Tales and Topics from the Panhandle to the Keys – Florida College Basketball Takes Aim at a Shot in the 2026 NCAA Tournament
Florida College Basketball Takes Aim at a Shot in the 2026 NCAA Tournament – Volume 1, Edition 10
By Nick Gandy
For fans of college basketball the first and second round days of the NCAA Tournament are national holidays. Games begin at 12 Noon and continue past 12 Midnight.
As in most sports landscapes, the State of Florida is once again at the forefront of the NCAA Tournament.
Within the state’s borders, Florida offers a Number One Seed, a Tournament host site, in NCAA Division I and II and a long history of college basketball successes and standouts.
The South Florida Bulls provide the first tipoff for Florida Hoops on Thursday, in Buffalo, New York, against the Louisville Cardinals. Many are calling USF one of the 2026 Tournament “Sleepers.”
The Bulls (25-8 and American Conference Champions) enter the tournament having won 17 of its last 19 games, including an 11-game winning streak under first-year coach Bryan Hodgson. Meanwhile, Louisville closed out the season with a 4-8 record in its last 12 games.
The Number One Seed in the South Region, the Florida Gators (26-7, and winners of the SEC Regular Season Championship) close out a full day of basketball in Downtown Tampa’s Benchmark Arena against the winner of the Prairie View A&M/Lehigh play-in game, with a scheduled start of 9:25 p.m.
Leading up the Gators nightcap, the three other games on Friday in Tampa include:
No. 5 Texas Tech (22-10) vs. No. 12 Akron (29-5), 12:40 p.m.
No. 4 Alabama (23-9) vs. No. 13 Hofstra, (24-10), 3:15 p.m.
No. 8 Clemson (24-10) vs. No. 9 Iowa (21-12) , 6:50 p.m.
While the NCAA Division I Tournament is heating up in Tampa, with seven out-of-state teams contributing to the local economy, the red-hot Nova Southeastern Sharks used a home-court advantage at Rick Case Arena in Fort Lauderdale to move into the Division II Elite 8.
Nova Southeastern, the top-ranked Division II team, topped Alabama-Huntsville 79-63 in the Sweet 16 to capture the South Region Championship. The Sharks won their 105th consecutive home game as they advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight for the fifth straight year, dating back to the 2021-22 season.
Over the last five years, under Coach Jim Crutchfield, the Sharks have a 165-6 record, and advanced to the NCAA Division II Championship Game in each of the last three seasons, winning the National Championship in 2023 and 2025.
The Sharks, now 30-1, won three games in Fort Lauderdale all by double digit margins and play Black Hills State University (SD), 30-4 in Pittsburgh PA, on Wednesday, March 25 in an effort to advance to the Final Four, on March 27. The Division II Championship Game will be played in Indianapolis, IN on Sunday, April 5.
Elsewhere in the NCAA Division I Tournament, the Miami Hurricanes meet the Missouri Tigers, at 10:10 p.m. Friday in St. Louis and the UCF Knights play the UCLA Bruins at 7:25 p.m. Friday in Philadelphia.
This year’s NCAA Tournament in Tampa marks the 18th time March Madness has ventured into the Sunshine State. It began with a 1983 outing at what was then known as the SunDome on the USF Campus. Since then, Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando, St. Petersburg and Tallahassee, have joined Tampa as a NCAA Tournament host site.
The 1999 Final Four was held at Tropicana Field, with Connecticut defeating Duke 77–74 to win its first National Championship. The NCAA Women’s Final Four has been held in Tampa four times since 2008, with the last time coming in 2025.
The Tampa Bay area has been good to UConn as its Women’s Basketball perennial powerhouse, has advanced to Tampa’s Final Four all four times, winning the Championship in 2015 and 2025.
“Basketball has been and continues to be one of the main sports from an impact standpoint in our community,” said Jason Aughey, senior vice president of sports tourism for the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, in an interview with Tampa Bay Business and Wealth.
The lone entry into the 2026 NCAA Women’s Division I Tournament is the Jacksonville Dolphins, winner of the ASUN Conference Tournament, with a 24-8 record. The 15th-seed Dolphins have a tough tournament matchup, on Friday, against the LSU Tigers in Baton Rouge, LA.
The defending National Champion Florida Gators defeated the Houston Cougars in 2025 and are the only Florida NCAA Division I men’s basketball team to win a national championship. Under coach Billy Donovan, they won back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007, and with coach Todd Golden, in 2025.
The Jacksonville Dolphins, coached by Hugh Durham, were the first Florida team to make a significant impact on the NCAA Tournament, shocking top-ranked Kentucky to reach the Final Four in 1970. In the title game, JU lost to the UCLA Bruins (coached by John Wooden) 80-69. The team, led by 7 foot, 2 inch center Artis Gilmore, who averaged over 20 points and 20 rebounds per game, was known for an up-tempo style that averaged 100 points per game.
In 1972, Durham led Florida State to a runner-up finish in the NCAA Tournament before falling short again to the top-ranked UCLA Bruins in a hard-fought 81–76 loss in the Championship game.
In the very short year of 2026 so far, Florida has seen its share of sports successes. There has been the College Football Playoff National Championship, the World Cross Country Championship, NHL Stadium Series, PGA Tour events, Florida Spring Training and the World Baseball Classic.
Now it’s College Basketball’s turn.
Nick Gandy is a 40-year sports communications professional who has worked with the Florida Sports Foundation, the state of Florida’s lead sports promotion and development organization, since 1998.