The lone Top 25 matchup around college basketball on Wednesday is from the SEC as No. 24 Florida visits No. 13 Alabama, which leads the conference and is a solid favorite on the NCAAB odds. It features two of the best offensive teams in the country with Bama first nationally in scoring and Florida ninth. 2024 NCAA Basketball Betting & Expert Analysis #24 Florida vs #13 Alabama | MyBookie Sportsbook Week 16 NCAAB
How to Bet Florida at Alabama NCAA Basketball Odds & TV Info
When: Wednesday, 7 PM ET
Where: Coleman Coliseum
TV: ESPN2
Stream: ESPN+
Radio: Tunein.com
Opening NCAAB Lines: Alabama -4 (total 90)
#24 Florida vs #13 Alabama Last Meeting
This is the first of two scheduled meetings this season with the Tide visiting Florida on March 5. Last season, they played just once and Bama destroyed the visiting Gators 97-69 – the Tide were up 29 at the half. Brandon Miller led them with 24 points overall but is now in the NBA. Mark Sears made 4 of 6 3s and scored 19 for Alabama and he’s the best player on this year’s team. Colin Castleton led Florida with 29 points and 10 rebounds. The Tide have won three straight in the series and lead all-time 78-70.
Why Bet on Florida Gators?
The Gators (18-7, 8-4) might have been an NCAA Tournament bubble team a week or two ago but aren’t any longer on a three-game winning streak following an 88-82 win at Georgia on Saturday. The Bulldogs opened the game by hitting their first seven shots and led 46-40 at the half behind 17 point from Noah Thomasson.
Florida Last 5
| @ Georgia – W88-82 |
| vs LSU – W82-80 |
| vs Auburn – W81-65 |
| @ Texas A&M – L67-66 |
| @ Kentucky – W94-91 |
Florida opened the second half on a 12-4 run, giving the team its first lead of the afternoon. Georgia trailed 58-53 at the under-12 media timeout due in part to seven turnovers to begin the half and being held without a field goal for just over 10 minutes. Blue Cain ended the drought with his first made shot from beyond the arc, putting the Bulldogs down three with over nine minutes remaining.
Georgia again found itself down, 83-80, after Thomasson knocked in his fifth 3-pointer. The team was unable to come back, though, with Florida sinking key free throws down the stretch to seal the win. The Gators held the Bulldogs to just 37.5 percent in the second half after that loose defensive display in the first half. They also forced 10 second-half turnovers that led to 14 points.
UF junior guard Walter Clayton Jr. scored 21 points and freshman forward Thomas Haugh came off the bench to post a career-high 17 points and seven rebounds. The win was UF’s third in a row and seventh over the previous eight games, a 10th straight in the series against UGA and fourth in as many tries for UF coach Todd Golden against his predecessor Mike White. Haugh went six of nine from the floor, three of four from the 3-point line and had four offensive rebounds over his career-best 26 minutes. Fifth-year guard Zyon Pullin (16 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 0 turnovers over 38 minutes) hit four free throws to close out the game. It was UGA’s sixth straight loss.
Florida was 20-for-26 from the free-throw line (80.8 percent), with Pullin, Will Richard and Clayton a combined 17-for-17. The Bulldogs scored just 36 points in the second half, shot 37.5 percent in the second half and turned it over 10 times leading to 16 UF points.
“Florida is an NCAA Tournament team,” said UGA’s White, who’s in the midst of the longest losing skid of his 13 seasons as a college head coach in stops at Louisiana Tech, Florida and Georgia. “They’re really good. They share it. They’re long and skilled, get stops and force turnovers when they need to.”
The Gators’ recent success has been powered by taking care of the ball as UF has committed single-digit turnovers in six of its last eight games. Pullin leads the SEC in assist/turnover ratio both overall (4.1) and in conference play (4.4), and his 4.9 assists per game rank second in the SEC. Pullin has scored 10+ points in every appearance this season, and his 22-game double-figure scoring streak is the fifth-longest by a Gator since 1996-97.
On Monday, the Gators moved into the Associated Press Top 25 this week for the first time in more than two years. This game will mark the first time UF’s Golden, who spent three seasons as head coach at San Francisco (2019-22), will lead a ranked squad on to the floor. Of the team’s 16 players, only fifth-year forward Tyrese Samuel and walk-ons Alex Klatsky and Jack May have been members of ranked teams.
“Yes, it’s a great accomplishment and a big part of the process of becoming a good team,” said Golden, whose USF Dons got as close as “also receiving votes” during the ’21-22 season. “But the message to our guys was, ‘Hey, this can’t be the highlight of our season. If we’re looking back in a month and a half and saying, the highlight of the season was when we beat Georgia and got voted No. 24 then we’re going to be disappointed.”
