Florida has to feel like it loves its chances to win a national championship this season, even if doing so is perhaps the hardest thing to do in all of sports.
Florida finds itself in a very good position to get the job done come March Madness, but there are going to be some things that the team has to work through. Right now, Florida is shooting the basketball at a very high level.
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That’s part of why the Gators have performed at this level to start the year, though I wouldn’t say they necessarily played great basketball against Florida State, despite coming away with a near-10-point win on the road against an in-state rival.
Regardless, no matter what anybody wants to say, especially with Duke losing to Michigan State, Florida is the number one team in America at the moment. We’re going to find out who is better between Duke and Florida on Dec. 1 as the two national title contenders will play each other down in Gainesville.
However, until then, Florida remains unbeaten, and I don’t see a scenario in which somebody doesn’t have it number one in the country. The Athletic was the latest to say that Florida is the best team in college basketball, and a lot of it is because of its ability to get open shots at the three-point line and knock them down.
“Florida is shooting 39.2 percent so far from 3-point range, which is notable because it shot just 31.2 percent last year. The Gators are thriving from the corners, making 17-of-27 from that area of the floor, according to Synergy. The Gators are 5-for-5 when defenses are helping on post-ups, which creates easy reads for the guards and long closeouts for the defense.
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“Florida’s bigs do an excellent job running to the rim and posting up early in transition, often leading to easy shots at the basket because of ‘Gortats’ (screening off their man), but those post-ups will also generate these open shots. This is another example of how hard Florida’s bigs play every possession and why the Gators are so difficult to guard. Even when they aren’t scoring at the basket, they’re helping to win games,” CJ Moore wrote.
In this era of college basketball, teams need to hit open shots at a very high level. That’s something that’s likely going to determine whether Florida has a real opportunity to win it all. Right now, Florida looks to be one of the better three-point shooting teams in the country and has done so against some tough competition. Beating Miami and Florida State to start the year is a very promising sign.
Florida will also have a pretty interesting game against Merrimack on Friday night. Merrimack and head coach Joe Gallo typically have one of the best zone defenses in all of college basketball, so Florida is going to have to hit the open looks that it gets on the three-point line.
