Florida basketball jumped to the No. 1 seed in ESPN.com’s Bracketology last week following its 84-77 win at Kentucky and UConn’s 68-62 loss to Marquette.
ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi currently has the Florida Gators at the No. 1 seed in the South Region, starting in Tampa before potentially going to Houston in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight. The bad news? Lunardi has Houston as the No. 2 seed, which could pit a national championship game rematch between Florida and Houston in the Elite Eight in Houston’s home city.
“They can’t really catch one of the three teams ahead of them, Duke, Arizona, Michigan, in whatever order you want them, so the region that will be available is the South,” Lunardi said. “And they should be rooting for UConn, but not too much, but just enough to stay ahead of Houston because they would really like to not have Houston as the two in the South, but it’s probably going to shake out that way.”
To securely hold on to a No. 1 seed, Lunardi said Florida needs to get to the Finals of the SEC Tournament.
“I think if they get to Sunday (SEC Tournament finals) they will hold the one,” Lunardi said. “The reality of human beings having a pretty enormous task to do on a Sunday afternoon and I don’t know if UConn will win the rubber game against St. John’s (in the Big East Tournament) at Madison Square Garden, so if it comes to that, maybe we should have that conversation on Saturday night but I also think Florida is better as basketball.
“Now if it’s close, kind of like the Duke-Michigan thing for one overall, they did lose to UConn on a semi-neutral court, it was in New York City,” Lunardi said. “But man, they’re really good right now and I don’t think anyone would dispute that.”
Florida (25-6, 16-2 SEC) enters SEC Tournament play on an 11-game win streak and has won 20 of its last 22 overall since falling 77-73 to UConn in Madison Square Garden. The Gators won their first SEC regular season title since 2014 and as the No. 1 overall seed in the SEC Tournament will open Friday, March 13, in Nashville, Tenn., against either No. 8 seed Missouri, No. 9 seed Kentucky or No. 16 seed LSU (1 p.m., ESPN).
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1. Read his coverage of the Gators’ national championship basketball season in “CHOMP-IONS!” — a hardcover coffee-table collector’s book from The Sun. Details at Florida.ChampsBook.com
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Joe Lunardi on how Florida basketball keeps No. 1 seed in March Madness
Reporting by Kevin Brockway, Gainesville Sun / The Gainesville Sun
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