Florida basketball suffered its first loss without center Colin Castleton on Monday to Ole Miss. With the Gators’ best scorer out indefinitely and the team now slipping up in his absence, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has UF as his Last Team In in the latest bracketology update.
This isn’t the first time Mike White‘s squad has been projected as team No. 68 on the bracket this season. Last time, the Gators were able to string together a few wins and get back up to an 11-seed, but the schedule toughens up in the coming week with Tennessee and Oklahoma State.
Lunardi has Florida facing off with San Francisco in a play-in game for the 12-seed in the Midwest Region. If the Gators advanced to the field of 64, they’d draw a rematch with the Ohio State Buckeyes. Florida beat OSU on a buzzer-beater from Tyree Appleby in November to win the Ft. Myers Tip-Off.
Five other teams from the Southeastern Conference are projected to make the tournament. Auburn, the No. 1 team in the nation at publishing time, is the top seed in the Midwest. Tennessee and Alabama are the fourth and fifth seeds in the South, and Kentucky and LSU own the 4-seeds in the East and West respectively.
Right behind the Gators are Arkansas and Mississippi State as two of the First Four Out, and Texas A&M is just a step behind in the Next Four Out.
The loss to Ole Miss sent Florida down 10 spots in the NET rankings. A Quadrant 1 win over the Volunteers or Cowboys would be huge for this Gators team, but it might not be possible without Castleton.
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