Florida has made the NCAA Tournament as a 7-seed, though they’ll have to wait to find out exactly who they’re playing.
In the south region that features Houston as the 1-seed, the Gators will be playing the winner of Boise State and Colorado who will compete in a play-in game on Wednesday, March 20th. That means Florida will have their round of 64 game on Friday the 22nd, which could be important. Florida just played four games in four days in the SEC Tournament and will be happy to have the extra day to recover, and the extra practice could also be nice given the loss of Micah Handlogten will shake up Florida’s rotation.
Florida’s round of 64 game as well as the round of 32 game should they advance will take place in Indianapolis. The winner will go on to face the winner of 2-seed Marquette and 15-seed Western Kentucky.
The 7-seed earned by Florida came as somewhat of a surprise as most Bracketologists had the Gators as a 6-seed, though surprises relative to the consensus happened all over the bracket.
Both Boise State (22-10) and Colorado (24-10) both had tremendous seasons, and their play-in game will likely be the most intriguing to the unbiased viewer.
Boise State competed in an excellent Mountain West Conference this season and finished third in the regular season. Unfortunately for them, awaiting them in the first round of the Mountain West Tournament was a scorching-hot New Mexico team who upset them in the second round before marching on to win the Championship. Boise State’s best win in non-conference play came against Saint Mary’s (20th in KenPom) and much of their resume was built during league play.
The Broncos are led by a frontcourt of Tyson Degenhart and and O’Mar Stanley, two players who aren’t super long (both 6’8”) and might not be super athletic, but are both incredibly strong and skilled–the kind of players that have given Florida’s frontcourt issues this season.
Colorado finished 3rd in the Pac-12 and made it to the Pac-12 Tournament championship game before falling to Oregon. It was a down year for the Pac-12 but Colorado was one of the only teams thought to be safely in the field as an at-large, so the loss wasn’t devastating. Before the Oregon loss they had rattled off an 8-game winning streak so it looks like they might be peaking at the right time–though we’ll find out when they play Boise State in the play-in game.
The weakness in Colorado’s resume that saw them put in a play-in game is the fact that they haven’t had many quality wins. According to KenPom their best win of the season came against Washington State who is 42nd, meaning if they were to beat Boise State (39th in KenPom) it would be their biggest win of the season.
The Buffaloes are led by one of the best point guards in the country in KJ Simpson. A 6’2” guard, Simpson is an electric scorer who averaged 19.6 points and 4.6 rebounds per game while hitting a remarkable 45% of his threes. They’ve also got plenty of size in the frontcourt with 6’11”, 265 pound Eddie Lampkin and 6’9”, 220 Tristan da Silva both starting, so they’d match up decently with Florida’s length.
After watching the Selection Show from their hotel in Nashville where the SEC Tournament took place the Gators will now head back to Gainesville where they’ll get some quick rest before getting to work on practice and preparation. It’s worth noting that in nearly every season since the play-in was implemented one of those teams has advanced past the round of 64, so the Gators cannot take whichever opponent they see lightly.
Currently the tip-off time for Florida’s game on March 22nd is not set, nor is the tip-off time set for Boise State-Colorado on March 20th. That information will be publicly available shortly, and a full preview of who the Gators will play will be up at Gator Country the night of March 20th.
Happy March Madness, and enjoy filling out your brackets!