‘Surprised’ by No. 7 seed, Gators look to make another tourney run
INDIANAPOLIS — Make no mistake, Todd Golden and the Gators are thrilled to be in the NCAA Tournament and don’t care about their seeding or region. The goal all season was to make the Big Dance and they punched their ticket for the first time in three years.
“We all came here with this goal of making March Madness and now we’re here,” UF starting forward Tyrese Samuel said. “When you accomplish your goal, it feels good. And now we’re focusing on making a run in this tournament, clicking, and making sure we make it to the Final Four and put Florida back on the map.”
That being said, their seed for the tournament did catch them off guard. Four of the eight major projections listed the Gators as a 6-seed after their comeback win over Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament semifinals, and ESPN moved them up to a 5-seed.
Instead, the Gators earned a 7-seed in the South Region and were matched up against one of the First Four games, meaning they had to wait until late Wednesday night to find out who their first-round opponent — 10-seeded Colorado — will be.
Golden was asked Thursday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse if he and his players have any additional motivation heading into the tournament after the seed they received.
“I think we were — ‘disappointed’ would be too strong of a word. I would say a little surprised. But at the same time, it is what it is,” Golden said. “We thought our run in Nashville would probably bump us up to a 6. But hey, listen, you’re going to have tough matchups, whether it was a 10 or 11 seed, it’s still going to be really hard to win and advance.”
Florida won its final eight SEC home games, the team’s longest SEC home win streak since posting a program-record 20 in a row from 2013-15. UF then had three straight victories in Nashville, including the fourth top-25 win of the season over Alabama.
Despite that success down the stretch, Florida didn’t earn a higher seed. Like Golden, the selection committee’s decision caught Samuel by surprise.
“Yeah, at first I was kind of shocked,” Samuel said. “But, you know, when you look at the brackets, like, it really doesn’t matter. As long as we make it, that’s really all that matters, for real.”
The Gators advanced to the Round of 32 in each of their last three trips. Golden and Samuel have experienced the Big Dance along with Walter Clayton Jr., but a victory Friday over the Buffaloes would be the first NCAA Tournament win for each of them, along with every scholarship UF player.
“Are we a little — trying to use (the No. 7 seed) as a chip on our shoulder? Yeah, probably a little bit. But at the end of the day, we’ve still got to go out there and compete at a high level to give ourselves a good chance against Colorado. Trying to maintain focus and not allow any of those kinds of outside conversations to take away our focus, but our guys are excited to get out there,” Golden said. “This event can go super quick for you, or if you play well, you can stick around for a couple weeks. I do think last week was a good experience for our guys leading up to this, especially with how many new guys we have in our program this year.
“To go in a tournament setting and win three games in three days and obviously competing against Auburn in the championship. This team understands we’re capable to beat Bama, beat A&M, beat Georgia on back-to-back-to-back days. It was the type of preparation you need to come into an event like this. Obviously, Colorado is going to be a really tough opponent. They should have some confidence after their win last night. But we’ll be ready for them, and I think this team has the capacity to make a run, if things go our way tomorrow.”
