Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Florida Gators went 52-28 against league opponents at home over the last nine seasons. Their winning percentage at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center stands at .650 dating to the end of a school-record 33 consecutive home victories that spanned the 2012-13, '13-14 and one game into the '14-15 season.
 
Once one of the most feared venues of in all of college basketball, the O'Dome became just another road game for foes. South Carolina won three straight here. Vanderbilt and Georgia two straight. Three different teams (Kentucky, Tennessee and Baylor) came in ranked No. 1 and left with victories. Last year, Connecticut barely broke a sweat in winning by 21 four months before claiming its NCAA title. And who could forget (and everybody wanted to) when a winless 0-7 Texas Southern rolled in two years ago and absolutely embarrassed the Gators in a 15-point blowout? 
 

Fact: UF has lost 11 home conference games the last three seasons and hasn't gone unbeaten in the O'Dome since that special Final Four senior-led group of 2014.
 
Well, for the first time in a decade the Gators (10-3) have navigated their pre-league schedule without a loss and Saturday open Southeastern Conference play against sixth-ranked Kentucky (11-2) at a sold-out O'Dome that figures to be rocking like at no time during Coach Todd Golden's two seasons. The Wildcats have won five straight road games in the series (and nine of 10 overall), with UF's last home win coming back in 2018 on Chris Chiozza's "Senior Day." 

Yeah, it's been a while.  
 
Is this the year the Gators – and, yes, that means you, Rowdy Reptiles and all Gators in the house – take the Dome back? Because nothing short of an Orange-out madhouse will be needed to help UF counter a confident and frighteningly explosive UK offense that rates among the best in the nation, fueled by its deadly 3-pointer shooting. 
 
[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here]
 
"It's definitely a statement opportunity for us," said Golden, whose team's overall six-game winning streak matches the longest over the last seven seasons. "We've done a good job throughout the course of the season of getting a little more excitement back in the program. I think people are going to rally around us a little bit." That needs to be the case, if the Gators are to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three years. The SEC, once again, is going to be a eat-its-own gauntlet, with eight of the 14 teams already at double-digit wins. The conference has sent at least six teams to each of the last five NCAA tournaments, twice placing eight in the 68-team field, including in 2023. 

Defending their home floor (like the good ol' days) wlll be pivotal.

"All the big games that we have had [so far] we came close, but fell short a little bit," grad-transfer forward Tyrese Samuel said. "If we got this one, it's going to be a really important one." 
 
Florida last opened league play against Kentucky in 1999 and lost by 35 on the road. That was Billy Donovan's third UF team and it avenged the loss by upsetting the fifth-ranked Cats a month later, nearly blowing the brand-new, hard-shell roof off the O'Dome on the way to reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time under the icon-to-be coach. That '98-99 squad had some great players and improved along the way. The fanbase, in turn, got on board for a wild ride. 
 
This UF team has a collection of players much better than in recent years and now must do its part to – borrowing from the motion picture "Gladiator" – win the crowd. Golden believes they will, which means the fans need to do their part, especially as yet another brutal conference slate commences.

How brutal?  
 
What follows is a snapshot of where the SEC 2024 stands now, as well as an overview at where this juggernaut league could be headed. 

Expanded SEC standings 

Team	Record	Home	Away	Neutral	Streak	NET ranking	SEC opener
Ole Miss	13-0	9-0	2-0	2-0	W13	60th	@Tennessee
South Carolina	12-1	8-0	1-1	3-0	W4	47th	Mississippi State
Mississippi State	11-2	5-1	0-1	6-0	W5	34th	@South Carolina
Auburn	11-2	6-0	0-1	4-1	W6	14th	@Arkansas
Kentucky	10-2	7-1	1-0	2-1	W4	24th	@Florida
Florida	10-3	6-0	0-1	4-2	W6	48th	Kentucky
Georgia	10-3	9-0	1-0	0-3	W8	100th	@Missouri
Tennessee	10-3	7-0	1-1	2-2	W6	6th	Ole Miss
Arkansas	9-4	7-1	0-0	2-3	W3	86th	Auburn
Texas A&M	9-4	5-1	2-2	2-2	W2	25th	LSU
Alabama	8-5	6-1	0-1	2-3	W2	5th	@Vanderbilt
LSU	8-5	6-2	0-1	2-2	W2	138th	@Texas A&M
Missouri	8-5	6-2	2-1	0-2	W1	105th	Georgia
Vanderbilt	5-8	5-4	0-1	0-3	W1	268th	Alabama

The Coaches  Last season, the conference welcomed a whopping six new coaches. It was quite a contrast from the previous two years that saw zero turnover on the SEC sidelines, which was very odd, given the volatility of the profession (especially for back-to-back seasons in a brutish 14-team league). 
 
