NCAA Basketball: TCU’s struggles, Maui breakdown among biggest takeaways

5. Basketball in Florida is bizarre

Before we explain what’s happening to the Florida schools, let’s step back and look at the bigger picture. Florida won back-to-back national titles back in the 2000’s and has spent much of the century as one of the SEC’s top teams. Florida State has been a powerhouse in recent years, with an Elite Eight and two Sweet Sixteens since 2018. Miami danced to last year’s Elite Eight and has a very talented roster back in Coral Gables this season, though the Hurricanes are excused from the bigger picture of this article.

Florida State, arguably the best program in the Sunshine State over the last half-decade, currently sits at 1-4, dropping all three of their games to teams from the state of Florida. They lost by 9 at home to Stetson on opening night and played badly in a 68-54 road loss to UCF a few days later. After a home loss to Troy, the Seminoles hit 0-4 with a 9-point home loss to the Gators. A myriad of problems have plagued the Seminoles, who’ve played solid offense one night before shooting awful the next.

Most of our focus today is on Florida State’s awful start, but Florida isn’t excused either, even if they did beat the Seminoles last week. The Gators dropped a 76-74 contest at home to Florida Atlantic, meaning three different Florida mid-majors have pulled upsets on these power conference squads. Poor long-range defense doomed the Gators against Florida Atlantic, though they’re certainly overall in better shape than Florida State.

Part of the bizarre start has been the success of the mid-majors in the state. We’ve already mentioned those big wins for Florida Atlantic and Stetson, but they’re not the only big wins. Florida Gulf Coast got a convincing road win at USC on opening night and Stetson also took care of South Florida last week. While the AAC is not considered a power conference, it’s also worth mentioning that South Florida started the season 0-5, with three of those losses coming at home.

How many NCAA Tournaments could we get from the state of Florida this season? Miami looks like a potential contender in the ACC, even after their loss to Maryland this weekend. Stetson certainly looks like the class of the A-Sun early. However, any success out of Florida or Florida State looks unlikely this season, especially for the Gators with the top-heavy nature of the SEC.