Florida’s season is on thin ice after a loss on Tuesday night that it couldn’t afford. Facing the Texas A&M Aggies on the road, the Gators found themselves down big early in the first half.
They eventually fought back and had a chance to win at the end with the last shot, but they couldn’t convert. UF missed an opportunity for what would have been (at least, temporarily) a Quadrant 1 win away from home against a team that had lost its last eight games.
After that disappointing effort, Florida saw a sizable drop in the latest Basketball Power Index from ESPN. It now ranks 37th, an eight-spot drop. That’s still higher than the NET, though, in which the Gators fell all the way to No. 54 after the loss.
Now, things are dire for UF. It is running out of chances to bolster its resume unless it can pull off a monumental upset against Auburn or Kentucky, and that resume still needs a lot of work. Though BPI ranks Florida No. 37, its resume ranks just 60th among Division I teams.
There will be chances, though. Largely due to those aforementioned games, UF ranks 26th in terms of remaining strength of schedule. But if it can’t upset the Tigers or the Wildcats, a home game against No. 21 Arkansas may be this team’s best and only hope for a convincing win.
Even that may not be enough. Florida is currently considered among the Next Four Out by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, and it could take a lot of work to crawl back into the projected field. It seems like coach Mike White‘s squad could be on the verge of missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since his first season in 2015-16.
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