Florida basketball lands inside top 10 in ESPN's Bilas rankings

Florida basketball has looked like more than just a top-15 team. Nationally, the Gators are getting talked about like a real threat to make a deep run in March.

ESPN’s Jay Bilas created rankings of the best 68 teams in college basketball and placed Florida at No. 7, signaling how much Todd Golden’s team has stabilized after an early stretch that tested it against high-level competition.

Bilas notes that Florida took several early losses by two possessions or fewer, and the growing pains showed up most in the backcourt with turnovers and inconsistent perimeter shooting. Now, his read is that Florida has turned that corner and belongs in the contender tier.

The biggest reason is the frontcourt. Bilas grouped the Gators with the Michigan Wolverines and Arizona Wildcats as teams with the best big-man groups in the country, and pointed to Thomas Haugh as the engine behind that physical identity.

For Florida fans tracking the bigger picture, that is the headline: this team has the size and consistency to win in different ways, and it is starting to get evaluated like a legitimate NCAA Tournament factor, not just a good SEC story.

It’s a sign of how far Florida has come as the season has taken shape. Here is everything Bilas wrote about the Orange and Blue.

What Bilas said about Florida

“The Gators played an incredibly difficult early-season schedule, and they took some losses, all of them within two possessions. Guard play was the issue, including turnovers and perimeter shooting difficulties — no real surprise, given that it’s hardly easy to replace one of the best backcourts in SEC history.

“Yet throughout the early season, Florida made steady progress and seemed so close to being a legit contender. Well, this is a legit contender. The Gators are competing with Michigan and Arizona for the nation’s best frontcourt, and Thomas Haugh is the engine behind that quartet of behemoths.”

Jay Bilas’ top 10 men’s college basketball teams

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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida basketball ranked inside top 10 of ESPN Bilas Index

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