Florida returned to The Associated Press men’s college basketball Top 25 on Monday with a No. 23 overall ranking.
The Gators (20-11, 11-7 SEC) have won three straight, including an 80-67 win over former No. 23 Kentucky on Saturday at the O’Connell Center. Florida is 6-2 against ranked teams this season.
Florida was ranked as high as No. 5 in the first week of the season and is in the poll for the ninth time in 18 weeks this season. Florida was last ranked No. 23 the week of Jan. 29 but fell out thel following back-to-back losses to Georgia and Alabama.
The Gators will open SEC Tournament play as the third seed in the tournament Friday night (9:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network) in St. Louis against either 6 seed Arkansas, 11 seed South Carolina or 14 seed Ole Miss.
Virginia is the unanimous No. 1 in the Top 25.
The Cavaliers earned all 65 first-place votes after finishing four games ahead of the field in the ACC regular-season race. This was Virginia’s fourth straight week at No. 1, with the Cavaliers acquiring more first-place votes each time until claiming them all this week.
Villanova hopped over Xavier to reach No. 2. The Wildcats beat the Musketeers twice this season, though Xavier won the Big East regular-season race outright.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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