With five regular-season games left before the SEC Tournament tips off in Greenville, South Carolina, Florida women’s basketball finds itself in a tightly packed middle tier of the conference standings.
Sitting at 15-11 overall and 3-8 in SEC play, the Gators are 13th in the league. However, the gap separating Florida from climbing multiple spots is razor thin.
Wins in each of the last two games moved the team up two spots in the standings entering Thursday’s road matchup at No. 10 Oklahoma (17-6, 5-5 SEC) in the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Oklahoma, at 7 p.m.
Florida sits just a half game behind 12th-place Mississippi State (16-8, 3-7 SEC) and one game behind Missouri (16-10, 4-7 SEC). With the current standings, the Gators and Bulldogs would be matched up in the first round of the SEC Tournament, making their upcoming meeting especially crucial.
With just three weeks left in the regular season, positioning remains ever-changing, and every result carries SEC Tournament implications.
Florida’s next challenge may be its toughest remaining regular-season assignment.
The Sooners are the third-highest scoring team in the nation at 87.96 points per game and operate at one of the fastest tempos in Division I. Their 73.1 field goal attempts per game rank third nationally, and they convert at a 45.6% clip (32nd in the country).
Oklahoma’s offense is fueled by its two leading scorers: Freshman guard Aaliyah Chavez and senior center Raegan Beers. Chavez leads the Sooners in scoring through SEC play at 18.3 points per game but is shooting at a lower 33.9% from the field in conference play. Beers anchors the interior with a 16.2-point, 10.7-rebound double-double average while shooting a conference-best 61.0% from the floor. Her rebounding and efficiency both lead the SEC.
Florida’s defensive metrics suggest that the Gators have the tools necessary to control the tempo of the game. The team ranks 10th in field goal percentage defense (.336) and fourth in three-point percentage defense (.303). Limiting Oklahoma’s transition opportunities and forcing half-court possessions will be critical.
Despite its losing conference record, Florida has a horse in this race in several key efficiency areas. Against SEC opponents, the Gators rank 11th in opponent field goal percentage allowed (.396) and 13th in opponent three-point shooting (.283), meaning the Gators are holding conference foes to under 40% shooting overall and under 30% from deep.
That offensive balance gives Florida a chance nightly, especially in tight matchups against teams clustered near them in the standings. The challenge is consistency, particularly closing games and generating stops in key stretches.
If the Gators have one date circled on their calendar, it's Feb. 19 against Mississippi State at 7:30 p.m.
The Bulldogs currently sit 12th in the SEC standings at 3-7, just ahead of Florida. If the standings hold, the 12-13 matchup would be a first-round pairing in the SEC Tournament. That makes next week’s head-to-head meeting possibly pivotal.
A win could pull Florida even or ahead in the standings, help them avoid a bottom-seed path and create late-season momentum entering March.
The final five games leave little margin for error. The Gators begin Feb. 12 at Oklahoma, followed by an important home matchup against Mississippi State on Feb. 19th. Florida then hosts No. 23 Alabama (20-5, 6-5 SEC) on Feb. 22 and travels to No. 14 Ole Miss (19-5, 6-3 SEC) on Feb. 26 before wrapping it up on March 1 against Georgia (19-5, 5-5 SEC).
Four of those five opponents are either nationally ranked or sitting above .500 in conference play, presenting a demanding final stretch. With the standings tightly packed in the bottom half of the league, Florida’s recent momentum could prove critical as it fights to improve its SEC Tournament positioning over the final three weeks.
In a conference as deep and unforgiving as the SEC, February often defines March. So if Florida wants to win big, it will have to give it its all.
Contact Isis Snow at isnow@alligator.org. Follow her on X @isis_snoww.
Isis is a senior sports journalism student who is in her fourth semester at The Alligator. She previously has written for the Avenue desk and has covered the Florida volleyball beat. She also has experience in live broadcast reporting with WUFT. Despite hailing from Las Vegas, Nevada, she is a life-long Michigan and Detroit Lions fan. To make up for the emotional toll of being a fan of those teams, you will often find her in the gym weight lifting and playing basketball.
