Despite a three-game win streak going into the Christmas break, the Florida Gators continue to drop in the ESPN College Basketball Power Index.
Last ranked No. 11 following a win over George Washington, Florida fell one spot to No. 12 after decisive wins over Saint Francis and Colgate — both considered Quadrant 4 matchups by the NET rankings.
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The Gators have a 19.0 overall BPI, up from 18.5 on Dec. 16. The offense improved to 8.8 (20th) from 8.0 (24th), while the Florida defense dipped to 10.2 (T-10th) from 10.3 (8th) in that time. ESPN projects Florida to go 21.5-9.5 overall — a 0.5-game increase — and 12.5-5.5 in conference play, a 0.4-game improvement.
“The College Basketball Power Index (BPI) is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of performance going forward,” ESPN explains. “BPI represents how many points above or below average a team is. Strength of Record (SOR) is a measure of team accomplishment based on how difficult a team’s W-L record is to achieve. Game predictions account for opponent strength, pace of play, site, travel distance, day’s rest and altitude, and are used to simulate the season 10,000 times to produce season projections.”
Florida remains the favorite to win the SEC, with 41% odds — up from 38.2% chance last week. The Vanderbilt Commodores (29%) and Tennessee Volunteers (21.3%) have the next best odds to win the conference, followed by Alabama Crimson Tide (15%) and Kentucky (14%). No other SEC team has better than a 4.4% chance to win the conference.
Florida’s remaining strength of schedule is now 24th in the country, up from 44th before a three-game stretch against Quadrant 4 opponents. Florida still has Dartmouth on the schedule, and then it’s all SEC from there. The Gators’ strength of schedule (to date) ranks fifth in the country, while the non-conference slate ranks sixth nationally.
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida Gators basketball ESPN BPI rankings Dec. 26
