Todd Golden’s Gators played their hearts out on Senior Night inside the O’Connell Center with a 105-87 thrashing of the Alabama Crimson Tide — owner of the top offensive efficiency in the nation coming into the game. Florida’s big win in its penultimate game of the regular season was a fitting way to begin wrapping up a fantastic second half.
In ESPN’s latest Basketball Power Index update following the victory, the Orange and Blue rose two spots since our previous update, now sitting at No. 27 overall; that nestles them between the No. 24 Texas Longhorns and No. 26 Dayton Flyers. It also represents a one-spot from Tuesday’s pregame rankings.
Florida’s BPI rating — a measurement of a team’s true strength moving forward — fell 0.4 points to 12.0 since the last update. The offensive BPI rose 0.3 points to 8.6 while the defensive BPI inched up 0.1 points to 3.4.
The win-loss projection rose to 21.9-9.1 as did the prediction for the conference schedule, which also rose to 11.9-6.1. ESPN gives Florida less than a 0.1% chance to win the Southeastern Conference while the remaining strength of schedule ranks at No. 140.
Florida wraps up its regular-season schedule on Saturday, March 9, in Nashville as the Gators travel for a rematch with the Vanderbilt Commodores. Tipoff is slated for 4:30 p.m. ET and the game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
Follow us @GatorsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.