Jay Bilas Makes Unexpected Admission About Florida

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Grant Bricker | Last updated May 21, 2025 8:10 PM ET

The Florida Gators are the undisputed national champions in college basketball, but not everyone predicted their tremendous season.

ESPN's Jay Bilas sat down with On3's Pete Nakos to discuss top offseason hires and college basketball as a whole. Bilas even revealed that he did not consider Florida a Final Four team or national title contender at the start of 2024.

Florida entered the NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed after beating the Tennessee Volunteers in the SEC Tournament. The Gators were the top seed in the West Region.

Florida head coach Todd Golden led his team to a national title after beating the Houston Cougars 65-63.

“I don’t know if I could name five for you right now,” Bilas said. “I think Duke will be really good, Houston. There are going to be so many teams that have new pieces that we’re going to have to see a little bit before we can make some of those pronouncements. Because I don’t remember whether I thought Florida would be there. I thought Alabama would be there. But I don’t remember at the beginning of the year, thinking, ‘Man, Florida is going to be the best team.’ It’s even more difficult now.”

Florida will have to rebuild its roster following its national title run. The Gators are losing Walter Clayton Jr., Denzel Aberdeen, Alijah Martin and Will Richard.

Golden went on a podcast and discussed how "tough" it was to lose Aberdeen to the portal.

However, the Gators have added talent through the portal, bringing on Xaivian Lee from Princeton, Boogie Fland from the Arkansas Razorbacks and AJ Brown from Ohio.

Florida's 2025 class is highlighted by four-star shooting guards CJ Ingram and Alex Lloyd.

Fland is the latest addition to Florida's transfer class. He played for John Calipari at Arkansas and averaged 13.5 points per game last season. Florida hosted Fland for a visit recently, and he committed on Monday.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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