John Clay: A magical SEC men's basketball season ends with a magical SEC national champion

John Clay, Lexington Herald-Leader on Apr 8, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

LEXINGTON, Ky. — It was only fitting that a classic SEC men’s basketball season should end with a classic game that crowned an SEC team as national champions.

And maybe it was fitting that the Florida Gators, the team known for its explosive offense, won the national championship with defense.

“We’ve gotten a lot of credit for offense, for being an explosive offense,” said Florida coach Todd Golden after the win. “But we’ve been a top 10 defense all year also and we’ve been able to stand up against really good offensive teams. Our defense won the game for us tonight.”

What Houston did to Duke in Saturday’s national semifinal at the Final Four, rallying from 14 points down in the second half to beat the Blue Devils, Florida did to the Cougars on Monday night, rallying from 12 points down in the second half to win 65-63 in the NCAA Tournament championship game.

And Todd Golden’s Gators did it with defense, not allowing Houston to get off a shot during the game’s final possession, which began with the Cougars inbounding the ball after their own timeout with 19.7 seconds remaining, then ended with the ball in the hands of Florida’s Alex Condon after a scramble on the floor.

It’s the third national title for Florida men’s basketball, which won back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007 under head coach Billy Donovan. It’s the first for Golden, who at 39 is the youngest coach to win the title since 37-year-old Jim Valvano guided North Carolina State to an upset win over Houston in 1983.

It had to be a heartbreaking conclusion for Houston’s 69-year-old coach Kelvin Sampson, who after the victory over Duke on Saturday said he was proud of the way his team hung around until something good happened.

Florida (36-4) did the same thing Monday. Golden’s Gators had played as well, if not better than any team in the nation down the stretch. They beat No. 1 Auburn at Auburn. They beat Alabama at Alabama. They beat Tennessee in the finals of the SEC Tournament in Nashville.

But they had two close calls leading up to Monday night — a 77-75 win over two-time defending champ UConn in the second round; an 84-79 victory over Texas Tech in the West Region finals.

Monday, Houston led 42-30 with 16:23 remaining and 45-34 with 14:07 left. But Florida chipped away until suddenly tying the score at 48 on an old-fashioned 3-point play by star guard Walter Clayton Jr. with 7:54 remaining.

Clayton had not played like a star up to that point. After scoring 64 points in Florida’s previous two games, the Gators guard was held scoreless by Houston’s smothering defense in the first half. But starting with that 3-point play, the Lake Wales, Fla., native finally got it going, scoring nine of the Gators’ final 17 points.

In fact, Florida didn’t take the lead in the second half until just 46.5 seconds remained when Alijah Martin made a pair of free throws to make it 64-63. On the other end, teammate Will Richard was able to get a hand on the ball while Emmanuel Sharp was driving to the hoop. The ball bounced off Sharp’s leg and out of bounds with 26.6 seconds left.

Houston fouled Florida’s Denzel Aberdeen, who made the second of two free throws for a 65-63 lead. That’s when Sampson called his final timeout to set up a play. It was a play that didn’t work. Clayton closed out on Sharp, who hesitated when going up and ended up letting go of the basketball, but couldn’t recover it without being called for a turnover.

Florida held Houston scoreless over the final 2:04. Twice the Cougars had the basketball with a 63-62 lead and failed to put the ball in the basket. On the second possession, Florida’s Thomas Haugh blocked L.J. Cryer’s shot. In all, Houston failed to score on its final four possessions.

“Saturday we found a way to win, tonight not so much,” Sampson said afterward. “Thinking about those last two possessions. Incomprehensible in those situations we couldn’t get a shot.”

SEC teams had found ways to win all season, be it against tough non-conference competition or putting a record 14 teams in the NCAA Tournament and two teams in the Final Four with Florida and Auburn.

And Florida came out on top.

____