The plight facing the Florida Gators men’s basketball team on Wednesday night was summed up and headlined well by Zach Abolverdi earlier in the day: Florida must win its Wednesday night meeting with LSU (7 p.m., ESPN2 or streaming) to avoid its first 0-3 start to SEC play since 1980, when Florida went 5-22 and 2-16 in league contests.
And that would be an ignominious distinction for these Gators to hold, no doubt, though their chances of going 5-22 are nil and their odds of going 2-16 against the SEC slim.
But the bigger challenge as I see it is that this Florida team has maybe its second-best remaining opportunity to secure a big win tonight — an LSU program that it has played tough in recent years at home — and can ill afford to miss that chance if it wants to make the 2022 NCAA Tournament.