SEC woes should have Florida Basketball on high alert against Colorado

For the first time in three seasons Florida Basketball will be participating in the NCAA Tournament. The Gators will take the court today at 4:30 against Colorado.

There are plenty of reasons for Florida to feel confident given the season they have had, but after the SEC was the victim of three upsets yesterday there are reasons Florida can't just assume their strong conference play will carry over to the Big Dance.

Florida Basketball: Things Are Not What They Seem

One of the narratives that seems to have been lost with Florida's season is that they didn't have a super strong non-conference slate. The Gators lost to Virginia and Wake Forest, the latter of which didn't make the NCAA Tournament and the former of which did but put on a showing so bad we wish they didn't.

On top of that, wins over FSU, Pittsburgh, and Michigan didn't hold their weight as much as Florida would have hoped for either.

Then throw in a 1-3 start to SEC play and it seems forgotten that following the January 16 loss to Tennessee, the Gators were viewed as a team on the outside looking in when it came to getting a bid in March.

Florida of course went on to finish the regular season on a 10-4 run with wins over Auburn, Kentucky, and Alabama, and combined with the perception that the SEC was strong this season the Gators were firmly placed into the tournament.

But yesterday that very strength of the SEC which helped boost Florida was called into question as Kentucky, South Carolina, and Mississippi State all lost in their opening round despite all being the higher/better seed.

Mississippi State was pummeled by Michigan State, as was South Carolina by Oregon, while Kentucky became the laughing stock of the country by losing to Oakland.

We are going to point and laugh at our SEC brethren because that's what we do, but it should cause Florida's Spidey Senses to be on high alert as it takes on Colorado. If beating Kentucky and Mississippi State was supposed to be quality wins for the Gators, and they just got embarrassed, who is to say that Florida won't be next?

It is expected to be a close game as is, with Florida favored by 1.5 points. And hopefully the failure of some SEC teams is the wakeup call Florida needs to survive and advance.