Advantage Florida thanks to UConn going down in flames in Big East

Tommy Haugh drives through contact against Vanderbilt (Photo by Chris Spears)

That same UConn team, the one who back in December eked out a 77-73 win over the Gators in what amounted to a Madison Square Garden home game, gave Florida what amounted to a mulligan Saturday afternoon in the championship game of the Big East Tournament. A No. 1 seed was there for the taking. All UConn had to do was knock off St. John’s to win the tournament, but just as the Gators did in their SEC Tournament semifinal with Vanderbilt, the Huskies laid an ostrich-sized egg.

Had UConn taken out St. John’s, which won the Big East regular season championship, the Gators probably would have been bumped down to the No. 2 line thanks to that 91-74 beatdown suffered at the hands of Vandy. Two weeks ago UConn hosed St. John’s by 32. Saturday, St. John’s retaliated with a 72-52 win over UConn that looks far better on paper than it did live. On paper, it seemed that UConn just had a bad day at the office. Live it looked like St. John's was on a burning down the house mission that left UConn in smoldering ruins.

A UConn win would have been the Huskies’ 30^th of the season and would have gone a long way toward bridging the Quad 1 gap with the Gators, who are 12-6 after the Vandy loss. UConn is now 7-4.

Following the Vanderbilt loss, Todd Golden felt the Gators were deserving of a No. 1 based on strength of schedule along with the 12 Quad 1 wins.

“Looking at Quad 1 wins, I think we're in a good spot that way,” Golden said. “Analytically, the predictive metrics, whether it's KenPom, Torvik, we're top four in all those by a wide margin. It's really not close.

“We had our early-season tough start where we played really good, competitive opponents, and road or semi-away venues where we fell a little bit short. We haven't lost in 54 days or something leading up to this game, playing some of the best basketball in America. I do believe we've done enough to be the fourth one seed, but we’ll find out tomorrow night.”

Golden made those comments prior to UConn’s disastrous performance against St. John’s and also prior to Houston losing to Arizona in the Big 12 Tournament championship game. Houston does have 10 Quad 1 wins, but the Cougars have the same number of Quad 1 losses (6) as the Gators. Houston finished second in the Big 12 regular season, and has a 28-6 record. Florida won the SEC by three games with a 16-2 record in league play and has a 26-7 record.

The advantage should be to Florida, but the Gators will have to play wait and see until the NCAA announces its brackets this evening. Right now, it’s likely that the Gators will be the South Region No. 1 with Houston the No. 2. The Gators will open play in Tampa and if they get past the first weekend, proceed to Houston for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds. Rice is the host institution for the Houston Regional so the NCAA rule that a regional host can’t play in its own region is waived. That means the Houston Cougars could essentially get home games for the second weekend.

Per Joe Lunardi, the Gators will open with the winner of the play-in game between Kennesaw State and Prairie View A&M, both No. 16 seeds. In Lunardi’s second round, the Gators would face the winner of No. 8 Clemson (ACC) and No. 9 Villanova (Big East).

In the CBS brackets, the Gators would open with the winner of the No. 16 play-in game between Howard and Long Island, with a second round game against the winner of No. 8 Ohio State and No. 9 North Carolina State.

AS OF SUNDAY MORNING

SEC in ESPN (Joe Lunardi) brackets

East: 1. Duke; 2. Iowa State; 3. Illinois; 4. Vanderbilt (SEC: 7. Kentucky; 11. Missouri)

South: 1. FLORIDA; 2. Houston; 3. Purdue; 4. Gonzaga (SEC: 6. Tennessee; 10. Texas A&M)

Midwest: 1. Michigan; 2. UConn; 3. Nebraska; 4. Kansas (SEC: 5. Arkansas; 8. Georgia)

West: 1. Arizona; 2. Michigan State; 3. Virginia; 4. Alabama (SEC: 11. Texas)

 Bids by Conference

SEC 10; Big Ten 9; ACC 8; Big XII 8; Big East 3; West Coast 3; MAC 2; A10 2

SEC in CBS brackets

East: 1. Duke; 2. UConn; 3. Michigan State; 4. Kansas (SEC: 6. Tennessee; 8 Georgia)

South: 1. FLORIDA; 2. Houston; 3. Illinois; 4. Gonzaga (SEC: 10. Texas A&M)

Midwest: 1. Michigan; 2. Vanderbilt; 3. Iowa State; 4. Nebraska (SEC: 5. Arkansas; 10. Texas; 11. Missouri)

West: 1. Arizona; 2. Purdue; 3. Virginia; 4. Alabama (SEC: 7. Kentucky)

Bids by Conference

SEC 10; Big Ten 9; Big XII 8; ACC 8; Big East 3; West Coast 3; A10 2; MAC 2