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.
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.