And yet, again, the '23 offseason was relatively calm, with just one coaching change in the SEC. Ole Miss fired Kermit Davis Jr. after five seasons and just one NCAA berth and made one of the most controversial – and shrewd, by early returns – hirings of the cycle in luring Chris Beard (and all his baggage) to Oxford. 
 
Beard famously guided Texas Tech to the 2019 NCAA title game, then did an intra-Big 12 jump to Texas in 2021 and guided the program to the '22 tournament and its most wins in eight years. Beard had the Longhorns off to a 7-1 start in '22-23 when he was arrested for a domestic violence incident that led to his suspension. UT ultimately opted to fire him, making Beard a flawed but extremely attractive free agent in the '23 cycle. 
 
Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter saw a chance for a big-time splash hire and all the Rebels have done is take off for the nation's longest unbeaten streak and lone perfect record in the SEC (one of only three in the nation, along with Houston and James Madison). Beard, 50, coaxed a couple very good players, guard Matthew Murrell and forward Jaemyn Brakefield, to stick around and surrounded them with a nice transfer class, including 7-5, 235-pound Jamarion Sharp, by way of Western Kentucky. 
 
Voila! The Rebels won 11 games and the Peach Bowl in football and now have a fascinating basketball story in the works. Times are good (and relevant) in The Grove these days. 


The Teams  The Ole Miss story is a fascinating one that will play itself out over the course of the season, but the teams that figure to contend for the SEC title figure to be the usual suspects. 
 
Mostly the same ones as last year, actually. 
 
Tennessee was picked to win the league at SEC Media Days in October and despite its three consecutive losses in November (to three powerhouses, by the way) the Volunteers, with that trademark Rick Barnes defense, will be a major factor. Texas A&M, which returned the core of a team (including point guard and Preseason Player of the Year Wade Taylor IV) that won 25 games last season, was picked to finish second, with program-builder Buzz Williams rolling into this fifth season at College Station. Arkansas, despite losing four players to the NBA draft after reaching the Sweet 16, was picked third, but already has four losses.
 
Alabama, led by 2023 SEC Player of the Year Brandon Miller (the No. 3 overall pick in the NBA Draft), basically ran away with the conference last season before a couple late losses allowed a veteran A&M squad to close within a game late. The Crimson Tide had to mostly rebuild a 31-win program, but Coach Nate Oats has his program – with two regular-season and two postseason tournament titles – on a something-from-nothing roll similar to what Billy Donovan did at Florida a quarter-century ago. They'll be there in late-February and probably a high tournament seed in March.
 
Kentucky hasn't won a conference championship of any kind (regular season or tournament) since 2018, but might have one of its more potent offenses in a decade. Don't sleep on Auburn, either, as Bruce Pearl has another athletic, fast and high-scoring team in "The Jungle."


The Metrics  The NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET), the system that ultimately will seed the 68-team tournament field in March, rates the SEC as the third-strongest league in the country, just behind the Big 12 and Big Ten, and solidly ahead of the Big East, Atlantic Coast and Pac-12. 
 
Yes, it just means more … than football. 
 
According to the NET, the SEC has three teams in the top 15 (Alabama-5, Tennessee-7 and Auburn-13), four of the top 25 (Kentucky-23 and A&M-24), six of the top 35 (Mississippi State-35) and eight of the top 50 (South Carolina-45 and Florida-48). The league, however, is a combined – get this – 11-26 in Quadrant-1 games, including an 0-5 mark for the Crimson Tide, who have played the third-toughest schedule to date with not a lot to show for it. Not to worry, Bama (not that anyone in Tuscaloosa is). The Tide and every other league team will have plenty of Q-1 opportunities to make some hay, as the conference cannibalizes one another over the course of the league schedule. 
 
Now let's talk KenPom.com and team makeup. The power ratings differ somewhat (three SEC teams in the top eight, for example; UF in the top 35), but KenPom analytics are better suited for deep dives into what teams do best and style of play. Alabama is ranked No. 1 in offensive efficiency, with Texas A&M fifth and Kentucky seventh. The Gators are the league's No. 5 offense at 35^th and also the fastest, with their No. 15 pace of play the third swiftest among power conference programs. 
 
Defensively, Tennessee is No. 2 nationally, followed by Mississippi State at 13 and Auburn at 19. 
 
