The Gators looked like a rec league team for much of this season, chucking threes and demonstrating an inability to win on the road. But the Basketball Gods (James Naismith and the Harlem Rens?) have smiled on the Orange and Blue as the Gators (22-9, 9-7) have the easiest possible path to the SEC Tournament Semifinals; Arkansas (14-15, 2-14) and Auburn (21-10, 10-6). Florida defeated both teams in January, with the Auburn win coming on the road. Not only that, both games would be at 9:45pm Thursday and Friday night, meaning there would be plenty of liquored up UF Tampa Almus and Bull Gators in the building. With $50 tickets per session, you can expect a more pro-Gator crowd Saturday in the semis.
But do the Gators need to get to Saturday to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament? We list the possibilities of what the Gators can do and you decide.
0 recs | 21 comments
I went with Beat Arkansas, Auburn...
Florida still won’t have the best resume in the world, but if they beat these 2 teams and then lose the one after that, they will be sitting at 24-10. I have to think that’s good enough to get an invite. I’m sure we could look it up, but I would think there are very few 24-win teams that didn’t make the tourney.
The 9th loss in the regular season hurt. I think if they could’ve avoided 10 losses on the year, they would’ve been a lock, but now the only way to do that is to win the SEC tourney. Not completely out of the realm of possibility, but I with the unpredictable play of this team, I wouldn’t bet on it.
The Bull Gator - March 9, 2009
It'll be the same as all year
They could go on a run and win the tourney – it’s more or less a home venue, or they could be a first round casualty. There aer no easy wins with this team, that much is certain.
skigator93 - March 9, 2009
Easy Path?
Tell LSwho that we (Auburn) are an easy team to get by. Tell Tennessee that. Tell Mississippi State that Auburn is an easy team to get by. No respect, doesn’t matter the sport — which is fine by me, as long as we win. WAR EAGLE!
AUshorecm - March 9, 2009
Easiest Path
Florida gets to play two teams they have defeated while playing in front of the largest possible pro-UF crowd.
Don’t take it personal.
mlmintampa - March 9, 2009
I think Mississippi State has by far the easiest path of the teams playing on Day 1. They play UGA then a Carolina team that has struggled toward the end of the season (MSU beat both UGA and SC). The top half of the bracket is by far the easier half (Miss, UK, LSU, State, UGA, SC).
AUshorecm - March 9, 2009
LSU
is the class of the league. Plus, how many teams got the NY Times treatment this season?
mlmintampa - March 9, 2009
I'd rather leave no doubt.
Win the whole thing, damn it!
bdalebs - March 9, 2009
The very latest brackets from ESPN and SI have UF in the ‘last four out’, which suggests that we’re close enough to play our way in without the auto bid (though of course that would greatly simplify matters.) Aside from the usual surprise autos, we should be keeping an eye on teams like Penn St, Minnesota, Michigan and Arizona (there’s a definite Big-10 theme here), which currently appear to be just on the right side of the bubble; a little bit of timely blood-letting in the Big-10 tournament could be quite helpful.
peachy rex - March 9, 2009
Also, Creighton and Davidson lost which could hurt UF if they get a bid, plus the surprising conference winner.
mlmintampa - March 9, 2009
Yeah, and St Mary’s is in the WCC finals, which could prove sticky if they knock off Zaga. But perhaps Creighton and Davidson were in a sufficiently iffy position that their losses will edge them out – in both the ESPN and SI draft brackets, Creighton is with us in the last four out group; ESPN has Davidson in the next group behind us, and SI doesn’t have them anywhere in sight.
peachy rex - March 9, 2009
Well, St Mary’s lost – and badly, too. With Mills apparently still not back to speed, that’s a pretty favourable result for us.
peachy rex - March 10, 2009
Butler lost to Cleveland State. That means the Horizon League gets two teams.
mlmintampa - March 10, 2009
Oh, that’s not good – I had forgotten that game was tonight. Weber St lost too, in their semis (massive upset), but they’re way down the list, so I think they’re NIT-bound.
I hope W Kentucky holds on… they’re only a few spots behind us in the RPI right now. But on the good side, a couple of iffy Big East teams got bounced early on – Georgetown in particular could have been a team to fight its way in with a good run.
peachy rex - March 10, 2009
Auburn/Penn State
I’m SHOCKED that Penn State (21-10, 10-8 Big Ten) is still in the conversation over Auburn (21-10, 10-6 SEC) after a weekend in which the Nittany Lions lost to a BAD Iowa team, while the Tigers defeat SEC Champion LSU by 16. Penn State has won 4 of their last 9, while Auburn has won 8 of its last 9. It’s completely lacking in logic to leave Auburn out and put Penn State in.
AUshorecm - March 10, 2009
It’s odd, I agree – but the Big-10 has had the ‘our mediocre teams clustered right in the middle of standings are all good’ theme going in the press all year, while the SEC has been stiffed with the ‘our clustered teams are bad’ theme. There are projections with EIGHT Big-10 teams in, which is fairly ridiculous.
However, I think their tournament will weed out some of the extras.
peachy rex - March 10, 2009
I agree with the SEC analysis though
We are pretty weak this season. LSU was far and away the class, but they often struggled against most everybody. Think about how lousy the Gators played this season, yet we were in all but a couple SEC games until the last minute or two.
I can’t speak for the Big 10 – judging by how slow their football games move, I couldn’t imagine stomaching a basketball game between two sets of athletes from that conference!
skigator93 - March 10, 2009
Big Ten Basketball...
is Penn State 38 – Illinois 33. That’s an SEC football score.
mlmintampa - March 10, 2009
Big-12, maybe – last season, in conference games only, just two SEC teams scored more than 30 ppg (UF and Bama), and two gave up more than 30 (LSU and Arky.) And both teams cracked 30 in the same game only five times (UF-Miss, Bama-UGA, UGA-LSU, UGA-UK and LSU-Arky.)
In other news, Arky is losing a guy to suspension for our game. He doesn’t seem like a really key part of the team, but I won’t complain about anything that helps us – he was fifth in scoring and rebounding, but also appears to have been a turnover machine (1:2.5) and sub-mediocre shooter. Hmm… maybe this isn’t such a great thing. (The first time through against us he contributed 23 minutes, 5 points and 4 rebounds.)
peachy rex - March 10, 2009
If I'm Florida,
I wouldn’t feel safe unless I made the SEC Finals. Most likely that means FINALLY beating Tennessee which would be the one statement win Florida could make.
Winning only 2 would make them 11-8 in conference play and 1-4 against SEC NCAA-bound teams (or 0-3 depending on where South Carolina falls). I just don’t think that’s going to be good enough.
DoubleB - March 9, 2009
I agree
I think they need to make the finals. Maybe third time’s a charm vs. the Vols. Although, if Bama wins Thursday against Vandy, they get Tennessee. Bama has won 4 of their last 5 games.
mlmintampa - March 9, 2009
Let's just worry about Arkansas
If we don’t beat them, the rest doesn’t matter. It is surely not a given.
skigator93 - March 9, 2009
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