UF loses third straight, but Lunardi has Gators as No. 7 seed

Although Florida has lost three in a row, ESPN.com’s Joe Lunardi still has it comfortably in the field as a seventh seed.

Published on Thursday, 2/22/18, at 11:57 a.m. Eastern.

Florida dropped its third consecutive game last night at Tennessee, as Rick Barnes’s squad captured a 62-57 win as a four-point home favorite.

Chris Chiozza had 11 points, nine assists and six rebounds in the losing effort. KeVaughn Allen’s nightmare junior campaign continued, as the junior guard was held scoreless for the first time since his freshman season. Allen only took three shots in 29 minutes of playing time. (Allen’s struggles are starting to remind UF fans of the way Brett Nelson lost his moxy during his junior year.)

Despite the recent slump and speculation by some that UF could be in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament, Joe Lunardi’s latest edition of ‘Bracketology’ that came out this morning had UF as a No. 7 seed. Lunardi had the Gators facing 10th-seeded Kansas St. in Detroit, with the winner facing the 2/15 survivor of Purdue-Montana.

‘Joey Brackets’ has eight SEC teams in the field, which would be a league record. Georgia is the final team in his Next Four Out that includes Nebraska, Boise St. and Utah.

The Utes play host to UCLA tonight and I preview this game in today’s column over at VegasInsider.com.The Bruins are the last team Lunardi has out of the 68-team field. They’re joined by Texas, Washington and Penn St. in Lunardi’s First Four Out.

The Last Four in from Lunardi are St. Bonaventure, Syracuse, Louisville and USC. The Last Four Byes (meaning these teams will play in the First Four in Dayton) belong to Kansas St., Providence, N.C. St. and Baylor.

Speaking of the Friars, a rarely-seen gambling rule was in play last night when their game with Seton Hall was postponed due to a slippery floor. The Pirates held a 56-47 lead with 13:03 remaining, and officials from both schools agreed to finish the game at Alumni Hall on PU’s campus at noon Eastern today.

All bets on the side and total became no-plays. Why, you ask? Well, according to Chris Andrews at South Point in Las Vegas, its house rules require a game to be played 35 minutes to become official.

In the 2002 season opener, Wisconsin led 27-7 at UNLV with 7:41 remaining when the lights went out at Sam Boyd Stadium.

This probably reminds gamblers of the football rule that a game has to go 55 minutes to be official. This happens quite often in early September when thunderstorms bring lightning delays, but my introduction to this rule came in the infamous 2002 Wisconsin at UNLV game.

The Badgers led 27-7 with 7:41 left in the fourth quarter and were coasting to an easy spread cover as four-point road favorites. Before 55 minutes were completed, however, a major power outage in the area caused the light to go out at Sam Boyd Stadium. This screwed Wisconsin backers and led to outrage when thousands of their fans got back to the books and weren’t able to cash tickets (other than refunding the money risked).

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