A fantastic second half of the season for Florida basketball came to a close on Saturday afternoon after the Vanderbilt Commodores hung around long enough to seize a 79-78 victory from the visiting Gators. It was not the finish the fans had hoped for, but fortunately, it should not hurt the program’s prospects too much heading into the postseason.
Following the loss, the Pomeroy College Basketball Ratings dropped the Orange and Blue from its No. 25 overall ranking in our previous update to No. 30, putting them between the No. 29 Dayton Flyers and the No. 31 St. John’s Red Storm.
The Pomeroy rankings use adjusted efficiency margin — the difference between adjusted offensive efficiency and adjusted defensive efficiency — to rank all teams.
Golden’s gang now has a margin of plus-17.85 (down 0.74 points) which means the team is expected to score 17.85 more points than the average opponent. They are now ranked 16th in adjusted offensive efficiency (119.4) while also losing a spot in adjusted defensive efficiency, now ranking at 81st (101.6).
KenPom also has Florida’s overall strength of schedule rated at plus-9.34, which is 48th in the nation; its non-conference schedule rating received a score of plus-1.97 which has the Gators at No. 134.
Florida is a No. 6 seed in the Southeastern Conference 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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