Florida Gators

The Florida Gators have not gotten off to the start that they wanted to in the 2021-22 college basketball season. The Gators sit at 9-6 on the season and, up to this point, have not won a conference game. They are 0-3 in conference, which places them tied for last with Georgia. Florida will try and use the second half of the season to give themselves some momentum going into next season. Go on to read more of Florida Gators Stats.

Florida has been struggling for the past few years to get back to the level of success that it had in the early-2000’s. Look for the team to start turning it around as they have some fresh faces coming in and have been showing some confidence on the floor.

Florida is scoring 72.6 points a game and is allowing just 63.4 points a game. They have grabbed 36.8 rebounds a game and are passing off 12.9 assists per game. They are not as bad on both ends of the floor as their record may show.

Colin Castleton leads the team in scoring with 15.8 points a game on 53.5 percent shooting from the floor. Tyree Appleby has dished out 3.5 assists to lead the team. Castleton is also the leading rebounder for the team as he pulls down 9.2 rebounds a game. Myreon Jones is the steals leader on the team with 1.6 per game.

Florida Gators Stats

The Florida Gators stats rich history within the NCAAB boasts three national championships, claimed in 1996, 2006, and 2008. They’ve consistently ranked high, appearing in the AP Poll over 40 times as a preseason favorite and finishing the season ranked 34 times. Their program holds a strong record, accumulating 733 wins throughout 111 seasons. However, the 2023-2024 season presents a different story. Currently, the Gators sit at 6th place in the Southeastern Conference, facing challenges with a 20-9 record. Despite this, their passionate fanbase and dedicated coaching staff always strive for excellence, aiming to return the program to its championship-contending form.

Florida Gators History

The first basketball team at the University of Florida was formed in 1915, but success eluded them for many years. The team didn’t have a proper gym until the Florida Gymnasium opened in 1950, didn’t have a full-time basketball coach until Norm Sloan was hired in 1960, and didn’t play in a contemporary arena until the O’Connell Center opened in 1980. The Gators made their first postseason tournament trip in the 1969 National Invitation Tournament and their first NCAA tournament berth in 1987, but continuous success eluded them, as they frequently finished in the bottom half of the conference standings.

Under head coach Billy Donovan, who was appointed in 1996, Florida’s basketball team finally experienced regular success. Donovan coached Florida to seven Southeastern Conference (SEC) regular season titles, all four SEC tournament championships, 14 NCAA Tournament berths, four Final Four trips, and back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007. Mike White has been Florida’s head coach since 2015, and in his first four seasons at the school, he led the Gators to three NCAA Tournament invitations. Since the 1990s, the Florida Gators have been a top college basketball team.

Championships

The Florida Gators are tied for 9th all-time among Division I institutions with two NCAA national titles. Under Billy Donovan, the Gators won two national titles in 2005–06 and 2006–07. That was the first time a team had won back-to-back national titles since Duke in 1991–92, and no Division I men’s team has done so since then. The Gators also made history by becoming the first school to win a national title in both football and basketball in the same calendar year and academic year (the Gators’ football team defeated Ohio State in the 2007 BCS National Championship Game). They also won three straight SEC championships under his watchful eye. This was the first SEC program to do that in over 30 years.

Despite the fact that the conference tournament winner receives regular-seasonautomatic participation in the NCAA Tournament, the SEC designates the club with the best regular-season record as the “official” conference champion. The Gators have won seven recognized SEC titles (during the regular season). Billy Donovan has won the other six, including the 2006–07 season in which the Gators also won the SEC Tournament championship and the NCAA national championship, and three in a four-year stretch from 2011–2014.

In the 2013–14 season, the team became the first in SEC history to go 18–0 in regular-season conference play.

Important Team Events

One of the biggest rivalries for Florida is their game against Florida State. This is an intense battle each year and a big topic of discussion throughout the state after the game. Both teams are heated rivals, and playing each other often makes it a great rivalry each year.

Florida fans are most famous for the Gator Chomp chant that they do in the stands. It is one of the most imposing chants that a student section does across the country. Florida does not do anything special for their basketball team besides this certain chant and cheer. Can you picture them making history this March Madness?

Top Players

Neal Walk dominated games like no other center in Florida history as he stood 6’10”. Walk has two of Florida’s top four scoring seasons, is the first Gator to average more than 20 points per game in a career, and has a school-record of 1,181 rebounds (15.3 per night). Walk was a reliable NBA center in his greatest season with the Suns, averaging 20.2 points and 12.4 rebounds per night. He was subjected to an unattainable level of performance through no fault of his own. Phoenix selected Walk with the No. 2 overall pick in 1969 after losing a coin toss to Milwaukee for the first pick: Lew Alcindor, who would later become the famous Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Ronnie Williams was a four-time all-SEC selection who led the Florida Gators stats in scoring in each of his four seasons in Gainesville. Williams was also a good rebounder, grabbing 954 rebounds (fourth in school history), and he set a school record with 2,090 points in his career. The Celtics selected Williams in the second round of the draft because of his scoring ability. It didn’t, however, provide him an opportunity to play in the NBA’s frontcourt rotation with Larry Bird, and he never cut it in the NBA.

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