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Florida basketball got off to a slow start in Southeastern Conference play this season, suffering a 76-74 defeat at the hands of the Missouri Tigers in Columbia to open the league schedule. The good news is that the Gators bounced back at home the next time out with a solid 92-77 victory over the Georgia Bulldogs in Gainesville.
To be fair, the Orange and Blue have not been hitting on all cylinders so far in the 2025-26 campaign, already amassing more losses than it had during the championship run last season. However, when it comes to the SEC, Todd Golden’s gang also got off to a slow start last year, losing two of the first four conference matchups, and yet still managed to find success.
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ESPN’s Jeff Borzello recently took a stab at predicting which school will win each of the major conferences, with the Vanderbilt Commodores at the pole position as favorites in the SEC. According to him, the top challengers are the Gators, Arkansas Razorbacks, Alabama Crimson Tide and Tennessee Volunteers.
“Most metrics, including BPI, point to Florida as the second-best team in the SEC — but the Gators opened SEC play with a loss at Missouri and have been inconsistent against good teams all season. The reigning national champs have an elite frontcourt, but the portal backcourt of Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee is still a work in progress,” Borzello notes.
Truly, Florida’s success will hinge on that backcourt duo’s ability to coalesce and bring their A-games to the court every night — something that has not happened with any amount of consistency from either. It is tremendously difficult to see this squad bringing home another national title, but taking the regular-season and tournament crowns is well within reach based on talent level alone.
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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/win-sec-florida-basketball-among-175733063.html
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Publish date : 2026-01-09 17:57:00
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