Gainesville, Fla. — While it’s been a turbulent-free beginning for the No. 13 Florida Gators men’s basketball team to start the season, don’t expect it to be that way much longer with the conference they belong to.
“There’s no running from it, this is the best conference in college basketball, it’s not particularly close right now,” Gators head coach Todd Golden said. “Every night is going to be an absolute battle once we get to league play.”
And he’s not wrong on either statement. The SEC currently has eight of the top 25 teams in the country, five of the top 15, four of the top 10 and three of the top four teams. The next closest conference is the Big 12 with five teams inside the top 25. So, the numbers favor the SEC.
Additionally, like Golden said, every night is going to be a battle and for the Gators, the war is edging closer. Florida has just four non-conference games left till they start conference play and they will be presented with difficult challenges right out the gate.
“Our conference schedule starts out pretty difficult with at Kentucky, at home against Tennessee and then I think on the road to Arkansas,” Golden said. “Fun three games to start.”
Fun indeed.
But this level of competition is expected when you’re vying to become one of the top teams in the country. It’s unfortunate to have it come as quickly as it will, but it means they’ll be battle tested earlier on in the season. This can be a positive for the Gators for later down the road.
However, it isn’t just the beginning to their conference schedule that is tough, it’s the season-long duration of being in the SEC that will provide a challenge as well. They’ll still play against Texas, South Carolina, Georgia, Auburn, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Alabama and Ole Miss after this opening stretch. The one thing these teams all have in common is that they’re all more than capable of being an NCAA tournament team.
So, for the Gators, the biggest thing for them is not to get caught up in the emotions of one win along the way, and to remember to take it one game at a time because this conference will eat you alive if you look too far ahead from the present.