WUFT | News and public media for north central Florida
No. 1 seed Florida Gators gear up for tournament opener against Prairie View
By Jordyn Banks, Sydnie Espro
March 20, 2026 at 8:07 AM EDT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsy2uJzs2JU
TAMPA — The No. 1 seed Florida Gators left the swamp for Tampa this week to play in the opening rounds of the NCAA tournament. The Gators face 16-seed Prairie View Friday in their first-round game at Benchmark International Arena.
Florida lost the SEC tournament but won the regular season title. The Gators face the Panthers. Prairie View claimed their first NCAA tournament win Wednesday night, as the school is making its third tournament appearance.
Florida has a lot to prove. The Gators are rebounding from a loss against Vanderbilt. Gator center Micah Handlogten said the loss built resilience.
"Throughout practice this week I think we realized — although we were on a pretty good win streak before that — it can turn around really quickly," he said. "It kind of brought us back down to earth and made us realize if we want this we have to work for it harder."
Haugh and his team have been a powerhouse offensively and defensively with multiple individual accolades. The Gators finished the regular season ranked No. 4 in the country.
Head coach Todd Golden said being comfortable is not an option.
“I will be very disappointed if our guys have any sort of comfort going into this tournament, I want them to be confident. I want them to go out and compete the right way but this is not the time of the year to be comfortable and get the year and expect things to go our way,” Golden said.
Florida forward Thomas Haugh said the team is focused is on execution and taking care of the ball will be a major focus.
“That’s going to be crucial especially going into tomorrow's game we know Prairie View is pretty scrappy. They are going to dig down into the post stuff like that we just have to take care of the ball and this entire tournament you know this is going to be huge for us,” Haugh said.
TAMPA — The No. 1 seed Florida Gators left the swamp for Tampa this week to play in the opening rounds of the NCAA tournament. The Gators face 16-seed Prairie View Friday in their first-round game at Benchmark International Arena.
Florida lost the SEC tournament but won the regular season title. The Gators face the Panthers. Prairie View claimed their first NCAA tournament win Wednesday night, as the school is making its third tournament appearance.
Florida has a lot to prove. The Gators are rebounding from a loss against Vanderbilt. Gator center Micah Handlogten said the loss built resilience.
"Throughout practice this week I think we realized — although we were on a pretty good win streak before that — it can turn around really quickly," he said. "It kind of brought us back down to earth and made us realize if we want this we have to work for it harder."
Haugh and his team have been a powerhouse offensively and defensively with multiple individual accolades. The Gators finished the regular season ranked No. 4 in the country.
Head coach Todd Golden said being comfortable is not an option.
“I will be very disappointed if our guys have any sort of comfort going into this tournament, I want them to be confident. I want them to go out and compete the right way but this is not the time of the year to be comfortable and get the year and expect things to go our way,” Golden said.
Florida forward Thomas Haugh said the team is focused is on execution and taking care of the ball will be a major focus.
“That’s going to be crucial especially going into tomorrow's game we know Prairie View is pretty scrappy. They are going to dig down into the post stuff like that we just have to take care of the ball and this entire tournament you know this is going to be huge for us,” Haugh said.