By halftime it was a 19-point blowout, and by then, the only drama left was what topping to add to the pig roast. Eleven thousand fans came to Exactech Arena expecting a competitive basketball game and wound up at a Gator Gala — complete with Ollie Time, as 7-foot-9 Oliver Rioux got his celebratory minutes.

Tommy Haugh cuts down the SEC championship net (Photo by Bobby D'Alessio) The Florida Gators have successfully created a dilemma of major proportions for the people on the selection committee who will determine the top four seeds for the NCAA Tournament in two weeks. Do they go strictly by record? It seems almost inevitable that Duke, Michigan, Arizona and UConn will finish with fewer losses than the Gators, who currently stand 23-6, and head-to-head, Duke, Arizona and UConn

Let’s not forget — this outfit started 5–4. Lost a few heartbreakers, heard the murmurs and now they’re top-four in everything that matters. That’s what we call responding to the critics — or as Billy Donovan used to say, “growing up right on time.”

For Florida, it was not necessarily a question of winning. Arizona State was the highest ranked of the three teams at 32nd in the nation. It was more of a competition against the scoreboard and getting better heading into the postseason.

Boogie Fland (0) has become one of the best perimeter defenders in the nation (Photo by Chris Spears) The last team that came to the O-Dome hoping to turn a game with the Florida Gators into a track meet was Alabama back on February 1. Bama did what Bama does that game, which is to bomb away from 3-point range and try to beat the Gators down the court for layups. Nice strategy except it didn’t work because Florida destroyed the Crimson Tide in the paint, 72-26, and sent them

Alex Condon dunks on Alabama (UAA Photo) Give Chris Beard and Sean Miller credit. Faced with a Florida (22-6, 13-2 SEC) basketball team whose momentum is snowballing, the Ole Miss (Beard) and Texas (Miller) coaches have reverted to the Al McGuire cut the head off the snake defensive philosophy. Determined to prevent Rueben Chinyelu from dominating them on the inside, they have successfully neutralized Florida’s big guy, who came into the Ole Miss game as the nation’s leading

The Gators were going to be playing late into the night starting at 10:30 eastern against the squad from East Texas A&M.

Alex Condon continues to look like a man who’s discovering for himself just how good he can be. The Aussie freshman poured in 23 points on 10-for-12 shooting, swatting four shots and commandeering the paint like he’s been doing this for years.

Haugh had a gimpy leg but toughed it out -- like the SEC POY he should be. (UAA photo) Tommy Haugh, who is either No. 1 or No. 1A in the race for Southeastern Conference Player of the Year, had a game to forget Wednesday night when 7 th -ranked Florida traveled to Austin to face a Texas team scrambling to solidify its NCAA  résumé. Five points, his first game without a three since early in the non-conference schedule, no rebounds and a tweaked ankle although he did have a cou

Todd Golden has Florida on the brink of an SEC title (Photo by Chris Spears) Just call them road warriors.   Todd Golden has a team that doesn’t seem fazed by the kind of hostile environments found in venues around the Southeastern Conference. It’s almost as if 7 th -ranked Florida (21-6, 12-2) has this thing about going on the road to burst the bubble of fans intent on potentially storming the court to celebrate a win over last year’s national champ.   The numbers bear it ou

The Florida bats stayed red hot during the weekend. Taylor Shumaker had two home runs; Brown, Jocelyn Ericksonand Madison Walker each homered.

Todd Golden should be SEC Coach of the Year (Photo by Chris Spears) The best basketball coach in the Southeastern Conference is Todd Golden. He proved it last year when he took the Gators to the NCAA championship in just his third year on the Florida job. He should have been SEC coach of the year in 2025, but that honor was bestowed on Auburn’s Bruce Pearl, whose Tigers held the No. 1 ranking for a portion of the season and who got to the Final Four. Head-to-head, Golden won