Cameron Craziness: Florida basketball to play at Duke in 2025-26 SEC-ACC Challenge

• The Florida Gators men’s basketball team will play at Duke in the upcoming SEC-ACC Challenge, marking their first game at Cameron Indoor Stadium since 1998.
• Florida last defeated Duke in the Sweet 16 of the 2000 NCAA Tournament, while Duke won their most recent matchup in 2017.
• Both teams lost key players to the NBA draft, but Duke added top recruits Cameron and Cayden Boozer, while Florida brought in transfers Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee.
• The game at Duke is part of a challenging non-conference schedule for Florida, which also includes matchups against Arizona, UConn, and Michigan.

Florida basketball will get a dose of the Cameron Crazies and the Boozer Twins in another challenging non-conference test next season.

The Florida Gators will play at Duke in the SEC-ACC Challenges, sources confirmed to the Sun. It will mark UF’s first trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C., since Dec. 9, 1998, a game the Gators lost 116-86.

Florida is 4-14 all time against Duke, with its last win against the Blue Devils coming in the Sweet 16 of the 2000 NCAA Tournament, when UF upset the Blue Devils 87-78 on March 24, 2000, in Syracuse, N.Y.

In the last meeting between the schools, Duke beat Florida 87-84 on Nov. 26, 2017, in the finals of the PK80 Tournament in Portland, Oregon.

UF was poised to face Duke in the 2025 national finals before Houston mounted a second-half comeback to beat the Blue Devils 70-69. Florida then beat Houston 65-63 to clinch its third national title in school history.

Both teams suffered losses from their Final Four squads. Duke freshman phenom forward Cooper Flagg entered the NBA Draft, where he’s projected as the number one overall pick by the Dallas Mavericks later this month. Florida lost its starting entire starting backcourt, including All-American point guard Walter Clayton Jr., who is a projected first-round draft pick.

Duke has reloaded by adding the five-star brother tandem of Cameron and Cayden Booker, who both also visited UF. Cameron Booker, a 6-foot-9 power forward, was rated by ESPN.com as the third overall player in the 2025 class, while Cayden Boozer, a 6-foot-5 point guard, is ranked 17th overall nationally by ESPN. Their father, Carlos Boozer, was a former Duke standout who went on to a successful 13-year NBA career.

Florida is bringing back All-SEC junior forward Alex Condon and reloaded in the transfer portal by adding former five-star recruit and Arkansas point guard Boogie Fland and Princeton All-Ivy League point guard Xaivian Lee.

UF also will have to contend with Duke’s renowned student section, “the Cameron Crazies,” and the intimate but loud setting at Cameron Indoor Stadium, which seats 9,314.

The matchup with Duke adds to a loaded UF non-conference schedule that includes its season opener in Las Vegas on Nov. 3 against Arizona and a Dec. 9 matchup with UConn at the Jimmy V Classic in New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Florida also is slated to play Michigan at the Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte, N.C., later in December.

Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1. Read his coverage of the Gators’ national championship basketball season in “CHOMP-IONS!” — a hardcover coffee-table collector’s book from The Sun. Details at Florida.ChampsBook.com

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