This data, of course, reflects games played to date, the majority of which have been tallied against far weaker opponents (a lot of "buy" games, if you will) compared to what's in store the next two-plus months. Sample sizes will be far more reflective in a month.  


The Schedules  You'll notice that eight SEC teams currently have winning streaks of at least four games (five with at least five in a row) and that eight of the conference teams have double-digit wins. Much of that, of course, has to do with how teams schedule their non-conference slate. Some schedule to challenge their players and get them battle-tested for league play (admirable). Some schedule to pad the win column (not so admirable). 
 
Kudos to Tennessee, which has played a monster sked, with seven of its 13 games against power conference opponents. The Vols had one stretch where they faced No. 2 Purdue, No. 1 Kansas and went to No. 17 North Carolina in succession, with those games sandwiched between dates at Wisconsin and against Syracuse in Hawaii on the front end and No. 20 Illinois and North Carolina State in San Antonio on the back end. Their schedule rates the toughest in the league (16^thnationally), with Alabama (18^th), Texas A&M (30^th), Arkansas (96th, despite being the only SEC team without a road game thus far) and Florida (156^th) rounding out the top five. 
 
South Carolina, which at 12-1 has matched its best start since the '15-16 season, has played a schedule rated the 322^nd (out of 362 Division I programs) toughest in the country. That's the easiest one in the SEC, followed by LSU (289^th), Missouri (274^th), Vanderbilt (256^th) and Georgia (211^th).  
 
The best win in the league to date is A&M defeating Iowa State, which sits No. 6 in the NET, on a neutral floor. Tennessee also won at Wisconsin (NET 17), while Arkansas upset Duke (21) in the ACC/SEC Challenge at home, but also was defeated at home by UNC-Greensboro (162). 
 
The worst losses? Vanderbilt opened the season by losing to Presbyterian (299), LSU lost to cross-state foe Nichols (219) and Missouri fell to Jackson State (251) all in "buy" games. Ouch. 


The Players – A Dozen (Non-Gators) To Know  Trevon Brazile (Arkansas) – He was one of the league's marquee transfers last year, jumping from nearby Missouri after his freshman season, but the 6-10, 230-pound 3-and-D specialist blew out his knee just nine games in. He was averaging nearly 12 points and eight rebounds for what was looking like a potential Final Four team. Tough break. Well, Brazile is back as a third-year sophomore. He's finding his way at 9.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, but knocking 3s down at nearly 43 percent. Once Brazile gets comfortable, he'll be a problrm inside and out; on defense, too, where he averaged nearly two blocks a game as a rookie at Mizzou.  Johni Broome (Auburn) – The 6-10, 240-pound senior forward transferred from Morehead State in '22 and made an instant splash for the Tigers on the way to second-team All-SEC honors. Broome, the native Floridian from Tampa, won't be second team in '24. He's basically putting up identical numbers as a junior, with his scoring up a tad to 15.1 points per game (11^th in the league) on 53.8 percent from the floor (5^th in the league) and 8.4 rebounds (5^th). On a Tigers team with all kinds of perimeter punch, Broome is exactly the inside for they need. 
 
Allen Flanigan (Ole Miss) – If the name rings a bell, it should. Flanigan wasn't just a standout the last three seasons at Auburn, but a legacy; the son of Tigers' Hall-of-Famer Wes Flanigan. He opted for the portal, however, jumped a few hours to the west and was a big-time acquisition for Beard. The 6-6, 215-pound fifth-year is averaging 16.1 points (6^th in SEC) on 43-percent from the floor, 40 from distance and 79.3 at the line to go with 7.5 rebounds.  Dalton Knecht (Tennessee) – He was a junior-college transfer who made a huge splash as a senior last season at Northern Colorado, where he was a first-team All-Big Sky Conference selection and scoring leader at 20.2 points per game, a 38-percenter from deep and rebounded at 7.2 per game. The 6-6 guard has made the mid-to-high-major transition. Knecht is at 15.7 points and shooting 37.7 from 3 with the Vols. And since he plays for Barnes, obviously, he can guard. 

Tramon Mark (Arkansas) – For three years, Mark was a main cog in the Houston machine that combined to win 88 games, lost just 14 and went to a Final Four. The 6-6, 185-pound wing averaged 10.1 points a game the last two seasons for the balanced and italented Cougars, with a 26-point performance in a win over Auburn in the '23 Sweet 16. Mark didn't stray far from his home state of Texas in joining the Razorbacks, for whom he is scoring a career-high 17.0 points per game, shooting better than 55 percent and 43 from 3.  Jaylen Murray (Ole Miss) – Another top-shelf transfer landed by Beard. Murray played the last two seasons at Saint Peter's, where he was a backup for the Peacocks during their magical Elite Eight run of '23 that included upsets of Kentucky, Murray State and Purdue. The 5-11, 170-pounder came to Mississippi to run the Rebels' offense, but also to score. He's at 14.7 points a game and a nearly identical 46.9 and 46.0 from the floor and arc (he's got five games with at least three 3s, one game with five), plus 3.7 assists. Murray had 22 points and nine assists in a win over Memphis. 

