19. Florida (11-5)
Despite their status as defending champions, Florida has had their fair share of notable struggles this season. The Gators’ new faces in the backcourt weren’t really living up to their billing early in the year, with this team losing winnable games against teams like Duke and TCU. Last weekend’s tough loss at Missouri was a bad start to SEC play, but Florida righted that early wrong with their efforts this week.
The Gators were back in action on Tuesday, knocking off a ranked Georgia squad in a 92-77 victory. Both Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh put up 21 points as the Gators survived another weak outside shooting performance with great frontcourt play. The showing on Saturday was another standout, as Florida won 91-67 over Tennessee. Boogie Fland emerged with 23 points, Rueben Chinyelu had 17 points and 16 rebounds, and the Gators got another ranked win by double figures.
That pair of ranked wins certainly brought Florida back into our attention. When on their game, the starting five for the Gators is just as talented as basically any lineup in the country but it’s been about realizing that potential to this point. Florida got what they needed in those two big wins but have many more battles ahead. Next week involves a road game at Oklahoma before a very tough test at Vanderbilt.