Florida Beats Tennessee to Win SEC Tournament as Fans Look to March Madness Bracket

Florida is the 2025 SEC tournament champion.

The Gators defeated Tennessee 86-77 in Sunday's title game of the SEC men's basketball tournament at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. The second-seeded Gators and fourth-seeded Volunteers were each eyeing a conference crown and perhaps a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament with a win, but Florida prevailed.

This is Florida's first SEC tournament championship since 2014 and gives it plenty of momentum heading into the Big Dance.

Walter Clayton Jr. (22 points and five rebounds), Will Richard (17 points) and Alex Condon (13 points and nine rebounds) led the way for the victors, while Jordan Gainey (24 points) and Zakai Zeigler (23 points, eight assists, five rebounds and three steals) played well in defeat.

But it was Florida that had social media's attention during the win:

While logic dictated this would be a close game, that was anything but the case when these teams split their two contests in blowout fashion during the regular season. Florida won at home by 30 in January before Tennessee returned the favor with a 20-point victory in its home matchup in February.

Sunday was the rubber match, and it didn't take long for a team to jump out to a double-digit lead once again as the Gators set the early tone with Richard catching fire from deep.

The Volunteers cut the halftime deficit to nine with Zeigler responding with a three-point barrage of his own and Gainey providing a spark off the bench, but even then Denzel Aberdeen answered with a buzzer-beating triple.

Aberdeen's three-pointer gave the Gators momentum that helped keep Tennessee at bay for extended stretches in the second half, but it felt like just a matter of time before there was a counterpunch given the overall strength of both sides.

And that run came when Gainey shifted into takeover mode and fired up the raucous pro-Volunteers crowd. He scored 10 straight points for his team by getting to the line and hitting from the outside, which made it anyone's game heading into the stretch run.

But Florida was ready.

Huge three-pointers from Clayton and Thomas Haugh stymied Tennessee's momentum, and the Gators' overall depth proved to be a problem as the Volunteers dealt with foul trouble. Gainey and Zeigler did what they could, but Florida had a response every time.

Florida has enough playmakers and talent all over the roster to make a deep run in the tournament, and its March might just be getting started.