Florida @ #24 Butler

Who will WIN this matchup?

Florida Gators (6-2)

@ #24 Butler Bulldogs (8-0)

Current odds:

Florida Gators: (+155)

#24 Butler Bulldogs: (-195)

• The line for this game is Butler by 4 points.

• Butler remains one of the nation’s few unbeaten teams after defeating Ole Miss 67-58 on Tuesday. The 24th-ranked Bulldogs’ next challenge at home on Saturday is an inconsistent Florida team that has been in and out of the polls this season but is riding a four-game winning streak despite struggling to get by Marshall 73-67 a week ago. “We weren’t the same team tonight,” Gators head coach Mike White told reporters after watching his team flounder against a Marshall team on the heels of an impressive three-game run to win the Charleston Classic. Perhaps the team read too many positive newspaper clippings heading into the matchup, as the Gators had poor practices leading in, with White saying afterward, “We were geeked up as a staff, ready to roll, go to work, continue riding that (Charleston Classic) momentum, and we had a really, really bad practice (Wednesday). Came back (Thursday) and had almost equally as bad a practice, and played like it tonight.”

• A change in mindset is desperately needed in Gainesville, but overconfidence shouldn’t be a factor for the Gators against an unbeaten Butler team off to its first 8-0 start since 2016-17, with four victories recorded against opponents from power conferences, including Stanford (68-67) in the Hall of Fame Classic championship game. “We haven’t talked about winning,” Butler head coach LaVall Jordan said on The Dan Dakich Show. “Obviously, that’s the goal. We’ve just been talking about getting better and opportunities to prove who we are to each other.”

• The offense did not get off to the start expected this season, but the Gators seemed to have solved some of the issues in the Charleston Classic before the problems reared up once again against Marshall, with the team going 0-for-11 from deep in the game’s first 26 1/2 minutes and finishing with just four assists compared with 14 turnovers. Freshman Ques Glover continues to make the most of his play off the bench with a team- and career-high 14 points against Marshall, but Florida needs more from fellow freshman Tre Mann, who opened the season with 11 points but has scored just 18 in the other five games that he’s played. Kerry Blackshear scored in double digits for the seventh time (10 points), but he was limited on the boards (four) before fouling out but Scottie Lewis (seven) and Dontay Bassett (seven) led the way as the team outrebounded Marshall 43-31.

• One of three Bulldogs averaging in double figures for the season, Kamar Baldwin (17.5) continues to spearhead the offense, recording a game-high 31 points against Ole Miss, one shy of his personal best, after hitting 11-of-16 shots, including 4-of-5 from long distance. No other Bulldog totaled double digits in that win, but forwards Bryce Nze (12.1) and Sean McDermott (10.4) are shooting in double figures for the season and Nze tops the team in rebounds with 7.5 per game. Butler has limited opponents to 55.5 points per game, eighth-best among all Division I teams as the Bulldogs have held six teams under 60 points.

• Florida and Butler met twice last season, with the Bulldogs winning the first meeting 61-54 in the Battle 4 Atlantic and the Gators winning 77-43 at home on the front end of a home-and-home agreement.

• Butler has won 55 straight non-conference games at home, the longest such streak in the nation.

• The Gators have had different players — Andrew Nembhard (Miami), Noah Locke (Xavier) and Scottie Lewis (Marshall) — tally four steals in each of the past three games.