March Madness has finally arrived now that the college basketball regular-season schedule has concluded. While the spotlight is on the NCAA Tournament that starts later this month, there are still the conference tournaments to be played ahead of the annual Big Dance.
For the first time in three seasons, it looks like the Florida Gators will be playing meaningful postseason games this spring as they wrapped up the 2023-24 campaign in the thick of the tournament guest list. While they did lose their final game to the lowly Vanderbilt Commodores, things are still looking good heading into postseason play.
In Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology update for ESPN, Todd Golden’s fell a spot to the No. 7 seed and moved from the West to the Midwest Region. There, the Gators are matched up with the No. 10 Michigan State Spartans to start things off, while the No. 2 Marquette Golden Eagles and No. 15 Quinnipiac Bobcats also join them in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Looking at the rest of the SEC, the Tennessee Volunteers are the top seed in the West, followed by the No. 3 Kentucky Wildcats (East), No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide (South), No. 4 Auburn Tigers (Midwest), No. 5 South Carolina Gamecocks (East) and No. 11 Mississippi State Bulldogs (West) are among those projected to be in the tournament.
Mississippi State is also among the last four byes while the Texas A&M Aggies are one of the first four out.
Florida is a No. 6 seed in the SEC Tournament, giving it a first-round bye and matching the Gators up with the winner of Game 2 on Thursday, March 14, inside Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. Tipoff is slated for a late 9:30 p.m. ET start on the SEC Network.
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