Mark WiedmerYou won’t find any of the Southeastern Conference’s three remaining teams in action tonight when the NCAA men’s basketball tournament resumes with its Sweet 16 games in the Midwest and West Regionals. Florida (East), Kentucky (South) and South Carolina (East) are all slated to play Friday night.
But one could forgive University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach Matt McCall for already re-evaluating the ceiling for the Gators now that the two teams regarded as the beasts of the East – overall No. 1 seed and last year’s champion Villanova plus second-seeded Duke – have been ousted.
“I’ll confess, I had Duke winning that region,” McCall said Wednesday morning from Hutchinson, Kan., where he’s watching the National Junior College Athletic Association tournament.
“But now that Duke’s gone, I wouldn’t pick against the Gators. I really like the way they’ve grown and developed.”
McCall knows better than most how much they’ve grown and developed under second-year coach Mike White. After all, McCall helped recruit a number of the current Gators before he left his alma mater to take over UTC after the 2014-15 season.