Todd Golden’s team saw their hard work over the bye week come to fruition on Saturday when Florida basketball bounced back from its tough road loss last weekend to throttle the Auburn Tigers at home, 81-65. It was a monumental Quadrant 1 victory that did wonders for the Gators’ NCAA Tournament hopes.
In ESPN’s latest Basketball Power Index update following the victory, the Orange and Blue improved its standing by seven spots since our previous update, now sitting in the top 25 at No. 22 overall. That nestles them between the No. 21 Texas Longhorns and No. 23 Kentucky Wildcats — the latter of whom they beat on the road two Wednesdays ago.
Florida’s BPI rating — a measurement of a team’s true strength moving forward — rose 0.6 points to 11.7. The offensive BPI increased 0.2 points to 8.0 and the defensive BPI moved up 0.1 points to 3.2.
The win-loss projection improved to 21.3-9.7, with an also seeing a boosted 11.3-6.7 prediction for the conference schedule. ESPN gives Florida a distant 1.8% chance to win the Southeastern Conference while the remaining strength of schedule ranks at No. 66.
Next up for the Gators are the LSU Tigers, who come to Gainesville to take on Florida inside the O’Connell Center on Tuesday, Feb. 13. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET and the game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
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