Heading into the SEC Tournament, Florida Basketball finds itself in a very advantageous position.
The Gators appear to be a near lock to be a number one seed for the NCAA Tournament barring an upset in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament.
No. 1 seed status
Florida closed on a three-game winning streak that featured wins over Texas A&M, Alabama, and Ole Miss. According to ESPN's Joe Lunardi, he has the Gators as a number one seed for the NCAA Tournament and the number four overall seed in the tournament.
Florida is projected behind Auburn, Duke, and Houston in overall seed but ahead of Nate Oats and the Crimson Tide, who are protected fifth overall. Rick Barnes' Tennessee squad, which is also in contention for a No. 1 seed, ranks sixth overall.
Let's look at the bracket
According to Lunardi, Florida would open the sixteenth-seeded Spartans of Norfolk State, representing the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference's automatic bid, in their opening-round matchup.
Norfolk State will continue its march to an NCAA Tournament berth when it opens its journey with a matchup against Maryland Eastern Shore in the 2025 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament.
Norfolk State is a more undesirable team to face, mostly due to the scares they've given power conference teams.
The Spartans are just 1-4 in quadrant one and two games, but their record doesn't indicate their potential. They respectably fell in an away contest against Tennessee by just fifteen points. They also gave tournament-likely Baylor quite a scare with just a five-point away loss.
Despite their struggles, they've proven their potential to hang around with power conference teams, posing a potential threat to the red-hot Gators.
The opening-round winner would then advance and play the winner of eighth-seeded Gonzaga and ninth-seeded New Mexico.
Coming up
The Gators will participate in the SEC Tournament, kicking off their postseason runoff against either Missouri, Mississippi State, or LSU, depending on the results. They'd likely face off against either Kentucky or Alabama, who both pose elite opponents.
The impact of SEC Tournament results is often ambiguous, as the committee chooses to weigh them differently each year. Usually, seeding doesn't drastically change due to conference tournament results, but the Gators could very well fall from the top line with an underwhelming performance in Nashville.