Florida Men‘s Basketball Upsets No. 2 Auburn to Boost NCAA Tournament Hopes

Auburn has not won in Gainesville since 1996.
Florida Men‘s Basketball Upsets No. 2 Auburn to Boost NCAA Tournament Hopes
Florida Men‘s Basketball Upsets No. 2 Auburn to Boost NCAA Tournament Hopes /

Unranked Florida men‘s basketball (17–10, 7–7 SEC) provided a huge boost to its tournament hopes with a 63–62 upset over No. 2 Auburn (24–3, 12–2 SEC) in Gainesville on Saturday afternoon in a back-and-forth affair.

The Gators were paced by senior guard Tyree Appleby, who scored 26 points on 7 for 15 shooting. He hit five threes.

Colin Castleton pitched in with 19 points on 7 for 13 shooting and eight rebounds for Florida, whose win greatly improved the program’s odds of making the NCAA tournament field. The Gators were one of a handful of programs viewed as being on the wrong side of the bubble heading into Saturday’s action.

Sports Illustrated’s bracketologist Kevin Sweeney weighed in on the Gators' needle-moving win: 

“Florida had been dropping in recent weeks, from among the last teams in the field in late January to the fringes of the bubble conversion in SI’s most recent update. While knocking off a No. 1 seed in Auburn doesn’t lock the Gators in, it gives Mike White’s team new life and a real path to the Big Dance.“

Jabari Smith scored 28 points and added seven rebounds in the loss for Auburn, whose winless drought in road games against Florida extends to 14. The Tigers have not won in Gainesville since 1996.

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Mike McDaniel
MIKE MCDANIEL

Mike McDaniel is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where he has worked since January 2022. His work has been featured at InsideTheACC.com, SB Nation, FanSided and more. McDaniel hosts the Hokie Hangover Podcast, covering Virginia Tech athletics, as well as Basketball Conference: The ACC Football Podcast. Outside of work, he is a husband and father, and an avid golfer.