Vegas can't make a spread big enough that Florida Basketball can't cover

For the first eight games of the Florida Basketball season, the Gators weren’t challenged and won every game by double digits. But even with that backdrop, the fact that the Gators were favored by 17 points against Virginia on Wednesday felt like a massive spread that would be a tall task to try and cover.

Yet Todd Golden and crew put another emphatic beatdown against a respectable opponent to move to 9-0 on the season after beating Virginia 87-69.

Florida Basketball: Hype Train

For the first six minutes the Gators looked like a team having a Thanksgiving hangover. Shots were off, hustle was lacking, and Virginia got out to a 18-9 lead.

From there Florida kicked into the team we have seen all year, attacking the rim and exploiting their size advantage to pick up easy buckets.

But it is the three point shooting for Florida that is starting to also come along. Denzel Aberdeen made two threes and Will Richard hit another one as part of a 16-0 run that took the score from 20-14 in favor of Virginia to 29-20 in favor of Florida.

And while it was a one point game early in the second half, Florida kept attacking the rim and Virginia had zero answers. Combined with turning the ball over just six times while generating 12 the Gators ran away with it in the second half.

The end result was an 18 point win over a Virginia squad that was a top 100 KenPom team coming into the game.

Florida’s dominance has given the Gators their first 9-0 start since 2005. Their win was part of the SEC’s domination of the ACC in the SEC/ACC challenge, where the SEC won 14 of the 16 matchups over the past two days.

Next up for Florida is Arizona State, followed by UNC.