18. Florida (15-6)
The recent play out of Florida has been markedly better than what we saw earlier this season. One constant flaw with the Gators has been the struggles of those new faces in the backcourt, but the defending champions certainly aren’t going down without a fight. They ran off five straight wins to get back into the SEC race before a really tough home loss against Auburn last weekend.
The Gators got back on the right track in emphatic fashion in their only game of this past week. They made the trip over to South Carolina on Wednesday night and delivered quite the statement in a 95-48 win over the Gamecocks. Florida shot the ball really well, making 62% of all field goal attempts in the biggest blowout of their season. Thomas Haugh led with 18 points while Rueben Chinyelu had his latest double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
It’s hard to ignore a 47-point road loss, even against one of the weakest teams in the SEC. They are no guarantees in college basketball and certainly not in this conference and Todd Golden found a way to get his team back in the win column in a major way. He and this team know the road ahead will be difficult and next week certainly proves that, hosting Alabama on Sunday before a road trip to Texas A&M.