Tonight, in the Bahamas, the Florida Gators begin an epic best-of-three series with Butler, a program that has intersected with Florida like few others over the course of the 21st century.
I mean, I could write that or write that the Gators and Bulldogs are meeting this Friday night (9:30 p.m., ESPNU or WatchESPN) to determine who finishes fifth and who finishes sixth in the 2018 Battle 4 Atlantis. Whichever.
The Gators got to this game, the final one of the event, by falling to Oklahoma in the three-day tournament’s first game, then rebounding on Friday night to wax Stanford; Butler did something similar, dropping its opener to Dayton and then plastering Middle Tennessee on Thanksgiving by an 84-53 count.