Florida Gators Face Prairie View A&M in NCAA Tournament

0:00On March 19th, the Florida Gators have their first NCAA Tournament matchup set as the one-seed team. They will face the 16-C Prairie View A&M Panthers on Friday night in Tampa. Tip off is at 9.25pm Eastern Time on TNT. Prairie View earned the spot with a 67-55 win over Lehigh in the first four on Tuesday. Prairie View pulled off the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament victory. They are champions of the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament. Standout performances came from Guard Dante Horn with 25 points and 7 rebounds plus forward Corey Wells with 17 points and 11 rebounds. This marks just the second all-time meeting between the teams. Florida won the first one back on November 21st, 2006 by 94-33 in Gainesville. As SEC regular season champions and a one-seed for the second straight year, the Gators enter as big favorites against the Panthers. Coach Todd Golden has stressed the need to play a full 40 minutes no matter what.

1:04History shows only two. 16 seats have ever upset a one-seed back in 2018 in 2023. If Florida advances, they could see 9-seed Iowa or 8-seed Clemson next on Sunday. The Gators carry high expectations with plenty of talent but also lessons from their early SEC Tournament exit against Vanderbilt. They are focusing on cutting turnovers and boosting 3-point shooting to make a deep run. All eyes will be on how they handle business in this opener.