In a year where no team seems to be in control, the one thing that most people seem to agree on is the fact that the Florida Gators were the team that deserved the No.1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Florida already had the No.1 ranking heading into the SEC Conference Championship Game this afternoon, and they hung on to beat Kentucky, although Kentucky is peaking at the right time, and did have a chance to upset.
The Florida Gators are on a better streak than any other team in the nation right now, and squeaked by after a late run from Kentucky to win 61-60. Florida is currently on a 26-game winning streak, and has an overall record of 32-2 on the season.
Florida is undefeated in SEC league play this year, and while they did not maintain an undefeated record for the entire season like Wichita State, due to their conference being stronger, the committee decided that their performance was more impressive.
To the surprise of some people though, Arizona, who held the No.1 spot for much of the regular season, jumped up to the No.2 spot, obtaining the second No.1 seed. The final No.1 seed went to Virginia, who defeated Duke today in order to win the ACC Tournament, in addition to being the ACC champion of the regular season.
During conference tournament week, some of the top teams such as Syracuse and Villanova fell early, and were unable to continue playing. However, other teams like Providence were able to advance to the championship of the Big East, where they upset Creighton, who was playing in the Big East tournament for the first time after leaving the Missouri Valley Conference.
The Florida Gators have been placed in the South region in order to have home-court advantage, and will play their first two games in Orlando. They will play their first game on Thursday, and will find out their opponent after St. Mary’s (16-16) and Albany (18-14) finish their game on Wednesday.
If Florida wins their first game, they will be playing the winner of the #8/#9 match-up between Colorado and Pittsburgh. Other top teams that Florida could have trouble with on their way to the final four include Syracuse, Kansas, UCLA and Ohio State.
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