Florida Men’s Basketball Drops To No. 3 In AP Poll

Despite winning its sixth straight game, the Florida men’s basketball team dropped from No. 2 to No. 3 in this week’s Associated Press rankings released Monday.

Last week, the Gators (24-3, 11-3 SEC) beat LSU and Oklahoma by 14 and 22, respectively. It was not the play of Florida that made it drop a spot, but the dominance of Duke, which took the No. 2 spot. The Blue Devils blew a talented Illinois team out of the water 110-67 Saturday and beat Virginia by 18 last Monday.

Even though Florida fell to No. 3, it is still improving as it continues to get fully healthy.

Condon’s Return

The No. 3 team in the country will get back its leading rebounder and fourth-leading scorer in Alex Condon. He suffered an ankle injury only one minute into the Feb. 11 matchup against Mississippi State.

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Condon will be strengthening a front court that may have played its best game Saturday in Baton Rouge. Rueben Chinyelu had a career-high 19 points on 8-of-14 shooting, along with 13 rebounds and two blocks. Thomas Haugh has capitalized on replacing Condon in the starting five. In his three starts since Condon’s absence, he has averaged 14.3 points and 7.3 rebounds.

In addition to the stellar play of Haugh and Chinyelu, last year’s starting center Micah Handlogten has been thrown into the front court mix. Although he has not made much of an impact on the offensive end, his 7-foot-1 frame has been invaluable to Florida’s post defense.

Notable Poll Movement

• Texas A&M fell five spots from No. 7 to No. 12 after consecutive losses to No. 24 Mississippi State and No. 5 Tennessee. The Gators welcome the Aggies to the O’Connell Center on Saturday in another SEC top-15 battle.
• St. Johns is emerging as the best team in the Big East, defending its home court against back-to-back champion UConn. They moved from No. 10 to No. 7.
• Michigan State is looking to capture the Big Ten regular-season championship after beating rival Michigan and Purdue getting crushed by Indiana. The Spartans moved from No. 14 to No. 8, while the Boilermakers fell from No. 13 to No. 20.

Bracketology

The Gators are mocked as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament in the Midwest Region. In their bracket would be Iowa State, Texas A&M and Texas Tech as the 2, 3 and 4 seeds, respectively. The only thing that could cause the Gators to lose their one seed is themselves. The Gators need to finish out the season strong, starting with Georgia 16-11, 4-10) on Tuesday. The game is set to tip off at 7 p.m. Tuesday on the SEC Network and 103.7-FM.

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