Florida’s basketball history is long and pained. Not a single NIT berth until the late ‘60’s, then none again until 1984. Two straight first-round heartbreakers followed by a thrilling Final Four run in ’86. More Final Fours in ’92 and ’08. Quarterfinal losses in ’09 and ’16, both in seasons in which they were arguably the favorite entering the quarterfinal round. All those seasons, some of them good, and not a single NIT Championship appearance to show for it.
This year, that might be changing.
After a no-show performance on Saturday in Oxford (that’s Mississippi Oxford, not England Oxford), the Gators haven’t beaten a team at or above the NIT cut-line since January 18th, when they bested Auburn. They’ve struggled against good teams, like Baylor. They’ve struggled against bad teams, like Tom Crean’s Georgia. They’ve struggled so much that improbably, the team that entered the season in many people’s top ten nationally is now on the cusp of NIT contention.
It’s tricky the rest of the way, because the SEC affords a lot of opportunities for good wins and decent losses. Maximizing the latter is fine, but minimizing the former would also help, and it might be a good idea to drop one really bad one, like Wednesday’s game at Texas A&M, or one that at least looks bad, like March 4th’s trip to Tom Crean’s Georgia. That’s just to make the NIT, though. Securing a high seed, and the home-court advantage that comes along with it, is also important, and with Gator eyes not just fixin’ on an NIT appearance, a high seed is worth pursuing, even if it’ll require toeing the line between NIT favoritehood and missing the tournament entirely.
Lastly, of course, it’s worth noting that Florida’s recent swoon means they probably just aren’t very good, something that also usually doesn’t translate into NIT championships. Texas last year and Penn State in 2018 were good teams who’d played bad. Florida’s a mediocre team who’s played mediocre.
Still, Mike White’s team’s in the mix. Which means that for Florida fans, hope is rising once again.