Florida is averaging 84.8 points per game, which is on pace to break the record of 84.2 set by the Vernon Maxwell-led team of 1986-87 that went to the first NCAA Tournament in program history. That also was the first season of the universal 3-point line in college basketball.
Bet Florida to Win
Vegas College Basketball Odds
| Week 16 NCAAB Lines Odds Subject to Change | SPREAD | MONEYLINE | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| #13 Alabama | -4 | -220 | O 90 |
| #24 Florida | +4 | +160 | U 90 |
Why Bet on Alabama Crimson Tide?
Alabama (18-7, 10-2) won its second straight game on Saturday, a 100-75 home rout of a good Texas A&M team. Already the nation’s top offensive rebounding team, the Aggies clawed their way to 26 offensive boards, which was the team’s fourth game with 25 or more. The Maroon & White’s work on the offensive glass led to 21 second-chance points and 42 points in the paint.
Alabama Last 5
| vs Texas A&M – W100-75 |
| @ LSU – W109-92 |
| @ Auburn – L99-81 |
| vs Mississippi St. – W99-67 |
| @ Georgia – W85-76 |
And they still got clobbered as the Crimson Tide finished the game shooting 52% from the field (37 of 71) and 44% from 3-point range (18 of 41) and scored 22 fast-break points to Texas A&M’s four. Alabama led for all but 2:45 in the 25-point win as the team extended its home conference winning streak to 16 consecutive games.
The Crimson Tide drained 18 three-pointers in the contest on the way to securing the team’s eighth 100-point game of the season, the most in college basketball in nearly 30 dating back to the 1995-96 Kentucky national championship team.
Mark Sears led all scoring with 23 points in the victory, his 16th 20-point game of the season, to go along with four assists, four rebounds and three steals. Rylan Griffen (17), Latrell Wrightsell Jr. (16), Aaron Estrada (11) and Sam Walters (11) also scored in double figures, while Walters paced the Tide with eight boards.
“This was a big win,” Coach Nate Oats said. “We have teams right on our tail in this SEC race, so we’ve got to protect the home floor. We didn’t do a great job on the defensive glass, they rebounded 52 percent of their misses. I told the team first we have to try to turn them over. Second, we have to actually box out and rebound, and we weren’t great on that. Third, I said after they get an offensive rebound, we still have to get a stop.”
Sears continues to play at a level worthy of consideration for SEC Player of the Year honors. He leads the SEC in scoring at 20.6 ppg and ranks top 10 in the SEC in both assists and steals in all games, and top five in the SEC in assists against conference competition. Saturday was the 16th game this season, and eighth straight that Sears has scored 20 points or more, the most since Colin Sexton achieved the feat in 2017-18.
In addition to collecting eight 100-point games, this year’s Crimson Tide team has compiled 12 games of scoring 90-or-more points. Alabama has scored 100 points in 10 total SEC games during Oats’ tenure. The rest of the league has a combined 10 100-point games during that span. The Crimson Tide own the No. 1 scoring offense in the country (90.7 ppg) and the No. 1-ranked offense according to KenPom. Alabama has been exceptional on offense the last two games, converting 36 three-pointers while shooting 42.3 percent from beyond the arc.
During conference play Alabama’s Latrell Wrightsell Jr. is shooting 45.2 percent from three-point range, which ranks No. 2 in the SEC. He was 4-for-6 from deep on Saturday.
“Any time he’s open he should shoot the ball. He’s one of the best shooters I’ve ever coached; why he would ever pass up an open shot is beyond me,” Oats said of Wrightsell.
Over the last five seasons, the Crimson Tide have posted 10 games converting 18 or more three-pointers in a game, the rest of the SEC has a combined five games during that span. Alabama is 16-21 against AP Top-25 opponents under Oats all-time.
Bet Alabama to Win
College Basketball Betting Lines
#24 Florida vs #13 Alabama Expert Prediction
Alabama 83, Florida 80
NCAA Basketball Odds to Win Championship – Top 10
| UConn Huskies +510 | Purdue Boilermakers +710 |
| Houston Cougars +890 | Arizona Wildcats +1200 |
| Tennessee Volunteers +1275 | North Carolina Tar Heels +1775 |
| Auburn Tigers +1875 | Alabama Crimson Tide +2000 |
| Kansas Jayhawks +2200 | Iowa State Cyclones +2300 |
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#15 Alabama vs Florida, January 5, 2022
#15 Alabama vs Florida | College Basketball Game Preview & Betting Odds
It’s two contenders in the SEC squaring off in one of the marquee college basketball games on Wednesday as No. 15 Alabama visits unranked but dangerous Florida. The game opened as a pick’em on the NCAAB odds.
