While playing at 9:25 PM on Friday to kick off its own NCAA Tournament is annoying for Florida fans, one of the hidden benefits of being one of the last teams to tip off in Round One is that Gator fans get to sit back and watch the chaos unfold before having to worry about anything themselves.
With the First Four out of the way, the first full day of March Madness is set to kick off, and these are the games Florida fans will be keeping an eye on during Day One of the NCAA Tournament.
Georgia is a reminder of how Florida could have stayed stuck in neutral
Is it ever going to get old pointing out the failures of Mike White? Probably not, because he is a constant juxtoposition of where Florida would still be as a program had he not left for Athens in 2022. His current program, Georgia, is a No. 8 seed that will go up against No. 9 Saint Louis in Buffalo. It’s basically a mirror image of what the ceiling was for Florida during the Mike White Era.
It might be good enough for Georgia fans, but Florida fans will be grateful they dared to want more.
Can McNeese State do Florida a favor and pull off a 12 vs 5 seed upset?
One of the looming traps on the horizon could be in the Sweet 16. While all eyes immediately darted to a potential Elite Eight matchup between Florida and Houston (in Houston, no less), there is a chance Florida never makes it there if it has to meet Vanderbilt in the Sweet 16. The two teams split the season series, and the win Florida got was by the skin of its teeth.
So it is in the rooting interest of Florida fans for McNeese State to pull off a Day One upset of Vanderbilt and help clear the road to that potential Elite Eight. Vanderbilt is an 11.5-point favorite.
Will any of the contenders be vulnerable?
When you start mapping out national title contenders, Duke, Michigan, Houston, and Illinois all take the court tomorrow. Houston and Illinois are the two teams who would more than likely be awaiting Florida in the Elite Eight, while Duke would be the team Florida would slot into at the Final Four.
All four of those teams are favored by more than 20, though it feels somewhat notable that Houston has the lowest spread of the four. All four of those teams will find anything short of a blowout to be a disappointment.