Tonight, Florida Basketball will take on Houston at 8:50 PM. At stake is the chance to claim the third national title in the program's history. A win tonight would move the Gators into a tie for 8th for most national titles in men's basketball by any program in the country.
But win or lose tonight, it is time that Florida starts to get their flowers as one of the top programs of the modern era, and it isn't their fault they weren't good before color television and cable television was a thing.
Florida Basketball: New Blood
If you look up on Wikipedia who counts as the "Blue Bloods" in college basketball, it will tell you Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, UCLA, UConn, UNC, and Indiana count as royalty in the sport.
Florida made their first Final Four in 1994, and this year's trip to San Antonio is their sixth Final Four in program history.
Florida made its first national title game in 2000, and tonight, it will be its fourth appearance in the national title game.
Here are just some fun facts regarding Florida since those time stamps:
- Since 1994, Florida has had more Final Four appearances than Indiana has had Sweet 16 appearances.
- Since 1994, Florida has had more Final Four appearances than UCLA
- Since 2000, Florida has had more appearances in the National Title Game than Duke and Kentucky and is tied with Kansas with four appearances
- The six Final Four appearances in the last 31 years are 6th most in the country and is ahead of other notable "basketball" programs such as Villanova and Syracuse
And it's not like Florida has had all this success under just one coach. Florida has made it to six Final Fours under three different head coaches.
Congrats to other fan bases for winning titles you weren't alive for, but if the Gators can win tonight, there is no getting around the fact that Florida is a modern-era blue blood in college basketball.