On March 16, millions of college basketball fans will gather around a television in their living rooms or pull a stool up at a sports bar to find out what seed their beloved team will be in the unpredictable tournament better known as March Madness.
When UF hoops enthusiasts tune in, they may hear the Gators get announced as one of the four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament — a milestone the program hasn’t reached since its 2014 Final Four run.
The going got tough, but the Gators got going — and in historic fashion. UF became the first team in program history to defeat a No. 1 opponent on the road and just the fifth team in the Associated Press poll era to knock off two different top-ranked teams in the same season.
However, this seemed unlikely just last week. Florida was fresh off a 20-point loss to then-No. 8 Tennessee and forced to face its next opponent, Vanderbilt, without its leading scorer, senior guard Walter Clayton Jr., who suffered an ankle injury against Tennessee.
Nevertheless, UF earned the victory over Vandy, though it was seemingly a “welcome to the SEC” moment when the Gators traveled into “The Jungle” for a matchup against No. 1 Auburn four days later. This time, Florida was without its second-leading scorer, senior guard Alijah Martin, who missed the game due to a hip injury.
“The last 36 minutes of the game, I thought we were just about as good as you could be in an environment like [Auburn],” UF head coach Todd Golden said. “We made 13 threes. We were 15-for-18 from the foul line, and our players deserve all the credit for this victory.”
Florida’s lead grew as large as 21 in the second half against Auburn, as Clayton Jr. led the way with 19 points and a barrage of logo 3-pointers. In his first game back from an ankle sprain, Clayton Jr. guided the Gators to one of the biggest wins in the 116 years of Florida men’s basketball.
"Ankle's fine now,” Clayton Jr. said. “Training team did a good job just all week being in there with me, so the ankle's doing good. I've still been in the gym getting my shots up, so no surprise."
But the senior guard didn’t do it by himself. A sensational game from UF’s backcourt saw sophomore forwards Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh score 17 points and 16 points against Auburn, respectively.
Moreover, the sophomore duo was relentless on the glass, with Condon grabbing 10 rebounds and Haugh tallying nine.
"We came in with the right mentality,” Condon said. “We went down at the start but didn't get too worked [up] about it. We just slowly came back and then we weren't playing around with the lead. We were composed and didn't turn it over in critical situations."
It’s only February, but the aforementioned madness of March in the college basketball world looms. Florida will have plenty of ranked SEC opponents to duke it out with until then, but UF’s massive victories this season have led to high praise from NCAA Tournament analysts.
According to ESPN Bracketology and On3Sports' predictions, the Gators are slated as a No. 2 seed in the East Region of the NCAA Tournament. However, out of the four teams holding the No. 1 seeds in their analysis, two lost on Saturday (Auburn and Duke). The third (Tennessee) lost to Florida by 30 points earlier this season at home.
The Gators will have little time to gawk at their monumental victory from the plains of Auburn last weekend. UF will take on No. 22 Mississippi State Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. in Starkville against a Bulldogs team that shouldn't fly under Florida’s radar.
UF has only dropped three games this season, but after its second loss to Missouri at home on Jan. 14, senior guard Will Richard took note that winning in the SEC becomes difficult if you aren’t the team throwing the first punch.
“You can't take nights off in this league and having a first half like we had [against Missouri], it can't happen again the rest of the season,” Richard said.
Mississippi State senior guard Josh Hubbard has established himself as one of the most prolific guards in the SEC, averaging 17.5 points per game with 73 made 3-pointers this season. Last year, Hubbard caught fire against Florida, scoring 26 points and five 3-pointers in a 79-70 road loss at UF.
Redshirt junior KeShawn Murphy has added 11.1 points and 7.3 rebounds per game to lead a physical frontcourt for the Bulldogs.
Florida won’t take the court for a March Madness matchup for over a month, but the more gritty victories the Gators can rack up over top-ranked teams in the nation, the better positioned they will be to cut down the nets in San Antonio April 7.
“[Beating Auburn was] a needle-mover in terms of NCAA seeding,” Golden said. “It's a needle-mover in terms of where we finish in the SEC. I'd be hard-pressed to believe there's going to be another club that's going to be able to come in here in conference play and get a win."
Contact Max Tucker at mtucker@alligator.org. Follow him on X @Max_Tuckr1.
Max Tucker is a senior transfer student at UF. After obtaining his A.A. in Journalism from Santa Fe College in 2023, he chose to further his education at Florida's College of Journalism and Communications. Max is currently pursuing his Bachelor of Science in Journalism with a specialization in sports and media. He enjoys golfing and going to the beach with his friends in his free time.
