How Gators Basketball's Push for Higher Seeding Ties to SEC Title Hopes

Concerns began to pour in for the No. 7 Florida Gators men’s basketball team following defeats to Duke, Arizona and UConn earlier in the season. Did head coach Todd Golden reconstruct his roster poorly? Are they even a real threat in the SEC? Where is the 3-point shooting?

Well, fast forward one month, and the Gators are setting the pace in the SEC and are pushing for a top seed for when the NCAA Tournament tips off.

Florida is 22-6 on the year and 13-2 in the SEC, currently riding an eight-game winning streak to quickly rebrand themselves as the best team in the conference.

Among their 13 conference triumphs, nearly a third have been against SEC title contenders. Florida beat the Kentucky Wildcats, maybe the highest spenders in the NCAA this season, by nine points. Before that, they edged out a four-point victory on the road over Vanderbilt, the No. 10 team in the country at the time, before demolishing Texas A&M in College Station by 19 points.

Florida even hammered Alabama by 23 in Exactech Arena, handing the Crimson Tide its worst SEC loss this season.

However, the job is not done. Three games remain in the regular season, with the Arkansas Razorbacks, the Mississippi State Bulldogs and a rematch against Kentucky standing in their way of claiming their first SEC regular season title since 2014.

Additionally, there are still two teams in play to knock the Gators from the top spot. Arkansas and Alabama both are trailing in second and third, with each holding an 11-4 conference record.

One small but not-so-small detail in this race is that Florida could see its hopes potentially crumble on Saturday. The Razorbacks travel to Gainesville for a top-25 matchup with the Gators, a contest that will undoubtedly impact the race for the title.

Should Florida win the final three games, it could have larger implications for them, as well.

Although ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has consistently placed the Gators along the three-seed line for the NCAA Tournament in recent weeks, which is where the NCAA Tournament Committed has the Gators in its first bracket preview, Florida is now pushing for a two-seed in March.

Florida earned its 9th Quad 1 win last night at Texas.

Only Duke, Michigan, and Arizona have more.

2 of the Gators' 3 remaining regular season games --- Arkansas and at Kentucky --- are in Quad 1 plus the SEC Tourney.

A clear path exists for a higher seed on Selection Sunday.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) February 26, 2026

A big factor in bumping the Gators' seed is their number of quad-one victories. Including their gritty victory over the Texas Longhorns on Wednesday, they now have nine quad-one wins. The only teams to have more are Duke, Michigan and Arizona, who are all projected as one seeds. Furthermore, Florida has two more games over the last three that are considered quad one (Arkansas, at Kentucky).

“I think we're probably a 2 (seed) right now, if I was doing the bracket, but I'm not," Golden said on Friday. "I think it's all really close. I think these next couple weeks are going to really determine who slides up and who drops down. I don't think there's too much of a difference necessarily between being a 2 and a 3."

So, marking down wins for the final three games could be enough to get them over the line for a two-seed.

It also helps that both Illinois and Purdue, two projected two seeds, have provided an avenue to skip them in line with each dropping games recently.

Unfortunately for Florida, the losses to Duke, Arizona, UConn and TCU during non-conference play, combined with defeats to Missouri and Auburn, make it nearly impossible to achieve a top seed for the second straight year.

Nonetheless, the Gators have put all their chips on the table as the regular season comes to a close. If everything continues falling into place, though, Florida could be adding more hardware to its trophy cabinet in Golden’s relatively short tenure representing the Orange and Blue.

"We obviously want to be the highest we can be. Can we still get to a 1 seed? We’ll see," Golden said. "If we run the table, you never know. I think that would be an incredible situation to think about. But, again, our goals at the moment, do what we need to do, taking care of business day by day to win the league and then work to play to the highest seat possible for March.