Florida didn’t enter the year with very high expectations. The team is largely comprised of newcomers after seven outgoing players were replaced with five guys from the transfer portal. The Gators were expected to make the NCAA Tournament before the season started but as a fringe team.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi only had UF as a projected 10 seed when the season began but after a 3-0 start and a big win over ranked rival Florida State, which snapped a seven-game losing streak in the series, he has Florida rising all the way up to the No. 6-seed line in his latest bracketology.
He has the Gators in the West Region taking on the projected Mountain West champion, 11-seeded Colorado State, in San Diego in the first round. That would set up a potential second-round game against No. 3 Texas.
Gonzaga, the projected No. 1 overall seed, is the top seed in the West Region, but UF wouldn’t draw the Bulldogs until the Elite Eight. Another potential Elite Eight matchup could come against a conference foe in Arkansas, who is the No. 4 seed in the West Region and could draw Gonzaga in the Sweet 16.
Florida could face yet another conference foe in the Sweet 16, as well, as Mississippi State has jumped into the projected bracket and now is listed as the No. 10 seed in the West Region.
Outside of those three teams, there are five other SEC squads currently projected to make the field: three-seeded Alabama, four-seeded Kentucky, four-seeded Tennessee, six-seeded Auburn and nine-seeded LSU.
The Gators are certainly off to a hot start in 2021-22, and if they keep it up, they’ll only see this projection rise as the season goes on.
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