Florida basketball got a major boost to its NCAA Tournament aspirations on Saturday afternoon against the Auburn Tigers, who they defeated 81-65 inside the O’Connell Center for its second Quadrant 1 win of the season.
Following the game, CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm penned his bracket watch column in a “winners and losers” format, with the Gators earning a mention in the former category.
“Florida pounded Auburn at home to get a second Quad 1 win this season,” Palm begins. “The Gators are now 2-7 against Quad 1 teams, but only one team has been an at-large team in the quadrant era (since 2018) with a record that poor against the top tier. That was Notre Dame (2-8) in 2022, which was the last team in the field. So, there is still work to do.”
Plenty of basketball remains to be played before the Big Dance, but the win did put Todd Golden’s team in a much better position to earn that ticket.
Next up for the Gators are the LSU Tigers, who come to Gainesville to take on Florida inside the O’Connell Center on Tuesday, Feb. 13. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET and the game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
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