Florida Earns No. 1 Seed in NCAA Tournament
With March Madness officially upon us, the Gators are exactly where they wanted to be.
The Gators (26-7) received the No. 1 seed in the South Region of the NCAA Men’s Tournament despite making an earlier-than-expected exit from the SEC Tournament, falling short of the championship game after suffering a blowout loss to Vanderbilt in Saturday’s semifinals in Nashville, Tenn.
“I do believe we’ve done enough to be the fourth one seed,” UF coach Todd Golden said after Saturday’s loss. “We had our early season tough start where we played really good competitive opponents in road or semi-away venues where we fell a little bit short, but … we hadn’t lost a game in 54 days or something leading up to this point, playing some of the best basketball in America.”
Loading ...Golden was right.
For the second consecutive season, the Gators clinched a No. 1 seed for March Madness and just the fourth time the team has earned the rank in program history. It is the first time Florida has been a No. 1 seed in back-to-back seasons.
As Florida looks to go back-to-back as national champions, the Gators will open the first two rounds of competition in Tampa’s Benchmark International Arena (formerly Amalie Arena), with Friday’s game set for a a 9:25 p.m. tipoff on TNT. Coverage on 103.7-FM is scheduled for a 8:55 p.m. start.
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Florida’s first matchup of the tournament will be against the winner of Prairie View A&M and Lehigh, who are battling for the No. 16 seed in the South Region’s play-in game.
Prairie View (18-17) is coming off a successful run in the SWAC Tournament, where it emerged as conference champions. The Panthers are on a seven-game win streak and led by senior guard Dontae Horne, who averages 20.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game.
Florida and Prairie View have faced some similar opponents this season. Both teams fell to the Missouri Tigers earlier this season, but the Gators topped Texas A&M while the Panthers took a 111-82 loss. Both teams took down North Florida, but the Panthers did so by a smaller margin, eking out an 85-82 win while Florida secured a commanding 104-64 victory.
Meanwhile, Lehigh (18-16) is also coming off a successful conference tournament run, topping Boston University in the championship game of the Patriot League. It boasts a six-game win streak and has experience against one ranked opponent prior, facing Houston to open its season. The Mountain Hawks fell 75-57, but the experience against a top team may prove useful if they advance to play Florida.
Lehigh is led by junior guard Nasir Whitlock, who averages 21 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game. The Mountain Hawks will pose more of a challenge to the Gators in the paint than the Panthers, with some more height to their roster. They are a better team from deep, shooting 35.9% from beyond the arc.
The two will face off at 6:40 p.m. (TRUTV) Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio, for a berth in the round of 64 and the opportunity to decide who will have a chance to take down Florida.
“I don’t really see any of those 14 to 16 seeds, especially the ones we know at this point in time, to be much of a threat to Florida, but then again, obviously anything can happen,” said Anthony Kristensen, AP Poll Voter and reporter for Whole Hog Sports on March 9. “From a pure matchup and metrics standpoint, none of those teams, in theory, should challenge Florida all that much.”
The Gators would then face the Friday (6:50 p.m., TNT) winner of No. 8 seed Clemson (24-10) and No. 9 seed Iowa (21-12) in round two Sunday.
Other difficult teams in the region that could be potential problems for Florida down the line include Nebraska, Houston, Illinois, Vanderbilt and North Carolina. As a No. 5 seed, Vanderbilt could see a rematch of the SEC Tournament semifinal with Florida as the Gators will look to redeem their blowout loss.
No. 2 Houston will have a home-court advantage in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, which could impact the Gators in later rounds, assuming they advance in Tampa. Florida defeated Houston in last year’s national title game.
“Our goal at the beginning of the year is still in front of us in terms of being able to play for a national championship,” Golden said Saturday.
In Florida’s three previous NCAA tourneys as a 1-seed, it twice captured the national championship (2007, 2025) and once reached the Final Four (2014).
Ticket information: UF season ticket holders have exclusive access to request NCAA tournament tickets within the Gators seating block and can place their requests now at FloridaGators.com. General public ticket information is available at NCAATickets.com.
Category: Feature Sports News, Gators Men's Basketball
