With two games remaining in the regular season, Florida's nine-year streak of NCAA tournament appearances is in serious trouble. The SEC, on virtue of being the SEC, will probably get at least five teams in the field, and Tennessee, Vanderbilt, and Mississippi State are the virtual locks. Conventional wisdom says that the other spots are going to come from a group made up of Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, and the Gators.
Ole Miss helped themselves greatly Tuesday night by riding 54% second-half shooting to a 81-72 win over Arkansas. The Rebels and Hogs don't play any more interesting competition until the tourney starts in Atlanta next week -- they've got Georgia and Auburn (respectively) on Saturday. Meanwhile in the East, Florida and Kentucky play what may come down to an elimination game on Saturday.
But before then, Florida gets a shot at what would be a major resume-building win against the conference's highest-ranked RPI team, Tennessee. Even though the Gators are relatively inexperienced, freshman Adam Allen
knows what this game means:
"We all know what's at stake. We know we've got to win some games to get in the tournament," he said. "Nobody wants to go to the NIT. It's like the champion of the losers if you win that. Everybody wants to play in the NCAA Tournament. ... Any year not in the NCAA Tournament is a bad year for Florida."
Tennessee has a lot at stake, too: they can win the SEC Championship outright, leaving just Ole Miss and Georgia as the only schools not to win a SEC title since the conference went to divisional play in 1992. But to do it tonight in front of a hostile crowd, the Vols will have their hands full. They've got to hope Wayne Chism can keep Marreese Speights in check, that Nick Calathes doesn't show the wizardry he's flashed at times this year, and that the physical play of Dan Werner doesn't get UT flustered as it almost did the first time these two met.
Florida's season wouldn't officially end with a loss tonight, but it would receive an incredible boost with a win. In the end though, I'll agree with
The BruceBall Blog's prediction of an up-and-down game that eventually favors the Vols.
The only thing we know for sure about this year's NCAA Tournament is that there's not going to be a repeat champion. Make that a three-peat champion. The Florida Gators aren't in the field of 65 and won't be able to defend their crowns. Not too many people expected them to make a run for a third title but settling for the NIT obviously still burnt Billy Donovan. Burnt him so much, in fact, that he banned his team from practicing in Florida's main gym while they prepare for San Diego State.
Last year's March Madness ended with Florida beating Ohio State for the national championship. Maybe they 
What? You didn't know the 
This is a little ridiculous. The NCAA Tournament selection is only a few days away and few teams are doing much to make a case. It's getting so that the argument by fans of bubble teams will come down to, "My team sucks less."
It's early march, which means it's time for us to hang on every word spoken by Joe Lunardi, the ESPN 
The two-time defending national champs are unlikely to go dancing this year.
Now that Florida has lost a crucial home game to Mississippi State, the Gators are sitting at 21-8 overall and 8-6 in the conference. With the regular season dwindling to a close, Florida could easily earn a ticket to the Big Dance by winning their final two SEC games. There's just one problem with that, though: those two teams are Tennessee and Kentucky, and the Gators have to visit the 'Cats in Lexington.
Arkansas blew the baby Gators out of the water on Saturday, leading by as many as 28 points and settling for a 19-point margin at the final buzzer for an 80-61 victory in Fayetteville.
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