Florida history was made earlier today as Florida, Florida State and Miami were all ranked in the AP Top 25 Men’s Basketball poll. It’s the first time in history all three schools have been ranked in the top 25 in the same week.  Florida and Florida State have spent most of the season ranked while Miami just surged into the Top 25 this week after wins at Virginia and in Coral Gables against Duke. For the Hurricanes, this was thought to be a rebuilding year and the team is playing with just eight scholarship players, but as the season has worn on, Miami has gotten stronger largely due to Freshman Bruce Brown. Florida looks a decent outside choice to make the Final Four and Florida State is having its best season in five years.

Last season, Miami spent all but one week inside the Top 25 (in fact the Hurricanes spent much of the year in the Top 10), but no other Florida school was ranked at any time during the campaign. In several previous seasons, two Florida schools have been ranked at once. For example, both Miami and Florida finished in the Top 10 in the 2012-13 season but Florida State was not ranked at any point that season. Florida and Florida State were both ranked for much of the 2011-2012 season but Miami was not.  Going much further back, In the 1998-1999, 1999-2000 and 2001-2002 seasons, Miami and Florida were both ranked for basically the entire season but Florida State at the time under Steve Robinson was arguably one of the worst teams in major conference men’s basketball.

Also it should be noted UCF had a big win over Cincinnati this weekend, the first win over a ranked team for the Golden Knights since 2011.

It should be noted rankings don’t mean much in men’s basketball thanks to the NCAA Tournament but it is still a nice Florida historic note what happened today.  The state of men’s basketball in the state has never been better!