SAN ANTONIO — Was there any other way for this year to end?
The greatest season of SEC basketball ever played was always going to end with an SEC team winning the national championship, right?
In a year when the SEC was the best league in the history of multiple analytical databases, surely it would end with one of the SEC powers cutting down the nets in San Antonio, wouldn’t it?
For most of 40 minutes on Monday night, it looked like it wasn’t going to happen that way.
Houston, the Big 12 champion, played like a team riding an 18-game winning streak entering the national championship game. The Cougars defended Florida relentlessly, sending 2 to every Florida ball screen and punishing the Gators with pressure that produced 9 first-half turnovers. The Cougars doubled, hedged and harassed Florida’s star, Walter Clayton Jr., holding him scoreless through the game’s first 30 minutes and building a 12-point lead in the process.
With Houston leading 42-30, its win probability, per ESPN, was 92.9%. In fact, entering Monday’s title game, only 2 NCAA Tournament champions recovered from double-digit second half deficits, and neither of those comeback wins came against a defense ranked No. 1 in America like Houston’s.
Of course, none of the other teams that fell so terribly behind played in a league as strong as the mighty SEC, and few had Florida’s depth.
Sparked by bench play from junior guard Denzel Aberdeen and Thomas Haugh, the Gators ripped off 8 consecutive points in just 2 minutes to cut Houston’s lead to 3 at 45-42. That’s when Clayton woke up. The Florida star scored and was fouled on a driving layup to the rim with less than 8 minutes to play, and he would repeat the feat a minute later, this time making an acrobatic finish after hard contact from Houston’s terrific guard LJ Cryer. Then, with Houston up 60-57, Clayton made his lone 3 pointer–the 62nd-consecutive game in which he’s made at least one triple– to tie the game at 60.
WALTER CLAYTON AGAIN ‼️#MarchMadness @GatorsMBK pic.twitter.com/MDHz5f6iy4
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 8, 2025That was the last basket Florida would make, but thanks to gritty plays by Florida’s supporting cast, the Gators led by 2 with just under 20 seconds remaining.
Florida’s revamped defense, the focus of Todd Golden’s offseason roster construction, did the rest, blitzing 2 Houston ball screens before a pitch perfect Clayton closeout on Florida native Emanuel Sharp caused a loose-ball drill which, fittingly, was won by Alex Condon, who dove to secure the ball and the national championship for the Gators.
YOUR NATIONAL CHAMPIONS: THE FLORIDA GATORS ??#MarchMadness @GatorsMBK pic.twitter.com/XatLv5x2hm
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 8, 2025On a night when Houston limited Clayton, it was fitting that Florida won the game with defense and a string of standout performances and plays from their supporting cast. Clayton deservedly won the award as the NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, but Florida was never a one-man show. The Gators had the best backcourt in America all season, and they showed it Monday night.
Denzel Aberdeen poured in 7 points, grabbed 2 rebounds, and was critical in Florida’s defensive prowess in the second half, when it held the Cougars without a field goal for 2 separate 3+ minute stretches to climb back into the basketball game. Alijah Martin was the best defensive player on the floor all night, finishing +10 in box-plus minus (second best all evening) and burying 2 monster free throws to give the Gators the lead with under a minute remaining in the game. And Will Richard, Todd Golden’s first commitment, was the best player in the building on Monday, stuffing the stat sheet with 18 points, 8 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block and forcing a gargantuan Houston turnover with great help defense on a driving LJ Cryer on Houston’s penultimate possession.
Florida wasn’t just elite guards.
The Gators big men were steady, out-rebounding the aggressive Cougars 40-39 and getting big-time second halves from Alex Condon (12 points, 7 rebounds, 4 steals) and Thomas Haugh (5 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, game-high +13 in box-plus minus).
“We have the best backcourt in America,” Todd Golden said after the championship clinching win. “I think we have the best frontcourt in America, too.”
Who could argue?
The Gators won 36 games, including 18 games against teams from the greatest league in the sport since at least 1997, when the KenPom database began to evaluate the analytical data behind high-level college basketball.
The Gators went 12-0 in March, a stretch that spanned 10 wins over teams ranked in the top 20 in KenPom, including 7 games against teams in the KenPom top 10. The Gators also won the national championship navigating a path that is tied for the toughest all-time for a No. 1 seed since tournament expansion (1985). The combined seed total for Florida’s opponents was 33, just 1 seed from the minimum of 32 and the toughest path for any national champion since the 1993 North Carolina Tar Heels.
Florida’s journey included defeating the top overall seed in Auburn and the 2-time defending national champions in UConn.
Speaking of UConn, isn’t it time to start talking about Florida as new hoops royalty?
Only UConn has more national championships in basketball than the Gators this century. Only Duke and North Carolina have as many.
Bruce Pearl has called Florida’s program “SEC royalty” for many years. It’s increasingly evident Pearl is right.
The Gators won their third national championship this century on Monday night, which, if you are keeping score at home, is 3x more than the rest of the SEC combined in the sport of men’s basketball this century. The Gators have advanced to 6 Final Fours in their history, trailing only blue-blood Kentucky among SEC programs, and they are, along with Kentucky, 1 of only 2 SEC programs in the top 10 in winning percentage this century. Florida is third in the SEC in win percentage since NCAA Tournament expansion in 1985, too, in case you wanted to make the argument that the Gators are a recent phenomenon.
Florida’s place in the SEC pecking order is secure, as should its place in SEC history and lore.
The Gators final season Net Rating of 36.46 was the highest of any of the 5 SEC Champions in the KenPom era, easily surpassing the efficiency margins of legendary clubs like 2007 Florida and 2012 Kentucky. Only 2015 Kentucky was more efficient, but those Wildcats didn’t finish the job. These Gators did, wrapping the greatest single season in Florida basketball history as the greatest team in SEC history, or at least the best since the invention of the internet.
The Gators could beat you any which way, in any style of game, in any venue. You want to run up and down with Florida in The Jungle? Florida will erase your early 10-point lead and beat you by 9, leading by as many as 21, like it did to Auburn in February.
You want to play in the mud in front of 15,000-plus in pumpkin orange? Florida will manhandle you on the glass and send a lot of folks home disappointed, as it did to Tennessee in the SEC Tournament championship game.
You want a slow-tempo, half-court execution game with less than 70 possessions? Florida sees you, UConn, and they have Walter Clayton Jr, and you do not.
You want a rock fight in the national championship game? The Gators are your huckleberry.
This team, filled with star guards no Power 5 schools wanted out of high school and not a single player ranked in the top 100 in recruiting rankings, took on all comers. Any style. Any building. Any night.
The SEC is a league on the rise, a rise that summited the mountaintop this season. But even if the league isn’t going anywhere, Florida is in a different tier of the elite, whether you call them new money or blue-blood or orange-and-blue blood or whatever you’d like as long as it begins with “National Champions.”
You better call this team something else.
The best SEC basketball team ever, one with a legacy that will last a long time.
I asked Alijah Martin about legacies again this weekend. Here’s what he said.
“Legacy? Our legacy is the underdog legacy. All of us, quote unquote, were not supposed to be here. Now we are in the Final Four, chasing dreams. If you work, you can be anywhere you want to be.”
Even cutting down nets while “One Shining Moment” plays.
Florida’s the national champion — and the greatest SEC team this century Saturday Down South.
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