- When: Wednesday, 7 PM ET
- Where: Exactech Arena
- TV: ESPN
- Stream: ESPN app
- Radio: Tunein.com
- Opening NCAAB Lines: Pick’em (total 149)
Last Meeting
Alabama leads the all-time series 76-70. Bama won the only meeting of the ’20-21 season with a decisive 86-71 victory at Tuscaloosa. Alabama will be looking for its third win in Gainesville over the last four trips when the Tide takes on the Gators Wednesday night. The lone loss over the last three trips to the O’Connell Center came in UA’s last visit on Jan. 4, 2020 when Alabama dropped a 104-98 double overtime contest.
Why Bet on Alabama?
The Tide (10-3, 1-0 SEC) are off a 73-68 win over No. 14 Tennessee last Wednesday. Alabama used a 16-5 run over the final 6:02 to rally. It marked the Crimson Tide’s third win over a top-15 team this season.
Graduate transfer Noah Gurley had his best game of the season, recording his first double-double in an Alabama uniform with 20 points and 10 rebounds on the night. Guard Jahvon Quinerly added 18 points while Jaden Shackelford finished with 12 points in the victory. Senior Keon Ellis also played solid with nine points, nine rebounds and a team-leading five assists.
The win marked the Crimson Tide’s 17th-consecutive home victory and the third-straight over Tennessee in the series – the first time UA has defeated UT in three-consecutive games in the series since doing so from 2011-13. Entering the game, Tennessee had held five of its previous six opponents to less than 57 points and was averaging giving up just 59.3 points per game.
According to the most recent KenPom rankings (as of 1/3), the Tide rank No. 13 in the nation in offensive efficiency, No. 13 in average possession length and No. 31 in adjusted tempo. The site also ranks UA No. 46 in the nation and defensive efficiency.
Bama enters the contest ranked No. 2 in the SEC and No. 17 in the nation in scoring offense at 82.2 points per game. UA also leads the league in all three-point categories, checking in nationally at No. 15 in the nation in threes attempted (384), No. 32 in threes made (126) and No. 38 in threes made per game (9.7).
The Crimson Tide are led by three players who average double figures in Shackelford (16.5 ppg), Quinerly (14.9 ppg) and Ellis (12.2 ppg). The trio combines to account for 53 percent (43.6 of the 82.2 points per game average), 70 percent of the three-pointers made (88 of 126), 51 percent field goals made (199 of 388) and 48 percent of the total free throws made (80 of 166).
Why Bet on Florida?
The Gators (9-3, 0-0 SEC) haven’t played since beating Stony Brook 87-62 on Dec. 22 – a Dec. 29 SEC opener vs. Ole Miss was postponed. Against Stony Brook, the Gators shot 53.3 percent and put four players in double-figure scoring, led by guard/forward Phlandrous Fleming Jr.’s game-best 20 points, including season-high four makes from the 3-point line. The Gators scored the game’s first 10 points and never trailed.
Fleming, back in the starting lineup after senior guard Myreon Jones was scratched due to health and safety protocols, went 6-for-8 from the floor and 4-for-5 from the arc. His 20 points were the most for the Charleston Southern grad-transfer in a UF uniform. Jones will be cleared for this game. Eight games into the season, Fleming was at 21.7 percent from the arc (5-for-23), but has gone 9-for-14 the last four games and now ranks third on the team at 37.8 percent.
In UF’s nine victories, the Gators held opponents to 40.3 percent overall and 24.4 from the 3-point line. In the three losses (at Oklahoma, home against Texas Southern, neutral site against UM), those numbers ballooned to 50.9 and 44.7 percent, respectively.
CJ Felder, has been a pleasant surprise shooting the ball from deep this season. Felder came from Boston College as a career 26.7-percent shooter from the arc, but he’s 8-for-18 thus far (.444) and has made five of his last seven over three games.
A total of 28.7 percent of field-goal attempts surrendered by Florida have been 3-point tries. That’s the seventh-lowest percentage in the country and No. 1 among all power conference teams.
Game Trends
- Crimson Tide are 3-7 ATS in their last 10 road games.
- Crimson Tide are 0-5 ATS in their last 5 games overall.
- Gators are 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games vs. a team with a winning % above .600.
- Gators are 7-2 ATS in their last 9 home games.
- Road team is 20-5-1 ATS in the last 26 meetings.
Expert Prediction
- Alabama 74, Florida 72
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