\n<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t look now, but with Selection Sunday just four weekends away, the Florida Gators look like they intend to win another national championship.<\/p>\n
Thanks to Wednesday\u2019s 20-point win at Georgia\u2026which followed a 19-point win at Texas A&M\u2026which followed a 23-point home thrashing of Alabama\u2026which followed a 47-point win at South Carolina, the Gators (18-6, 9-2 SEC) have built a one-game Southeastern Conference lead heading into Saturday\u2019s first-place showdown with Kentucky in Gainesville, Fla.<\/p>\n
They are a top-ten ranked team in the NET rankings as of Friday morning but fifth in KenPom, which is exactly where they were one year ago today. That\u2019s just one of many good signs for the Gators.<\/p>\n
Thanks to the nation\u2019s most productive frontcourt \u2014 key returnees Thomas Haugh (17.5 ppg, 6.2 rpg), Alex Condon (13.3 ppg, 7.9 rpg) and Rueben Chinyelu (11.8 ppg, 11.8 rpg) \u2014 Florida leads the country in rebounding margin at plus-15.3 per game.<\/p>\n
Per KenPom.com, the Gators boast the nation\u2019s fifth-best defense as they allow just 91.1 points per 100 possessions. That\u2019s a tad better than last year\u2019s defense (91.8) that was good enough to win the NCAA title.<\/a><\/p>\n The sharps believe in the Gators, too. When you take a spin around the nation\u2019s top online sportsbooks, Florida generally holds the fifth-best odds to take it all on April 6 in Indianapolis \u2014 trailing only Arizona, Michigan, Duke and Houston.<\/p>\n Long story short, the Gators are the best team in what continues to be college basketball\u2019s best league. So of course they\u2019re in the hunt for the national title.<\/p>\n So why doesn\u2019t Florida have a legitimate shot to go back-to-back? Because they don\u2019t have enough legitimate shooters.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what we mean: While the Gators enjoyed their best 3-point shooting night in months on Wednesday night at Georgia \u2014 going 10 of 26 (38.5%) from long range \u2013 they\u2019re still below 30% for the year. Specifically, they\u2019re at 29.2%, which ranks last among all power-conference teams and 353rd out of Division I\u2019s 365 squads.<\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing in modern college hoops history that suggests this is good enough to become the national champion.<\/p>\n Since the NCAA moved the 3-point line back to the international distance (22-foot-1\u00be) prior to the 2019-20 season, here\u2019s how each NCAA champ has shot.<\/p>\n 2025: Florida 35.6% 82nd in nation<\/p>\n 2024: UConn 35.8% 72nd<\/p>\n 2023: UConn 36.3% 62nd<\/p>\n 2022: Kansas 36.1% 51st<\/p>\n 2021: Baylor 41.3% 1st<\/p>\n 2020: No tournament, but Kansas was the clear No. 1 per KenPom when the season was cancelled due to COVID <\/a>\u2014 and the Jayhawks ranked 132nd nationally at 34.1%<\/p>\n