Before the Gators knew their seeding or what far reaches of the country the NCAA Tournament selection committee would send them this week, they sat in the visitors locker room at New Orleans Arena on Saturday confident of their completed resume.
Florida’s schedule this season was littered with games against championship-caliber teams, including three meetings with No. 1 overall seed Kentucky, as well as road tests against No. 1 seed Syracuse and No. 2 seed Ohio State.
“There’s no other teams we could have played to get ready for the NCAA Tournament,” Kenny Boynton said. “We definitely have seen a lot, been through every situation. So I think we should go in with the mindset of anything is possible.”
The common thread in each of those marquee matchups, however, was a UF loss.
On Sunday, the selection committee pegged No. 7-seed Florida (23-10) to play 10th-seeded Virginia (25-9) in Omaha, Neb., on Friday.
Before being placed in the West Region of The Big Dance, both the Gators and Cavaliers ended their respective seasons by losing six of their last 10 games. Florida has dropped four of its last five.
“You have only got one shot at this,” Boynton said. “It’s just like [the Southeastern Conference] tournament, but this one is end of season. You’ve got to give your all every game.”
Though the Gators missed an upset bid against the top-seeded Wildcats over the weekend, they came away from their 74-71 loss with a renewed confidence.
Florida fell in its previous two meetings with Kentucky by an average of 17.5 points.
“We’re making moves in the right direction for sure,” Patric Young said. “Everyone around here loves each other. We’re like a brotherhood. We’ve been going into practice with a good mindset, getting better each day, been committed to doing the right things, and hopefully we have the same mindset next week but the results will be different.”
Last season, the Gators were considered over-seeded as a No. 2 and went on an Elite Eight run which culminated in an overtime loss to eventual NCAA runner-up Butler.
ESPN analyst Doug Gottlieb said in a phone interview that UF had to avoid being placed in the eight- to- nine-seed range, which would mean a potential matchup with a No. 1 seed in its second game.
Instead, as a No. 7 seed, the Gators will see the winner of No. 2 Missouri and No. 15 Norfolk State if they get past the Cavaliers.
“Once you get past the top-three teams, and this is a group of teams that I thought Florida was in ... I mean, are they that much better than Duke?” Gottlieb said. “They’re far more athletic than Duke. They shoot it better than Duke and they should guard better than Duke. Their results just haven’t been as good as Duke’s.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
Florida coach Billy Donovan and players (from left to right) Walter Pitchford, Casey Prather, Mike Rosario, Cody Larson and Scottie Wilbekin look on during Saturday’s three-point loss to No. 1 Kentucky.
