The hype train for Florida Basketball is gaining steam and set to take off

Over Thanksgiving, Florida Basketball quietly put together one of the more dominant performances in the country at the ESPN Events Invite in Kissimmee. The Gators pulled away late from Wake Forest to win by 17 points before eviscerating Witchita State so badly that the Shockers were trying to find some red slippers to take them back to Kansas by halftime.

Now the Gators have two more tune-ups against Power Four competition before a massive showdown with UNC in two weeks.

Florida Basketball: All aboard

Beating Wake Forest or Witchita State by itself doesn't raise eyebrows, but both are top 100 KenPom squads that should have presented a greater challenge than what went down in Kissimmee.

At the core of the dominance was the defensive end. Over the last three games, Florida has only allowed 8.2 points per every ten defensive possessions. When comparing the last three games for everyone in the country, that's the eighth-best rate in the country.

Like past years under Todd Golden, Florida is still one of the best shot-blocking teams in the country. But against Wake Forest, it was ten steals that kept the Demon Decans at bay, with Rueben Chinyelu and Walter Clayton collecting three steals each.

The blocks returned against Witchita State, with Florida collecting eight blocks, and at one point, Florida went on a 27-0 run to pick up their most impressive victory when factoring in the opponent and margin of victory.

Even three-point shooting has started to tick up, though there is still room for improvement in this area.

The end result is KenPom rankings have Florida up to eighth in the country, while the first edition of the NCAA NET rankings have the Gators up to sixth. The AP Poll is still lagging behind, but Florida has been bumped up to 13th in the country in the latest poll.

Florida has Virginia and Arizona State up next, both of which have similar rankings to Wake Forest and Witchita State. It sets up a December 17th matchup with North Carolina, which is set up to be Florida's first genuine test on the season.

Beat UNC, and Florida has a real pathway to being undefeated when they open SEC play against Kentucky on January 4th.

Florida takes on Virginia on Wednesday at 7:15 PM.