Gators bounced from SEC Tournament, bursting their NCAA bubble
The Gators men’s basketball team entered the SEC Tournament this week needing at least two wins in Tampa to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Florida failed to make that happen with Thursday’s 80-78 loss to Texas A&M, but did not go down without a fight.
UF forced overtime against the Aggies, overcoming a 16-point second-half deficit and trailing by nine with 1:07 left. Florida rallied with seven straight points from Kowacie Reeves, who made back-to-back 3s in the final minute and scored a team-high 21 points — all in the second half and extra period.
Reeves gave the Gators their first lead with an and-1 play to start overtime. Phlandrous Fleming Jr. then tied the game on a 3-point play and hit a fade-away jumper to put Florida in front with 48 seconds remaining.
After a late call on Fleming allowed the Aggies to tie it up at 80, he missed a 3-point attempt on the ensuing possession and then A&M’s Hassan Diarra hit the go-ahead 3 with 0.4 seconds left.
“We dug ourselves a huge hole, of course, in the first half. Really proud of the character of these guys,” UF coach Mike White said after the loss. “Very, very somber locker room, obviously. A bunch of high-character guys that left it on the line, and, unfortunately, Texas A&M made some huge plays down the stretch, hit a huge shot, obviously.”
Diarra finished with 14 points and Henry Coleman III led the Aggies with 22 points. Four UF players scored in figures, including a career-high 16 points from Niels Lane, but point guard Tyree Appleby was held scoreless for the first time this season.
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Thursday’s game marks the Gators’ first loss in the second round of the SEC Tournament since the 2008-09 season, when they lost to Auburn and missed the 2009 NCAA Tournament.
Florida will now miss the Big Dance this year after falling to 19-13 overall, failing to reach 20 wins by the SEC Tournament for the first time since 2014-15. UF was ranked 54th in the latest NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) standings.
Both the Gators and Aggies entered Thursday’s matchup a part of the Next Four Out for the NCAA Tournament, according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s bracket projections.
With the loss to A&M, Florida drops to 7-12 in Quad-1 and Quad-2 games combined. UF last missed the NCAA Tournament in 2016 — White’s first season as coach.
