After waiting on the conclusion of one of the First Four play-in games the Gators now know their opponent, and Friday their NCAA Tournament will kick off against the Prairie View A&M Panthers.
If you haven’t been following your low-major basketball, and if you haven’t been-no judgement here, you need to know that Prairie View A&M getting to this point is nothing short of remarkable. When talking about Cinderella teams most people are looking at action that happens in the NCAA Tournament, but the Panthers’ Cinderella run started in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament where no one, and I mean no one–had them coming away as champion entering the event. At one point in SWAC play Prairie View A&M lost 7 of 8 games and looked defeated, until February 26 when they started to get their mojo back. Closing the season on a mini three-game winning streak the Panthers got out of the complete basement of the league standings but still finished 8th, not exactly the kind of seed positioned to make a conference tournament run. Well, no one told Prairie View A&M that, as they won 4 games in 5 days to win the SWAC Tournament, including knocking off Southern, Alabama A&M, and Bethune Cookman–the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd ranked teams in the conference.
The lowest rated KenPom team in the Field Of 68, Prairie View A&M was sent to Dayton to play in a First Four game against Lehigh, with the Patriot League champions being the favorite. Just like Prairie View A&M has done for the past three weeks, they played the underdog role and took a 67-55 win earning a chance to play the Gators.
What the Panthers have done to get to this point is remarkable, and they are unlikely to be scared of a high-major opponent given how many buy games they had to play in non-conference. The Panthers played Missouri, LSU, Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, North Texas, and Wichita State, with close games against LSU and North Texas. They’re also playing their best basketball of the year and will be playing with nothing to lose against a Florida team with high expectations.
Prairie View A&M’s surge in the recent weeks has coincided with the return from injury of guard Tai’Reon Joseph who is averaging 18.2 points per game–though that number was much higher before he lost a few weeks in February and March to injury. Once he returned he started coming off the bench and giving a serious boost to the second unit, and while he is clearly not 100% and isn’t playing a ton–he will bring some spurtibility.
Leading the way in scoring is Dontae Horne, a powerful 6’4” ball handler who is averaging 20.2 points and 3.1 assists per game, while also adding in 1.9 steals on the defensive end. Most dangerous in transition, Horne is constantly trying to get to the rim and if he doesn’t get an advantage with quickness he’ll use physicality to bump aside defenders and draw fouls as he finishes at the cup. Horne isn’t a great shooter so teams will try to play off him in order to take away the drive and still he can find ways to get to his spots and finish over length, and if the Panthers are going to do the impossible they will need a heroic performance by Horne.
Playing a huge role in the win over Lehigh was forward Cory Wells, an energy power forward who used his athletic advantage to finish with 19 points, 11 rebounds, 3 steals, and 3 blocks. Standing at just 6’7” and 200 pounds but playing most of his minutes in the frontcourt he’ll be giving up a lot of size to the Gators but he will try to make up for it with toughness and athleticism, and his energy plays can be what fuels runs for the Panthers.
On Wednesday, Lehigh got very well acquainted with the SWAC style of play with what Prairie View A&M did to them–and boy, they did not like it. Many teams in the SWAC play a chaotic, high-tempo style of pressing, trapping, and mixing in zones and that’s just what Prairie View A&M does and Lehigh simply wasn’t able to handle it. The Panthers finished with 12 steals, many that turned into dunks on the other end, and the style of play that they dictated was a big reason they were able to win this game.
This will present a unique challenge for the Gators as you don’t see much full court press and trapping at the high-major level, though Bucky McMillan coming to Texas A&M and implementing the press means Florida does have some recent reps against it and after doing well enough in that game they will have some confidence going into the round of 64. Florida will have a huge size advantage in the frontcourt and that’s where they will first look to impose themselves, but they’d also like to play efficiently on offense and manage the pressure through intelligent ball movement.
Something that will hurt Prairie View A&M’s chance at an upset is their lack of three-point shooting. One of the lowest three-point rate teams in the country and with a below-average percentage, the Panthers are not equipped to have one of the three-point barrages we sometimes see from lower seeded teams looking to upset a high-major team, and they took just 9 threes in the game against Lehigh. This probably lowers their chance at an upset over Florida, but hey–there is a reason they play the games.
Florida and Prairie View A&M will tip off on Friday, March 20th at 9:25 ET and it will be televised on TNT.
Florida Gators guard Boogie Fland (0) defends the ball during the game against the Saint Francis Red Flash at Stephen C. O'Connell Center on December 17, 2025 in Gainesville, Florida. Gator Country Photo by Kan Li.