#709 ASA PLAY ON 8* Iona +6.5 over Florida, Wednesday at 9 PM ET - What an extremely tough situation for a Florida team facing a very solid opponent in Iona on Wednesday. First of all the Gators have to overcome the disappointment of not making the NCAA tourney for the first time since 2016. They were expecting to be there again this year and lost 5 of their last 8 games to take them out of consideration. Secondly, they just lost their coach on Sunday as Mike White accepted the head coaching job at SEC rival Georgia. Assistant coach, Al Pinkins, who has never been a head coach will take this team over for their NIT game/games. That’s a lot of emotional baggage, so to speak, to overcome in a short time. They will be facing an Iona team, let by one of the top coaches in CBB history, Rick Pitino so a strong coaching edge to the Gaels in this game. They are a veteran team with 4 senior starters, that played one of the tougher low major schedules in the country. Iona finished 25-7 including a win over Alabama who beat Florida by 13 on the road in their only meeting this season. They were the best team in the MAAC all season long but were upset by Rider 71-70 in the conference tourney. They are a very good defensive team (46th eFG% allowed) and they defend the 3 very well (29th nationally) which is key here as the Gators like to launch from beyond the arc. The Gaels also have decent size and they are a solid rebounding team so they should hang with Florida on the boards. They have only 1 loss this season by more than 9 points and that was vs #1 seed Kansas (lost by 13). Iona will give the Gators all they can handle here. We expect it to be close throughout and we grab the points.