Sweet 16 2012: Florida Gators Are Far More Dangerous Than They Seem

Florida's late stumbles this season have provided a great distraction from how good the Gators can be in this year's NCAA tournament, providing them with a distinct advantage.

Any time you're a school that's been to four Final Fours, including two in the last six years, and you can still sneak up on your opponent in March Madness, it's a good thing.

The Gators closed out the regular season with a lot less than a bang, dropping four of their final five, including a pair against Kentucky. A few weeks before that, they lost two in a row to Tennessee and Kentucky again (allowing the Wildcats to accomplish the rare feat of beating the same team three times in one season).

Prior to that, however, the Gators looked pretty strong. Before February 7, they had just four losses on their record, and only one of them—at Rutgers—was really bad. (I say "only one" because in early January, it was unclear how bad Tennessee was going to end up being, so it didn't yet qualify as a bad loss.)

The SEC wasn't awful this year, and Florida finished right in the upper-middle of the pack with Vanderbilt and Tennessee. Despite all of those late-season conference losses, the Gators put forth a 10-6 record. They clearly weren't the best the NCAA has to offer, but they are still a threat.

Marquette, of course, presents the steepest challenge yet for a Gators team that slaughtered Virginia and Norfolk State in the first two rounds by an average of 30 points. Could Florida come in a bit overconfident and falter? Possibly, but probably not. This is a team that's been to four Final Fours—and won it all in 2006 and in 2007—and has a 32-14 overall record in the tournament. 

Billy Donovan knows how to keep this team disciplined, and he knows how to get the best out of his players when the madness kicks in. They may be a No. 7 seed and they may have limped into this year's dance, but this could be the same dangerous Gators team that can't be counted out in March.