2024 NCAA Men's basketball tournament

Don’t think we’re quite there yet, but a heck of a lot closer than we were 2 weeks ago. Lot of basketball left to be played, 8 games left plus the SEC tournament. Will likely be favored in four and dogs in four. I would hate to have that play out straight up and have us 10-8 and potentially needing a win in the SECT, depending on how the bubble plays out.

 

I think 10-8 puts the Gators in pretty good position. Would be 20 wins. At that point, an SECt win puts the cherry on top, imo. We've got very tough games at Bama and at SC. All of 'em are winnable, but those two will be quite difficult.

LSU
at GA
at AL
Van
Mizz
at SC
AL
Van

Four of those are in the should-win category. A couple are in the could-win and a couple are oh-well-good-luck games. Again, I think winning four keeps the Gators in good shape. If the guys keep playing like they have the last few games, they will easily get more than four of these.

 

I would agree that 4 wins down the stretch is the expectation at this point. It would he borderline disappointing to only win 4, but that's just based on how the team has looked the last month. I think this team is fully capable of winning 6 games, but 5 is probably the magic number. They will be double digit favorites in 3, single digit favorites in 2. I'm guessing single digit dogs against Bama both games and usce on the road?

That road game at UGA feels like the one that might tip the scales between good finish and great finish to the year.

If uf takes care of business this coming up week vs LSU and at UGA, they could be ranked going into Bama.

 

I heard the SEC tournament format has changed. It is now one and done.

 

I think it largely depends on who you think this Gators team is. Is it an above average team that sometimes gets inspired to play great basketball, or is it a great team that has periodic lapses. It’s really hard to tell. I can say this… there is no game on the schedule that I think this team doesn’t have a very good chance to win. I also think there is no game they definitely won’t lose.

Makes the buildup to every game exciting. I love it.

 

Depending on which polling method you look at, the Big 12 is the top conference and the SEC is either 2nd or 3rd out of 7 highly regarded conferences. That's a strong position to be in. If we win 4 more to finish 10-8, and still don't make the NCAAT, there's gonna be a lot of 'splainin to do by the Committee. 9-9 should even be enough.

 

a winning SEC record and 20+ wins should get us in. We still have work to do because the SEC will likely get eight slots and barring something really weird, four (Bama, Auburn, Tennessee, and South Carolina) are locks.

We are grouped with four others (Kentucky, Mississippi State, Texas A&M and Ole Miss) and one of those five, will likely be left out.

 

Supposedly, the Selection Committee doesn't care about the number of teams any conference will get in, only about which teams are deserving. Not sure I believe them but that's the Party line.

 

I hope you're right, but if we finish 9-9 that likely means we finish the year 3-5 so the committee could use recent struggles against us. 9-9 at this point would also more than likely mean 2-10 Q1 record and also a Q2 or Q4 loss, which would be a bad end to the year. 10-8 or 11-7 would remove my nerves on selection Sunday. 11-7 and I think we are just curious what seed instead of an in or out situation.

 

especially since 3 of our 4 final home games are against LSU, Vandy and Missouri. We will also be favored at Vandy, so anything less than 4-4 will look like a collapse.

 

Agree re UGA on the road - feels like one that could tip the scales record wise

Vandy x 2
Mizzou and LSU at home is “taking care of business “

Thats 10-8 - very probable

add UGA 11-7 - probable - no longer bubble material

add one more quad 1 of Bama x2 and SC ?
Looking at 12-6
23-9 overall pre tourney - possible -

should get us a competitive seed
like 5-6

 

Also...what the heck has gotten into South Carolina this year?

 

Time of year is not supposed to figure into the equation.

 

That would leave us playing a bottom play-in team in SEC tourney so decent chance of winning that game.

 

That may be true, I just know one of the stats they seem to share a lot is the record in the last 10. I think if you have 2 teams and they are pretty equal if one finishes 8-2 and one is 5-5, that might sway someone's opinion. As long as people are making the decisions, it's really hard to say what actually matters.

 

committee has historically looked at the final ten games record in many cases if two teams are close in comparison

 

Team Rankings has UF as an 8 seed after the Auburn win. Projected to finish 21-10 and 11-7.

I'd like to think if we get to that record, we could be a 7 seed at least, maybe win a couple in the tournament and 6-7 line will be in play.

 

Historically, yes, and I agree with that approach. But they claim that they've perfected the NET rankings to such a fine degree it rivals quantum physics for sheer genius, and it supposedly doesn't care what time of year you beat any given team. It's far beyond the intellectual comprehension of knuckle-draggers like you and me.

 

yes that in a nutshell is college basketball played by 18-22 year olds. Even in the NBA any team can beat anyone on any given night, but I do like that we're trending as the kids say. I'd love for us to win at least 5 of the next 8, but won't be at all surprised if we don't. That's why they play the game (and we all bite our nails and rant on the NBN game thread)