It is closing in on two decades since the high water mark for Florida’s men’s basketball program when Billy Donovan led his Oh-Fours to two straight national championships. At the time, there was no question that the O’Connell Center was the navel of the college basketball universe.
Since then, the Gators have experienced some ups and downs — mostly downs — as the Orange and Blue struggles to return to the promised land. In between Billy D and current head coach Todd Golden was Mike White, who left plenty to be desired but also made it to the Big Dance in four of his six years at the helm.
Nonetheless, he simply was not successful enough for the Gator Nation, which ostensibly ran him out of Gainesville to his current job in Athens.
The mixed results of recent years beg the question: “Are Florida fans justified in their lofty expectations?” According to The Athletic’s staff, which put together college basketball program tiers, the answer appears to be a resounding “No.”
In the article, the authors ranked all of the Power 6 teams — plus any outside of that group that ranked in the top 80 of KenPom — into six tiers in search of the true collegiate blue-bloods. Florida landed in Tier 4 along with a few other Southeastern Conference teams.
“This one has nine Final Fours and a title (over the last 10 NCAA Tournaments),” it begins. “There are some new money college basketball programs in this group like Auburn, Texas Tech, Baylor and VCU, some historically solid programs that either haven’t reached the Final Four ever or anytime soon and then a program like Houston that was college basketball royalty in the early ’80s, spent years in a coma and resurrected itself to become one of the most consistent top programs in the country under Kelvin Sampson.”
While the conclusion might be harsh for Gators fans, it is also pretty fair as well. It has been a long while since Florida was a relevant top-10 team and the program has been in a perpetual state of rebuilding since COVID. If it is any consolation, the Alabama Crimson Tide, Auburn Tigers and Missouri Tigers are also in Tier 4.
The Georgia Bulldogs are in the sixth and final tier.
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