Is Florida basketball elite? We may not find out until January

Posted by Admin December 10, 2024 Basketball

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Florida’s schedule gets tougher in December with games against Arizona State and North Carolina before opening SEC play against Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas.

Florida basketball is bringing back visions of its past championship glory under former head coach Billy Donovan.

At 9-0, the No. 7 Florida Gators are off to their best start since the 2005-06 team began 17-0 on the way to its first national title in school history. In year three under head coach Todd Golden, UF is deep and balanced, having won its first nine games by an average margin of 19.9 points

Yet the true test to determine whether Florida is a Final Four contender or pretender lies a few weeks ahead.

The SEC dominated the ACC in the second version of the ACC-SEC Challenge last week, going 14-2 in the 16 head-to-head matchups. That included UF overcoming an early nine-point deficit to beat Virginia, 87-69, last week at the O’Connell Center behind 27 points and four assists from senior guard Walter Clayton Jr.

Florida is No. 7 in this week’s NCAA NET rankings, which takes into account record compared to strength of schedule. UF is one of five SEC teams in the NET Top 10 and 12 SEC teams in the NET Top 50, a list that also includes Tennessee (1), Auburn (2), Kentucky (5), Alabama (10), Mississippi State (20), Georgia (22), Ole Miss (29), Missouri (31), Texas A&M (32), Oklahoma (44) and Arkansas (49).

“There’s no running from it,” Golden said. “This is the best conference in college basketball and it’s not particularly close right now.

“We’ve got four more games in the non-conference we’ve got to worry about before we get to league play, but there’s no doubt that the SEC is the best conference in college basketball right now and every night is going to be an absolute battle once we get to league play.”

How prepared is Florida basketball heading into SEC play?

Per KenPom, Florida sits at No. 8, but its strength of schedule (208) has been impacted by beating three ACC teams (Florida State, Wake Forest and Virginia) that have been up-and-down early this season. UF has faced a number of offensively challenged teams early this season, as the average offensive rating of the nine teams that UF has beaten sits at 316.

Florida will get an interesting test Saturday in Atlanta against Arizona State (8-1), which ranks 46th in the NET and No. 50 in KenPom. Then comes a Dec. 17 matchup at the Jumpman Classic in Charlotte, N.C., against North Carolina (5-4), which fell out of the Top 25 this week after losing 94-79 to No. 8 Alabama last week in the ACC-SEC Challenge. It will present another road-like environment after UF passed its first road test, winning 87-74 at FSU.

After wrapping up non-conference play with home games against UNF (Dec. 21) and Stetson (Dec. 29), Florida will open SEC play at No. 5 Kentucky (Jan. 4), then host No. 1 Tennessee (Jan. 7) before traveling to face Arkansas (Jan. 11).

“A fun three games to start,” Golden said. “The great thing is you’re going to have an opportunity every night, and I think at this point every road conference game is Quad 1 so you start with nine right there and there’s probably going to be four more home games, that reach that level.”

Florida appears to be a more balanced team in year three under Golden, with an offensive efficiency rating that ranks fifth, per KenPom, and a defensive efficiency rating of No. 29. Transfer guard Alijhah Martin and transfer center Rueben Chinyelu have shown an ability to impact the game on the defensive end of the floor, while forward Alex Condon, guard Will Richard and Clayton have all improved defensively.

UF is going to need to continue to play balanced basketball to withstand the tests that will come from January through March.

“We’ve got a good team that’s finding different ways to win,” Clayton said. “The main thing is not to come in content, to come in every day … winning, you’ve got to earn that. You’ve got to earn that every day in practice, then go out and do what it takes to win in games.”

Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1