m. ET at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, part of the Jacksonville Hoops Showdown, according to Florida's schedule and UF's official game notes.

How to watch, listen and get in

• When: Sunday, Oct. 18, 2 p.m. ET (1 p.m. Central, as Baylor lists it).
• Where: VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, 300 A. Philip Randolph Blvd., Jacksonville.
• TV/stream: SEC Network+ on the ESPN App, with Dan Hicken on play-by-play, Patric Young as analyst and Mia O'Brien reporting, per UF's game notes. Florida's schedule also lists WTEV in Jacksonville and WFTV in Orlando. Action Sports Jax's Brent Martineau says the game will air on ASJTV in Jacksonville at 2 p.m.
• Radio: Gators Sports Network, with Sean Kelley and Lee Humphrey.
• Tickets: On sale through Ticketmaster, per floridagators.com.

What Florida brings

Todd Golden opens his fifth season at Florida with a 103-41 record. UF notes that those 103 wins are the third-most through four seasons at an SEC school, behind only Tubby Smith and John Calipari at Kentucky. Florida returns four starters and 81.8% of its scoring from a 2026 SEC championship team that won 27 games and earned an NCAA No. 1 seed.

UF's possible starters, with last season's averages from the game notes:

• Thomas Haugh, F: 17.1 points, 6.1 rebounds. He's the media's SEC Preseason Player of the Year.
• Alex Condon, F: 15.1 points, 7.5 rebounds, 3.6 assists. Preseason second-team All-SEC.
• Rueben Chinyelu, C: 10.9 points, 11.2 rebounds. Preseason first-team All-SEC and USA Today's preseason SEC Defensive Player of the Year.
• Boogie Fland, G: 11.6 points and a team-high 61 steals.
• Denzel Aberdeen, G: back at Florida after a season at Kentucky, where he averaged about 13.5 points. He was part of UF's 2025 national title team.

Off the bench, Florida returns SEC Sixth Man of the Year Urban Klavžar, Isaiah Brown, CJ Ingram, Alex Lloyd, Alex Kovatchev and Viktor Mikic, and AJ Brown is back after redshirting last season. The newcomers are Lithuanian freshman Arturas Butajevas, Slovenian junior Domen Petrovic and freshman big man Jones Lay from North Carolina.

Three things to watch

The Independent Florida Alligator's Jeffrey Serber, writing for UF's student newspaper, laid out three storylines for Sunday:

• The eighth man. With Klavžar and Isaiah Brown set to come off the bench again, one rotation spot is open. Serber notes Ingram has been slowed by a back issue, and Golden said AJ Brown was one of Florida's best players in its closed scrimmage against North Florida on Oct. 7. "The gravity that AJ provides on the court, that showed up Wednesday night," Golden said. Mikic is the size option.
• The frontcourt shuffle. With Micah Handlogten gone to Ole Miss, Condon could slide to center and Haugh to the four when Chinyelu sits. "I would call it more of our 'depth lineup' as opposed to small ball," Golden said.
• A new backcourt. Fland and Aberdeen have never played together. Fland will run the point and Aberdeen will play the 2. "The brotherhood you have off the court, it trickles into the court," Fland said.

Baylor

Scott Drew is entering his 24th season at Baylor, the fifth-longest tenure among active head coaches, per Baylor's release. The Bears reached the semifinals of the College Basketball Crown last season, and CBS Sports notes they missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018. Isaac Williams IV is back as their leading returning scorer at 10.4 points per game. Baylor adds transfers Brett Decker Jr. (Liberty), Kayden Mingo (Penn State), Isaac Celiscar (Yale) and Evan Chatman (UAB), plus five-star freshman Dylan Mingo, Kayden's younger brother, and four-star Elijah Williams.

The history

Baylor leads the all-time series 3-1. The last meeting was a 95-91 Baylor win on Nov. 24, 2023, in Brooklyn. Florida has won its last 10 exhibition games, and its last exhibition at Veterans Memorial Arena was a 91-63 win over Eckerd on Oct. 26, 2016, per UF's game notes.

What's next

Florida hosts Stetson in its second exhibition on Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. at the O'Connell Center (SEC+). The regular season opens Nov. 2 against Miami in Tampa at 6 p.m. on ESPN2. The Gators also come back to Jacksonville on Dec. 18 to play Grand Canyon.

(More: Haugh opens SEC Preseason Player of the Year run vs. Baylor in Sunday exhibition.)

Sources: Florida game notes, floridagators.com schedule, floridagators.com tickets, The Independent Florida Alligator, baylorbears.com, CBS Sports, Brent Martineau.