{"id":173836,"date":"2026-03-01T13:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T13:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/173836\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T13:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T13:01:13","slug":"florida-clinches-share-of-sec-title-with-beatdown-of-arkansas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/173836\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida clinches share of SEC title with beatdown of Arkansas"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 7 Florida<\/a> clinched a share of the SEC title with an authoritative 111-77 win over No. 20 Arkansas<\/a> on Saturday night, marking an accomplishment that even last year’s national title team never claimed. The Gators can clinch the outright league crown on Tuesday with a victory over Mississippi State<\/a> or an Alabama<\/a> loss to Georgia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is Florida’s first regular season SEC title since 2014, when the program was coached by Billy Donovan. The outcome marked Florida’s biggest win ever against a ranked opponent.<\/p>\n

The Razorbacks (21-8, 11-5 SEC) entered with the nation’s No. 4 scoring offense led by star freshman Darius Acuff. But the Gators (23-6, 14-2) made everything hard on the visitors, who never found a shooting rhythm inside a rocking Exactech Arena.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Arkansas did not hit its second 3-pointer until the 10:12 mark of the second half. It took Acuff 19 shots to reach 17 points as his streak of nine straight 20+ point performances came to an end. Florida has made a habit of eviscerating the competition during its run through the SEC, and its dominance of the Razorbacks was especially impressive in a chippy game.<\/p>\n

Both coaches received technical fouls at the 17:27 mark of the second half as the officials adjudicated a call at the review monitor. Florida big Rueben Chinyelu<\/a> earned a flagrant foul coming out of the review, and Arkansas’ Meleek Thomas<\/a> picked up a flagrant of his own less than a minute later.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t the game’s last review, as the lopsided SEC showdown devolved into a stop-and-go affair. But the outcome was never in doubt. Florida led 53-34 at halftime, scored first in the second half and then never led by less than 20 the rest of the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Seven players reached double figures for Florida, led by Thomas Haugh<\/a> with 22. In his only scheduled meeting this season against his former team, Florida guard Boogie Fland<\/a> finished with 14 points.<\/p>\n

Florida’s dominant gear on display<\/p>\n

Of Florida’s 14 SEC victories, 12 have come by double digits. The Gators have now scored 90-plus points in six straight games against ranked opponents, which is the third-longest streak in a single season in AP poll history and the longest of anyone since the 1989-90 season.<\/p>\n

The Gators have found a dominant gear as their guards have started to find a rhythm. Florida hit 42.1% of its 3-point attempts (8 of 19) against Arkansas as its outside shooting continued to improve. UF has hit eight or more 3-pointers in five of its last six games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Urban Klavzar<\/a> continues to be the team’s top perimeter marksman. The Slovenian junior hit 4 of 7 from beyond the arc against Arkansas, marking the third time in the past five games that he’s hit four or more 3-pointers.<\/p>\n

Chasing a No. 1 seed<\/p>\n

Florida only recently busted through to the No. 2 seed line in CBS Sports Bracketology<\/a>. Now, the Gators are already knocking on the door of the No. 1 seed line.<\/p>\n

What makes the race for the final No. 1 seed particularly interesting is the improvement of Florida’s resume. The Gators are already ahead of the current fourth No. 1 seed, UConn<\/a>, in predictive metrics and have been for a while. Resume metrics are going to carry more weight in the race for a No. 1 seed, though, and that’s where the Huskies still have the edge for now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Florida is gaining ground. If the Gators win their final two regular season games and then sweep through the SEC Tournament, their case for a No. 1 seed will be strong. An early-season head-to-head loss against UConn could be the most significant hurdle come Selection Sunday if both teams win out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No. 7 Florida clinched a share of the SEC title with an authoritative 111-77 win over No. 20…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2531,3848,2532,3109,8294,2513,28,23423,2530,31016,30,29,31012,4669,82513,82514,6086,25404,3115,3116,20054],"class_list":["post-173836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-arkansas","tag-arkansas-razorbacks","tag-boogie-fland","tag-college-basketball","tag-connecticut-huskies","tag-florida","tag-florida-basketball","tag-florida-gators","tag-florida-gators-basketball","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-gators-basketball","tag-georgia-bulldogs","tag-john-calipari","tag-meleek-thomas","tag-mississippi-state-bulldogs","tag-rueben-chinyelu","tag-thomas-haugh","tag-todd-golden","tag-urban-klavzar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}