SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – APRIL 07: Walter Clayton Jr. #1 of the Florida Gators celebrate a win during … More
Florida guard Walter Clayton Jr. sprinted as fast as he could. This was it. The national title was on the line.
Houston guard Emanuel Sharp, the man Clayton was guarding, had run from the left block under the basket and caught the ball beyond the 3-point line at the top of the key. About five seconds remained in Monday night’s NCAA men’s basketball championship game in San Antonio. Sharp jumped up to take the shot, but here came Clayton Jr., closing out on Sharp and extending his left arm. The hustle play rattled Sharp.
Instead of shooting, Sharp pulled the ball back, but because he had left the ground he knew he couldn’t touch the ball or it would have been a double dribble. And so, the ball just laid on the floor before Florida’s Alex Condon dove on it near midcourt as time expired, clinching the Gators’ 65-63 victory. Florida overcame a 12-point second half deficit to win the program’s third national title.
“We work on it in practice, closing out, jumping to the side so you don’t foul the shooter,” Clayton Jr. said. “He pump faked, threw the ball down. (It) ended up being a good play.”
Florida coach Todd Golden was more effusive, calling it an “amazing play.”
“When Condo got on the floor, I figured it was either going to be a jump ball or we were going to come away with it,” Golden said. “Next thing I knew, game was over. Just an incredible moment and something I won’t forget.”
Clayton Jr. won the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player award, scoring all 11 of his points in the second half, having a game-high seven assists and capping a sensational senior season. He was named a first team Associated Press All-American and averaged more than 24 points per game in the NCAA tournament entering Monday, including scoring a career-high 34 points in Saturday’s 79-73 victory over Auburn in the Final Four.
Still, Clayton Jr. struggled for much of Monday’s game. He was held scoreless in the first half, going 0 for 4 from the field, with all of his attempts coming on 3-pointers. Clayton Jr. couldn’t shake an aggressive Houston team that routinely double-teamed him. The Cougars showed why they entered the game first in analyst Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted defensive efficiency metric and allowed just 58.5 points per game, the lowest average in Division 1.
Clayton Jr. finally scored when he made two free throws with 14:57 remaining, cutting Houston’s lead to 42-34. He had his first field goal with 7:54 left when he drove past Houston’s Terrance Arceneaux for a layup, drew a foul and connected on the free throw to tie it at 48-all.
After Florida center Rueben Chinyelu was called for a personal foul and a technical foul for slamming the ball on the court, Houston made 3 of 4 free throws to take a 3-point lead. Clayton Jr. then came down and converted another 3-point play to make it 51-51. Clayton Jr. tied it again at 60 apiece when he made a 3-pointer with 3:14 remaining.
All told, the game was tied 12 times. And after trailing 42-30 early in the second half, Florida went ahead 64-63 on Alijah Martin’s two free throws with 46.5 seconds remaining, the Gators’ first lead since they were up 8-6. Sharp then dribbled off his leg thanks to a reach-in from Florida guard Will Richard. Denzel Aberdeen, a 54% free throw shooter, made 1 of 2 free throws to give Florida a 65-63 lead with 19.7 seconds remaining.
Houston had one last possession, but Florida’s defense came through as Clayton Jr. disrupted Sharp’s shot attempt and Condon’s hustle play made sure the Cougars wouldn’t have another chance.
“My motto (is) we all can go,” said Clayton Jr., who made just 3 of 10 field goals and missed 6 of 7 3-pointers. “I understand that if it ain’t my night, somebody going to pick me up. We understand we all just picking each other up throughout the year, man. We been doing that all year.”
Florida (36-4) snapped Houston’s 18-game winning streak and became the first team this season to defeat the Cougars (35-5) when scoring less than 70 points. The Gators scored their second-fewest points of the season and shot just 40% from the field and 25% on 3’s, but they held the Cougars to 35% from the field (31% in the second half), including 24% (6 of 25) on 3’s.
Midway through the second half, the Gators stopped Houston on nine consecutive possessions over more than four minutes, cutting a 48-42 deficit to a 48-48 tie. And over the final 2 minutes and 5 seconds, Florida forced four turnovers and held Houston scoreless.
“Our defense won us the game tonight,” Golden said.
The victory followed a familiar script. It was the fourth time in six NCAA tournament games that the Gators trailed in the second half. They fell behind two-time reigning national champion Connecticut by six points in the second round, trailed Texas Tech by 10 points in the Elite 8 and were down to Auburn by nine points in the Final Four.
“I feel like it just goes back to how connected we are as a team,” said Richard, who had a team-high 18 points, including 14 in the second half. “I feel like we all don’t have any quit…I just like our resiliency and how we fight through adversity throughout the game.”
Said Condon: “We got together in the huddle at one point when we were down (and) said we’re good. No one is really stressing out too bad. We just have a lot of confidence in each other, knowing that our shot was going to fall down the stretch.”
On Monday night, Florida led for just 1 minute and 4 seconds, but it was enough to win its 12th consecutive game and 18 of the final 19. During that stretch, the Gators defeated seven teams that were ranked in the Associated Press top 25 poll entering the tournament, including No. 2 Houston, No. 4 Auburn, No. 7 Alabama (twice), No. 9 Texas Tech and No. 11 Maryland.
Florida tied the school record with 36 victories, the same as in 2014 when the Gators lost in the Final Four and more than the 2006 and 2007 national champions that had a future Hall of Fame coach in Billy Donovan and three players (Joakim Noah, Al Horford and Corey Brewer) that were top 10 NBA draft picks. These Gators may not have the star power of the previous NCAA title teams, although Golden, 39, became the youngest coach since North Carolina State’s Jim Valvano in 1983 to win a national title, so he could add more championships in the coming years.
Still, Florida is more than a deserving champion, showing it could compete on the biggest stages all season. The Gators finished second in the regular season in the Southeastern Conference, a league that sent 14 teams to the NCAA tournament and ranks among the best ever. They then won the SEC tournament title and the NCAA title, thanks to their resiliency, never more so than on Monday when it looked like Houston was on its way to winning the program’s first NCAA championship. Instead, the Gators were celebrating at the Alamodome after tying for the third-largest comeback in a national title game.
“They did a great job of never getting too high, never getting too low,” Golden said. “When we went down 12 in the second half, we stayed the course. We didn’t point fingers, didn’t start to try to make hero plays, gambling defensively. We got rewarded because of that toughness that we displayed.”
