Thursday, January 31, 2013
Can anyone catch Florida?
By Luke Lapinski
There's still well over a month of regular season college basketball to be played, but Florida is threatening to run away with the SEC title right now. Following last night's blowout victory over South Carolina -- a game in which the Gamecocks scored just 10 first half points -- the Gators are 7-0 in conference play, and 17-2 overall.
It's not just the record that's been impressive for Billy Donovan's squad though -- it's how efficient they've been in attaining it. They've won those seven league games handily, by an average of 29.7 points. No one's even challenging them right now. And, as we noted earlier in the week, their defense has been stifling this season -- an asset they didn't posses a year ago. At the moment, the only two SEC schools that have a realistic shot of catching them are Ole Miss and Kentucky. The Rebels only get one crack at Florida though, and the game takes place in Gainesville this Saturday. Meanwhile, the two showdowns with Kentucky should be entertaining to say the least, but the Wildcats will have to be nearly perfect down the stretch if they intend on running down the Gators from behind at this point.
