Gators get No. 2 seed in 2011 NCAA Tournament

By Adam Silverstein
March 13, 2011

No. 12 Florida Gators basketball (26-7) has earned a berth to the 2011 NCAA Tournament after completing a fantastic regular season that included winning the 2011 Southeastern Conference Championship.

As announced during the NCAA Selection Show, Florida – a No. 2 seed – will face the No. 15-seed UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (18-13) of the Big West in Tampa, FL on Thursday night at 6:50 p.m. on TBS.

“We are really excited about being in the NCAA Tournament,’’ head coach Billy Donovan said. “I’m very happy for our players and our staff for the opportunity to compete in the NCAA Tournament. We look forward to playing in Tampa and we will have a lot to get prepared for in a short amount of time.”

The Gators, placed in the Southeast Region (New Orleans, LA), could advance to face No. 7 UCLA (22-10) or No. 10 Michigan State (19-14) in the next round on Saturday. Pittsburgh (27-5) earned the region’s No. 1 seed.

“Obviously nobody expected us to be in this position three weeks ago,” UCSB head coach Bob Williams said after learning of his team’s seeding on Sunday. “We’re very happy about the opportunity to play Florida and to go to back to the tournament two years in a row. I don’t know much about them, except that they have one of the best coaches in the country, but we’ll work on that the next couple of days.”

Other notable competitors in the bracket include No. 3-seed BYU (30-4) [which UF lost to in a double-overtime thriller in the 2010 NCAA Tournament] and No. 5-seed Kansas State (22-10) [which Florida beat 57-44 on Dec. 18].