The Florida Gators Are Much Better Than Their Preseason Ranking

The polls are out and the Florida Gators are ranked tenth in both the preseason AP Top 25 and the USA Today Coaches Poll. However, the Gators should be ranked higher, since they are a team that has made it to two straight Elite Eights.

Yes, Florida did lose Bradley Beal and Erving Walker over the offseason, but just about every team in the top 1o lost quality players as well; however, there are exceptions, like the Indiana Hoosiers.

Florida has two very good players on its team in Kenny Boynton and Patric Young. These two players alone could lead the Gators on a deep run in the NCAA tournament. In fact, Boynton is easily one of the best shooting guards in the country and Young will most likely be a lottery pick in the 2013 NBA Draft.

If those were the only two quality players that Florida had then I could easily see them being ranked No. 10 or even lower, but it’s not. The Gators also have Mike Rosario, who averaged 16.7 points per game when he last played for Rutgers. Rosario will be getting a lot more playing time in the upcoming season and will surely put up more than 6.6 points per game, which is how much he scored last season.

Florida has Scottie Wilbekin, who could very well be one of the best defending guards in the SEC. Not to mention, fellow Gator Will Yeguete has a chance of starting in the 2012-13 college basketball season, and he is a nightmare on the defensive side of the ball. Unfortunately for Florida, it did not have Yeguete in the NCAA tournament thanks to an injury.

Casey Prather is also a pretty good defensive player that won’t make life on opposing players easy. Erik Murphy is lethal from behind the arc, despite the fact that he is 6’10”.

Then there is incoming freshmen Braxton Ogbueze and Michael Frazier. They both could very well be the future of the Florida Gators.

As you can see, the Gators have a lot of depth on their team. Florida will once again be one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country, and they will actually have an inside game, since Young will likely get more touches than he did last season.

Being ranked in the top 10 is obviously a great achievement, but the Gators are better than that. However, they will have chances to prove that right off of the bat because they will face Georgetown, Wisconsin, Marquette, Florida State, Arizona and Kansas State before they even kick off their conference schedule.

 

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