Florida
Florida basketball has failed to meet expectations early on
A 5-4 start to Florida basketball’s national title defense is not what anyone had in mind — much less, the Gator Nation — but here we are nine games deep into the 2025-26 schedule.
To be fair, three of those losses have come against programs currently ranked among the top five in both major polls and have been off to stellar starts. The Arizona Wildcats, Duke Blue Devils and UConn Huskies are nothing to sneeze at, and while the TCU Horned Frogs are not quite on their tier, all of these losses came either on the road (Duke) or on a neutral court (the other three).
Maybe Todd Golden should reconsider playing in all of these early-season special events in the future. But alas, that is a story for another season.
ESPN thinks Florida has failed to meet expectations
Obviously, with a dominating frontcourt roster returning in full, there was plenty to be optimistic about heading into the campaign. However, the departure of three guards to the NBA and a fourth to the transfer portal has proven to be a void too large to fill with their offseason acquisitions.
And that is the crux of ESPN’s Myron Medcalf’s observation that the Gators have simply not met the bar so far.
“Months after winning a national title with an elite set of guards, Florida’s Todd Golden rebooted his backcourt with former Arkansas star Boogie Fland and Princeton transfer Xaivian Lee,” he begins.
“It hasn’t worked out as planned. In Florida’s two-player lineups — an on-court metric at EvanMiya.com that captures how teams perform when specific players are paired together — the Fland-Lee combination ranked 26th within its own team,” Metcalf continues.
“And though Lee scored 19 points against UConn in Tuesday’s game at Madison Square Garden, that loss was another example of the Gators’ limitations when Lee and Fland (1-for-9 combined from 3 against the Huskies) aren’t equally elite on the same night.”
He has not liked what he has seen, and his conclusion is not necessarily unfair.
“Ultimately, Florida hasn’t looked like a defending champion thus far, despite Thomas Haugh (18.6 PPG, 7.6 RPG, 2.8 APG) playing like an All-American.”
How does the NET, BPI and KenPom view Florida basketball?
While Medcalf’s assessment comes fully equipped with dark clouds, the objective metrics paint a much more optimistic outlook for the team overall.
According to the NET rankings, Florida is just inside the top 25 at No. 24 — one spot ahead of the Miami Hurricanes, who they beat in Jacksonville back in November. The Gators are 1-3 in Quadrant 1 matchups, 1-1 in Quad 2, 1-0 in Quad 3 and 2-0 in Quad 4.
KenPom views the Orange and Blue even more bullishly, ranking Florida at No. 15 despite the weak record. Golden’s gang currently sits at No. 15 with a plus-26.55 adjusted net rating — up from plus-25.70 (17th) at the end of November, while the offense (120.4) moved up from 24th to 23rd in the nation, and the defense (93.8) has only dropped one place — from 10th to 11th — despite allowing 0.6 fewer points per 100 possessions.
The most optimistic metric for Florida comes from ESPN’s Basketball Power Index, which has the Gators at No. 9 despite a 1-3 stretch over the past two weeks. They have an 18.8 overall BPI, with the offense logging in at 8.5 (22nd) and defense earning a 10.3 (8th) rating recently.
ESPN projects Florida to go 21.0-10.0 overall and 12.2-5.8 in conference play.
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Florida
Judge cites ‘stand your ground’ law in clearing 3 more Florida officers in shooting of a UPS driver
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A South Florida judge on Monday cleared three more police officers of wrongdoing in the shooting death of a UPS driver who had been taken hostage during a 2019 robbery.
Broward Circuit Judge Ernest Kollra ruled that Miami-Dade police officers Richard Santiesteban, Leslie Lee and Rodolfo Mirabal — who had been charged with manslaughter in the death of UPS driver Frank Ordonez — could not be prosecuted because Florida’s “stand your ground” law justified the shooting. The same judge cleared officer Jose Mateo in September for the same reason.
The Broward State Attorney’s Office said it will appeal all four rulings.
“Immunity from prosecution is not the same as a defense presented to a jury from this community,” the state attorney’s statement said. “It is our belief that Stand Your Ground immunity does not apply in matters involving innocent bystanders, like Frank Ordonez and Richard Cutshaw, who presented no danger to officers. In this incident, two innocent men were killed, and the lives of numerous other innocent bystanders were endangered.”
Cutshaw was also killed in the barrage of gunfire that afternoon.
Ordonez, 27, had been delivering packages in Miami-Dade County on Dec. 5, 2019, when police said two would-be jewelry store robbers abducted him and forced him to drive from the scene. A rush-hour police chase ended at a busy intersection in neighboring Broward County.
Prosecutors said Mateo fired the shots that killed Ordonez. The two robbers and a passerby were also killed in a hail of gunfire at an intersection in Miramar, Florida.
Footage from a body camera that was played in court showed Mateo’s pursuit of the UPS truck that afternoon. His partner could be seen in the passenger seat with a long gun drawn. The video also showed Mateo approaching the UPS truck. He emptied his firearm’s magazine, reloaded and then pulled Ordonez from the vehicle.
The judge ruled the officers had reason to believe deadly force was necessary to end the confrontation.
The four officers are currently suspended from the their jobs.
After a beautiful weekend across South Florida, the warm weather continues for the workweek.
A cool start mostly in the lower to mid-60s will lead to a warm and sunny afternoon with highs in the lower to mid-80s.
Afternoon highs linger in the lower to mid-80s each day for the workweek with changes not arriving until the weekend.
Beachgoers can expect excellent conditions with a low rip current risk as water temperatures remain in the mid-70s.
The NEXT Weather Team will continue to monitor an enhanced fire weather risk due to dry air and the ongoing drought conditions.
While there are no major wildfires being reported in South Florida, light north and northwesterly winds overnight have been bringing smoke from ongoing fires along the Gulf Coast and the Southeast U.S. into South Florida, lowering our air quality for the morning hours.
Conditions improve by midday as the wind shifts.
No significant rain chances will be found throughout the workweek with just a slim 10% shower chance Wednesday through Friday.
However, rain chances will be on the rise over the weekend as our team monitors a possible disturbance bringing the potential for scattered showers on Sunday.
These showers could help lower afternoon highs to upper 70s by the end of the weekend.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — Florida has become the country’s busiest hub for immigration arrests this year, with ICE agents in the Miami Field Office — which oversees Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands — logging more detentions than any other region in the nation according to our news partners at the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
According to figures reported by the New York Times, agents under the Miami office are averaging about 120 arrests a day, totaling nearly 9,900 arrests as of March 10. That pace puts Florida well ahead of other regions experiencing federal “surge” operations, including Minnesota, where a high-profile enforcement push drew national scrutiny after two U.S. citizens were killed.
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