The Florida men’s basketball rollercoaster is nearing its conclusion with only three games left in the 2021-2022 regular season, and ESPN’s Joe Lunardi still has coach Mike White‘s squad missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since his inaugural season in 2015-2016. He currently lists them as the last team in his “Next Four Out.”
With a little over a week left in the season, Florida still has one last significant opportunity against No. 6 Kentucky to improve its Quadrant 1 record where it sits 2-8 after it fell to No. 18 Arkansas. The Gators will host the Wildcats to end the regular season on March 5 in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center. However, they’ll also need to dodge another ugly loss versus Georgia in Athens Saturday and Vanderbilt in Nashville on Tuesday.
White and Florida need a major resume booster like a win over Kentucky to put them back in serious contention of making March Madness. Even a win over their SEC rival may not be enough, many bracketologists including Lunardi felt like the Gators’ victory over No. 2 Auburn barely moved the needle. They believed they needed another marquee victory like one of the Razorbacks or Wildcats.
Now it’ll likely take a win over Kentucky and a deep run in the SEC Tournament to lock the Orange and Blue into the field.
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