3 teams Texas basketball doesn't want in their NCAA Tournament region

Texas basketball could have a difficult path ahead if it faced any of these three teams in the NCAA Tournament.
Dylan Disu, Max Abmas, Texas basketball
Dylan Disu, Max Abmas, Texas basketball / Aaron E. Martinez/American-Statesman /
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Florida Gators
Florida Gators / Doug Engle/Ocala Star Banner / USA TODAY

Florida

Another underrated team that has found its stride down the stretch during the regular season is the Florida Gators. Second-year head coach Todd Golden has led an impressive turnaround early in his time in Gainesville, as the Gators have already won four more games than they did all last season.

For many reasons, Florida will be a difficult matchup in the NCAA Tournament. Despite only being projected as a six or seven-seed by most major media outlets in Bracketology this March, the Gators have a resume that proves it could handle being a high single-digit seed in the Big Dance.

Among the biggest reasons why Texas would probably want to avoid playing Florida in the Round of 64 is the fact that the Gators have played so well in home and neutral site games. Florida has been an extremely tough out when its not playing true road games this season, boasting a record of 17-3 at home or neutral sites.

And those three losses were by an average margin of three points, two of which came against ranked opponents (No. 13 Baylor and No. 6 Kentucky).

Two other big factors that would make Florida a bad matchup for the Longhorns are their ability to get to the free-throw line and offensive rebounding. Florida ranks second in the nation in offensive rebounds per game and top five in offensive rebounding percentage this season.

The Gators also get to the free-throw line more times per game than just 17 other D1 college hoops teams. Considering that Texas ranks in the 38th percentile of Division 1 teams regarding free-throw attempt rate and in the 28th percentile of free-throw attempts allowed per game, this would be a negative factor for the Longhorns in this sort of hypothetical postseason matchup against Florida.

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