Florida basketball started slowly in January, starting the calendar year with a two-game losing streak in Southeastern Conference play that knocked them out of the NCAA Tournament bracketologies. Since then, the Gators have been slowly putting things together, now riding a two-game winning streak.
CBS Sports writer Jerry Palm released his latest bracketology update for the 2024 Big Dance and once again omitted Florida from his field of teams once again despite the recent success. It appears that Todd Golden’s gang needs a signature win to get back onto the bubble and home win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs was not enough to get over the bump.
It has been four updates since the Gators were last in Palm’s bracket — which came just before the Kentucky Wildcats loss — when Golden’s gang was a No. 11 seed in the Midwest bracket, as compared to their No. 11 seed in the South the week before that.
Looking around the SEC, the Tennessee Volunteers (No. 2), Kentucky Wildcats (No. 4), Alabama Crimson Tide (No. 4), Auburn Tigers (No. 5), South Carolina Gamecocks (No. 8), Ole Miss Rebels (No. 9), Texas A&M Aggies (No. 10) and Mississippi State (No. 11) were the conference schools included in the NCAA Tournament prediction.
Mississippi State was also among the last four in and first four while the Georgia Bulldogs were in the first four out category.
Former Florida head coach Mike White and the Bulldogs arrive in Gainesville on Saturday, Jan. 27, to face off with the Gators inside the O’Connell Center. The game is scheduled for an early noon ET start and will be broadcast on ESPN2.
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