- Florida seeks to secure a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and win its first SEC Tournament title since 2014.
- Alabama aims to avenge its recent loss to Florida and advance to the SEC Tournament finals.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. ― Florida basketball is a win away from reaching the SEC Tournament finals for a second straight year.
To accomplish that goal, the No. 2 seed Florida Gators (28-4) will get another matchup against No. 3 seed Alabama (25-7) in the SEC Tournament semifinals on Saturday afternoon at Bridgestone Arena (3:30 p.m., ESPN).
Alabama comes into the matchup seeking revenge after falling 99-94 to UF on March 5 in its Senior Day home finale. The Crimson Tide have won two straight since, knocking off rival Auburn 93-91, then beating Kentucky 99-70 in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals on Friday night.
“We earned the double bye, which helped us tonight,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said. “Kentucky played last night. They didn’t look as fresh as we did. We were able to build the lead up. “
Florida is playing to lock up a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and win its first SEC Tournament title since 2014.
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Here are three storylines to watch in the SEC Tournament semifinal matchup:
Can Florida basketball dictate the game physically like it did in its first meeting with the Tide?
Florida out-rebounded Alabama 50-34 and outscored the Tide 19-10 in second-chance points in the first meeting between the two teams, which played a major factor in the outcome of the game.
Florida’s starting frontcourt tandem of Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu combined for 21 rebounds. Condon posted a double-double with 27 points and 10 rebounds, while Chinyelu had nine points and 11 boards.
“We’re going to need Cliff (Omoruyi), Grant (Nelson), (Mouhamed) Dioubate, Jarin Stevenson, our front court has to be a lot better than they were last game,” Oats said. “Also, our back court, to be honest with you. We just weren’t very good …
“Their physicality, we’re going to have to really lock into being significantly better against them.”
Which star point guard will step up and perform better, Florida basketball’s Walter Clayton Jr. or Alabama’s Mark Sears?
Sears scored 30 points against Florida on March 5 but needed to loft 24 shots to get there and went just 2 of 10 from 3-point range.
Clayton had a higher all-around impact in the first meeting between the two schools with 22 points and eight assists, finding Condon on a handful of lob dunks when the defense started to converge on him in the second half.
Can Florida basketball take care of the ball better after turning it over 16 times against Missouri?
Florida was shaky with the basketball in its SEC Tournament-opening win, which allowed Missouri to make a second-half run and cut UF’s 13-point halftime lead to five points with 7:02 left in the game. Clayton had five of UF’s 16 turnovers.
“I take a lot of blame for that,” Clayton said. “We got sped up a little bit rather than playing fast, which is our pace, but not too fast.
UF is going to need to play more under control against the Crimson Tide, because Alabama showed it can be a disruptive team on Friday night, scoring 29 points off 16 Kentucky turnovers.
“An area where we did a poor job was being organized after made baskets,” Florida basketball coach Todd Golden said. “We had a couple different guys taking outlets. We weren’t getting our spacing right, getting set. We had some careless and uncharacteristic turnovers. We stepped out-of-bounds twice in the corner. Back foot, one-handed passes. Things we generally do a really good job of we just didn’t do a good enough job of tonight.”
Prediction
Florida 97, Alabama 89: Florida will flourish and play more under control in another up-tempo game. Look for UF to take advantage of its physicality inside as well to advance for the SEC Tournament finals for the second straight year.
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1
