Florida Basketball is coming off a week where they had to survive against South Carolina before dispatching Mike White to the underworld on Saturday. The Gators now get a full week off before traveling to Knoxville on Saturday for a rematch with Tennessee.
Florida is 18-2 on the season and 5-2 in conference play. The following are two truths and a lie for the Gators, who are still ranked 5th in the AP Top 25 Poll.
Truth: Micah Handlogten has a tough choice to make
There was some online rumbling last week that Micah Handlogten was going to return to play against Georgia. As it turned out, that was a bit premature, but Todd Golden did confirm that Handlogten has been practicing with the team and, in theory, could return this season if he wanted to.
Handlogten broke his leg last year in the SEC Tournament and was expected to redshirt this season.
But with the success the Gators are having, Handlogten would have to decide if he wants to burn his redshirt just to try and push Florida over the hump. The Gators do have a cache of big men, so it is not a glaring need.
But if Handlogten returns to 100%, it certainly wouldn't hurt.
Truth: Seeding will matter in March
Sometimes, the seeding for March Madness gets a bit overblown, and the difference between seeds can be semantics. But if the goal is to win a national championship, the data is quite clear on where Florida needs to be heading into the NCAA Tournament.
Since 2007, when Florida won their second straight NCAA Tournament, 12 of the 17 eventual national champions were one-seed in the tournament.
Going all the back to 1998, there have only been two national champions who weren't at least a three seed. In 2014, UConn went on its magical run as a seven seed and knocked off Florida in the Final Four before beating Kentucky in the championship game.
Then, in 2023, UConn won it all as a four-seed, though during that run, they benefitted from only being the lower-seeded team once in their six games.
Lie: Florida is putting teams in foul trouble
It's hard to nitpick Florida since they are 6th in the country in scoring, but they are not a team that draws a ton of contact at the rim.
Florida is 233rd in free throw attempts per field goal attempts and is 315th in opponent fouls per play.
In some ways, it makes sense because Florida's approach is to rotate around the arc, and when they do drive to the basket, they use their big men to seal off the lane so there is no challenge at the rim.
We aren't saying Florida needs to go out of their way to draw contact, but we have a feeling somewhere down the road, they may need to force a key player for the opponent to the bench with foul trouble.