Despite a three-game winning streak heading into the Christmas break, the Florida Alligators continue to decline in the ESPN College Basketball Power Index.
Last ranked #11 After a win over George Washington, Florida fell one spot to 12th after decisive wins over Saint Francis and Colgate – both considered Quadrant 4 matchups by the NET Rankings.
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The Gators have an overall BPI of 19.0, up from 18.5 on December 16. The offense improved to 8.8 (20th) from 8.0 (24th), while Florida’s defense dropped to 10.2 (T-10th) from 10.3 (8th) during that span. ESPN projects Florida to be 21.5 to 9.5 overall — an increase of 0.5 games — and 12.5 to 5.5 in conference play, an improvement of 0.4 games.
“The College Basketball Power Index (BPI) is a measure of team strength that is believed to be the best indicator of performance in the future,” explains ESPN. “BPI represents the number of points above or below a team’s average. Strength of Record (SOR) is a measure of a team’s success based on the difficulty of achieving a team’s WL record. Game predictions take into account opponent strength, pace of play, venue, distance covered, day off and altitude, and are used to simulate the season 10,000 times to produce projections of season.”
Florida remains the favorite to win the SEC, with a 41% chance, up from 38.2% chance last week. The Vanderbilt Commodores (29%) and Tennessee Volunteers (21.3%) have the second best chance of winning the conference, followed by Alabama Crimson Tide (15%) and Kentucky (14%). No other team in the SEC has a greater than 4.4% chance of winning the conference.
Florida’s remaining strength of schedule is now 24th in the country, down from 44th before a three-game stretch against Quadrant 4 opponents. Florida still has Dartmouth on the schedule, and then it’s SEC from there. The Gators’ strength of schedule (to date) ranks fifth in the country, while the non-conference slate ranks sixth nationally.
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This article was originally published on Gators Wire: ESPN BPI Florida Gators basketball rankings, Dec. 26
