Bracketology 2022: Duke, Wisconsin, and Arizona among Feast Week winners
By Joey Loose
Florida
We’re not going to waste time on superlatives with this one; Mike White has had a hard job since replacing Billy Donovan as head coach of the Gators. Donovan led the program to their first two national championships, with four total trips to the Final Four. White hasn’t quite gotten this Florida team to that same level, especially as the SEC around them gets better and better each year. Early on this season, White has these Gators playing some fantastic basketball and they certainly had a winning week.
Already possessing an impressive victory over Florida State, the Gators faced a pair of power conference teams in the Fort Myers Tip-Off and got a pair of nice victories to add to their resume. On Monday, they took care of California with general ease, winning an 80-60 affair. Two days later, they won a thrilling game with a very good Ohio State team, getting a buzzer-beating shot from Tyree Appleby to secure another victory.
With half a dozen teams in the SEC looking great early, it’s clear that Florida will have plenty of chances to prove themselves down the stretch. However, getting these early wins is a fantastic building block for their resume, with Florida State and Ohio State both looking like top 25 teams at times this year. The Gators get another test at Oklahoma in the coming week; another chance to build the resume, but it’s hard not to like what they’ve done already.