Season Review: Florida's a tournament team despite up and down campaign

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To say that the 2020-21 season for the Florida men's basketball team has been a rugged rollercoaster ride of numerous highs and lows would be a gross understatement.

The impact of COVID — both within the program and outside of it — disrupted the flow of UF's schedule multiple times, the scary collapse of Preseason SEC Player of the Year Keyontae Johnson early in the season led to a significant pause in team activities, and the inconsistent on-court performance of the team without its best player has ranged from eye-opening wins (at West Virginia) to head-scratching losses (vs. South Carolina).

Despite this year lacking any kind of consistent structure or stability for the Gators, they've weathered the storm and accomplished enough to be considered a lock for the NCAA Tournament with Selection Sunday less than a week away. The team's solid metrics (29 NET, 30 KenPom, 31 BPI), strong strength of schedule (35) and Quad-1 record (5-4) have bracketologists seeding coach Mike White's group in the six-to-eight range heading into the postseason.

With the absence of Johnson, the emergence of Tre Mann, Colin Castleton and Tyree Appleby has helped turn this Gators team into one that has the potential of making it to the second weekend of the tournament if it plays the way it did against the Mountaineers on the road or against Tennessee at home.

While many thought the loss of the team's best player would be crippling, Florida's done an impressive job at times this season of adapting to the obstacles that have been put in front of it.

Twice during the months of January and February, UF won three or more games in a row after backbreaking losses. The loss to Mississippi State (14-13, 8-10 SEC) was followed by the team's best stretch highlighted by wins over the Volunteers (17-7, 10-7 SEC) — a double-digit win without Scottie Lewis or Colin Castleton in the lineup — and the road win in the SEC/BIG 12 Challenge against projected NCAA Tourney two-seed West Virginia (18-8).

UF outrebounded then-No. 6 Tennessee 44-36 and held the Volunteers to under 30% shooting while hitting at a nearly 50% clip on offense itself. Against West Virginia 11 days later, Florida manufactured one of its best offensive performances of the season to counter the Mountaineers own potent offensive attack. Big-time outings from Castleton (21 points, seven rebounds and five blocks) and Noah Locke (19 points, 4-of-7 from three) made up for Mann's single-digit game to help Florida beat its second top-10 team in a three-game span.

In February, the Gators downed Georgia, Auburn and Kentucky in consecutive contests to rise as high as third in the SEC standings.

Even against a down Kentucky squad, the road win at Rupp Arena was an impressive bounce-back victory against the Wildcats after getting run out of the Stephen C. O'Connell Center just seven weeks prior.

On the court, the high-quality play from Castleton and Mann this season has been the reason for UF's spurts of success.

Castleton — the 6-foot-11 transfer from Michigan — has exceeded expectations after producing minimal numbers in Ann Arbor. He has averaged 12.7 points per game and 5.7 rebounds per game to complement his 45 blocks this season, which is good for fourth-best in the SEC. He's scored in double-digits in 14 of the 20 games he's played and has earned SEC Player of the Week honors twice in 2020-21. He was also named to the All-SEC Second Team.

The biggest key for UF though has been the elevated play from its point guard.

After a lackluster freshman season at the shooting guard position, Mann has flourished and looked much more comfortable bringing the ball up the floor on a full-time basis.

The All-SEC First Team sophomore has averaged 15 points per game — up from 5.3 PPG a year ago — to lead the team, earning himself SEC Player of the Week honors once this season. He has started every game he's played in, scored in double-digits 16 times and has put up at least 17 points in 10 of those games.

He's the most important piece to this team, and without him, the offense is without an identity, and Florida suffers as a result.

A lot of the tough times Florida dealt with over the duration of the season was out of the program's control.

While everyone had to dodge COVID protocols (UF had six games postponed or canceled due to the virus), not many teams have had to be put on a two-and-a-half week pause because a teammate was in the hospital.

The Gators had four games postponed from Dec. 12 to Dec. 30 and went over a week without any type of team activities, according to Mike White earlier this season.

At times, it seemed like Florida's season hung in the balance with all of the moving parts, but credit to the players and staff as well as Johnson for returning and making the most out of what was an absolutely tragic situation.

On the floor, the Gators have lacked consistency at times, and that has led to some inexcusable losses.

Florida's 76-58 aforementioned beatdown loss to Kentucky on Jan. 9 at home was probably the Gators worst performance of the season. UF allowed the Wildcats to shoot over 55% from the field, including over 60% in the second half. Florida shot under 40% and the duo of Mann and Castleton combined to score just 13 points.

While that was probably Florida's worst performance of the season, its worst loss came to the South Carolina Gamecocks, the team's only Quad-3 loss.

SCAR finished the season at 6-14, which put them at 12th in the SEC standings at the end of the year.

UF failed to score a field goal during the final 6:37 of the game after going up 65-59. The Gamecocks outscored Florida 13-1 down the stretch to pick up their biggest win of the year at a time when the Gators were supposedly playing their best basketball.

While losses to Arkansas (21-5, 13-4 SEC) and Missouri (15-8, 8-8 SEC) won't be viewed as bad, the way the Gators lost both games would still be viewed as frustrating.

Against the Razorbacks, Florida stormed back from a double-digit deficit in the second half just to go ice cold in the final minutes. After taking the lead with 4:40 remaining, UF was outscored 14-2 the rest of the way to let a quality road win slip through its grasp.

The loss to Missouri at home on March 3 was a similar situation. Florida went on an 8-0 run during the game's final two minutes to tie it at 70, only to blow a defensive assignment on the final possession of regulation, losing to the Tigers on a last-second layup.

With the regular season behind them, the Gators can focus all of their attention to March.

Florida will make the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time under White, but first the SEC Tournament in Nashville looms next.

UF enters the field as the No. 5 seed and will play the winner of Vanderbilt and Texas A&M on Thursday at around 2:30 p.m. on the SEC Network.

If the Gators get past the second round, a rematch with fourth-seeded Tennessee comes in the quarterfinal round on Friday. UF lost to the Volunteers in the last game of the regular season but were without Mann due to migraine headaches.

If Florida advances further, a matchup with top-seeded Alabama likely awaits in the semifinals.

Historically, the Gators have struggled in the SEC Tournament under White at 3-4 overall, advancing past the quarterfinal round just once. It'd be ideal for Florida to at least advance to the semifinals to secure a seed outside the 8/9 line where a matchup with the likes of Gonzaga, Illinois, Michigan or Baylor would most likely await.

While White's SEC Tourney record isn't superb, he's seen consistent success in the NCAA Tournament as Florida's coach. He's led Florida to at least one win in all three tournament appearances, including the Elite 8 run during his second season as coach.

While the team's lack of consistency is worrying, if the Gators play to their full capability in the postseason, they have the tools to potentially make a Sweet 16 run.