For the first time since Kemba Walker walked off a college court for the final time as a national champion, someone stepped into the NCAA Tournament and earned that comp. Well, that comp was earned by someone besides fellow UConn assassin Shabazz Napier, who did his best Walker impression to fuel UConn’s 2014 national title.
Walter Clayton Jr. has done the impossible for Florida — he one-upped Walker’s postseason run. And dare I say, some 1-for-19 showing in the national championship from Clayton on Monday night against Houston might be the only thing that can tip the scales back in Walker’s favor … which still might not be enough.
Before UConn fans tell me that I’m completely ignoring the help that Walker lacked compared to Clayton, and why it’s considered the college basketball version of what Cam Newton did at Auburn in that same 2010-11 school year, consider that acknowledged. Let’s also not pretend that future NBA players like Jeremy Lamb and Napier were scrubs instead of what they also were, which was the team’s 2nd and 4th leading scorers, respectively, for a team that earned a 3-seed in the NCAA Tournament.
And yes, UConn fans, I’m talking postseason run. That includes the conference tournament, when Walker delivered an iconic Madison Square Garden shot to sink Pitt in what turned out to be the 3rd of 5 wins in a 5-day stretch.
But ask yourself this — if anyone was ever going to top Walker’s postseason run, wouldn’t it look like what Clayton has done?
Let’s go back to what Clayton did in his conference tournament. Fourteen years after Walker plowed through a Big East field that set the NCAA Tournament record with 11 bids from the 16-team conference, Clayton plowed through an SEC field that shattered that record with 14 bids from its 16-team conference. Sure, maybe Clayton didn’t have a single shot from his 3-game showing that was quite as iconic as the shot Walker made to knock off Pitt (that came later against Texas Tech in the NCAA Tournament), but he earned SEC Tournament MVP honors after he averaged 21 points and 5 assists with a 50% clip from 3-point range. That was for a Florida team that beat No. 21 Mizzou, No. 5 Alabama and No. 8 Tennessee by an average of 15 points. Walker’s 25 points per game led to wins vs. 4 top-25 teams, but only 1 top-10 team and 3 of those 5 wins were by 5 points or less.
If you’re scoring at home, Walker gets a slight advantage over Clayton’s conference tournament run because of the 5 games in 5 days factor. But much like Clayton and the Gators have done throughout the NCAA Tournament, the latter half is when they’re at their best.
Florida, unlike UConn, hasn’t had any sort of real bracket luck outside of 2-seed St. John’s losing in the Round of 32 to Arkansas. But there’s a case to be made that 3-seed Texas Tech was the more battle-tested challenger, which we saw when it had a 9-point lead late against the Gators until, well, you know. Clayton threw on his cape and made clutch 3s look like backyard free throws.
Walter Clayton Jr. delivered a signature March performance to send Florida to the Final Four. The 6-3 senior poured in 30 points, drilling a barrage of clutch triples late to get past Texas Tech. Puts immense pressure on defenses with his deep pull-up range, burst, and vision. pic.twitter.com/Ay3h6Y6I4r
— Jacob Myers (@League_Him) March 30, 2025He also scored or assisted on all 17 Florida points in the final 5:24 during that epic comeback (H/T OnlyGators.com). That was the first of a 2-game stretch wherein Clayton scored 30 and 34 points, which made him the first player since Larry Bird in 1979 to score 30 points in consecutive NCAA Tournament games in the Elite Eight or later. Not even Walker did that.
Walker’s 30-point games came in the Round of 32 and in the Sweet 16. People forget that in the latter half of UConn’s NCAA Tournament run, Walker never had more than 20 points in a game. Mind you, that was for a UConn team that played just 1 top-3 seed during those 6 NCAA Tournament games. Including the title game against 1-seed Houston, Florida will get 3 top-3 seeds. That’s after getting through No. 1 overall seed Auburn and 3-seed Texas Tech, where Clayton made that aforementioned history. That’s right. Clayton’s run will conclude in what was touted as the best group of teams to ever reach the Final Four, which is slightly different than facing 4-seed Kentucky and 8-seed Butler, who made a Cinderella run back to the title game … only to shoot a stunning 3-for-31 (9.7%) on 2-point attempts.
Walker had a historic postseason run that concluded with a title, but that title game performance wasn’t exactly one for the ages for him, either. He made 5-of-19 attempts and finished with a game-high 16 points against a Butler defense that finished No. 46 in adjusted defensive efficiency.
Compare that to Houston and its generationally dominant defense. On second thought, don’t. It’s not a comparison. It’s just context that’s worth remembering if Clayton has a rough day at the office like Walker did against Butler, albeit in a 53-point winning effort. Anything is possible in March, but only a fool would suggest that’s the most likely outcome for Clayton.
The more likely outcome is that Clayton will join Walker among the exclusive Final Four Most Outstanding Player fraternity (he’s the favorite at +100 on FanDuel). Maybe Clayton won’t catch Walker’s postseason average of 24.6 points in those 11 games — Clayton is currently at 23.1 during his 8 postseason games — but the Florida All-American has been the more efficient player (49.1% field goal percentage compared to 43.3%) and the degree of difficulty of his buckets has been every bit as high as Walker’s.
Walter Clayton Jr.How? pic.twitter.com/nqhwqWQa3A
— Kyle Boone (@kyletheboone) April 5, 2025The irony in this discussion is that Clayton watched Walker put together that legendary run when he was a kid, and he modeled his game after the UConn star (H/T Dick Weiss). Perhaps during that run, he thought what many others did about Walker. That is, UConn wouldn’t have survived opening weekend if not for Walker’s brilliance. The same was true of Florida with Clayton in the second round against … UConn. The Gators needed every bit of Clayton’s 23 points, 13 of which were scored in the final 8 minutes of the 2-point victory against the 2-time defending champs.
If Florida beats Houston, we can look back at that UConn win as a passing-of-the-torch game. Perhaps in a different way, it was also a passing-of-the-torch moment from Walker to Clayton.
This is exactly what it would look like.
Win or lose, Walter Clayton Jr.’s postseason run is even more impressive than Kemba Walker’s Saturday Down South.
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