Grant Nelson (Alabama) – The 6-11, 235-pound senior forward was a first-team All-Summit League selection last season and was considered one of the top mid-major to hit the portal. He's at 14.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.4 assists as a SEC rookie and probably finding his way a bit with D1 physicality, with his field-goal (44.8) and 3-point shooting (26.7) down to a career lows, but Nelson is a big, athletic playmaker. Once he gets comfortable in the Tide's breakneck offense his skill set with flourish. Antonio Reeves (Kentucky) – It was an odd offseason for Reeves, who went into the portal after a really good senior season at Kentucky (14.4 ppg, 40 percent from 3) and actually toyed with the idea of returning to Illinois State, where he was a three-year Missouri Valley Conference standout. In the end, Reeves returned to UK and has been fabulous for the league's best offensive team. His last two games, wins at Louisville and home against his former Illinois State, Reeves scored 27 and 30, respectively, made 20 of 31 shots and eight of 13 from distance. He's at 19.0 points, 52.3 percent overall, 45.9 on a team-high 74 long-ball attempts and 84.2 at the free-throw line. Mark Sears (Alabama) – He was the lone leftover from the Tide's historic season. Sears, the 6-1 point guard, came from Ohio U and ran the show for Oats. He was great and, individually, has been even better this season. Sears leads the SEC in scoring at 19.3 points, grabs 4.3 rebounds and dishes 3.8 assists. He's shooting nearly 54 percent overall and 46 from 3. In the loss to Purdue he dropped a career-high 35 on the top-ranked Boilermakers and went 8-for-16 in the game from distance.  Tolu Smith (Mississippi State) – A foot injury during the preseason put the beastly Smith, a first-team All-SEC selection last season, on the shelf until he made his '23-24 debut last weekend against Bethune-Cookman. Smith, who averaged 15.7 points and 8.5 rebounds in '22-23, did not disappoint. He finished with 16 points, nine boards, made all five of his field-goal attempts and six of seven free throws. He looked just fine. Credit to his Bulldog teammates, many of whom are back from last year's NCAA Tournament squad, for holding down the fort – and going 10-2 – in his absence. UF fans may recall how Smith bullied the Gators in the SEC Tournament last March with 29 points (including 17 trips to the free-throw line), 12 rebounds and the winning bucket in OT with four seconds to play. 
 
Reed Sheppard (Kentucky) – Before providing his stats, we'll throw out this rather interesting analytic. Box score plus-minus (or "BPM") tallies a team's score while a player is on the floor. Sheppard, the fabulous UK guard and sharp-shooting son of former Wildcats star and two-time NCAA champion Jeff Sheppard, is averaging plus-15.3 per game. Since 2008, just two freshmen – two! – have posted higher rookie BPM's at this stage of a season. Their names are Zion Williamson and Anthony Davis. The next five after Sheppard: Michael Beasley, Kevin Love, Chet Holmgren and Karl-Anthony Towns. The kid just makes winning plays … and shots. From everywhere. Reed, a backup who plays starter minutes, is at 12.5 points, 4.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists while hitting nearly 58 percent of his field goals and a stunning 56 from the arc. Oh, and his assist-to-turnover numbers check in at 52 and 19, respectively, Oh, again, and he also leads the SEC in steals (2.8 per game).  Wade Taylor IV (Texas A&M) – Another confirmed Gator killer. Not only has he gouged UF with late-game daggers the last few seasons, Taylor was the 2022 SEC Player of the Year and surged the Aggies within a game of the mighty Tide in the league standings. Though he'll open conference play as its No. 4 scorer at 17.6 per game, Taylor's shooting numbers are down compared to his career digits (38 percent overall, just 27.7 from 3) – already he has uncharacteristic 3-point outings of 0-9, 0-6 and 0-7 – but he continues to score with his talent at drawing fouls (87.8 percent on 197 free throws last season). Taylor's resume also suggests he could get frighteningly hot any time, like he did already this season by pouring in 35 against Florida Atlantic and 34 against Houston, both in defeat. When his scoring catches up with the Aggies, who return the bulk of a 25-win team, look out.