Kevin Brockway
NCAA Selection Committee to put greater emphasis on road wins
A day after Florida unveiled a non-conference schedule with no true road games, the NCAA Men's Basketball Selection Committee announced it is altering its definition of a quality win, putting greater emphasis on road and neutral court games.
According to an NCAA release, team sheets will now be divided into home games against teams ranked in the RPI Top 30, neutral court games against teams ranked in the RPI Top 50 and road games against teams ranked in the RPI Top 75. Previously, team sheets only took into account games against RPI Top 50 teams, regardless of location.
The Gators will play eight home games and five neutral court games in their 2017-18 non-conference schedule, but all five neutral court games should present a significant challenge. The Gators are guaranteed to play Stanford, Clemson and Cincinnati in three neutral court contests and could see Gonzaga or Ohio State at another game in the PK80 Tournament in Portland and Duke/Texas/Butler or Portland State in a third PK 80 game.
The Gators will play at least three non-conference games against teams that finished in the RPI Top 15 last season (Florida State, Cincinnati, Baylor) and could play up to five RPI Top 15 teams if they face Gonzaga in the second game of the PK80 Tournament and Duke in the third game in Portland. Clemson will be another RPI Top 100 opponent (75), while Stanford (105), New Hampshire (125) Loyala-Chicago (184) and Gardner-Webb (188) are RPI Top 200 teams.
Last season, Florida played its first 11 games away from campus (8 neutral court and 3 road games) due to the O'Connell Center's renovation. In the regular season, the Gators went 10-3 in the non-conference schedule and 24-7 overall, helping UF land a four-seed in the NCAA Tournament.
— Former Gator walk-on center Schuyler Rimmer announced on his Twitter account that he'll be joining the Atlanta Hawks as part of the NBA franchise's video and player development team.
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