SAN ANTONIO — How did it come to this? With the Florida Gators leaping into each other’s arms as the blue and orange confetti shower rained down, and Houston guard Emanuel Sharp on the floor pulling his jersey over his face, the picture of anguish?
How did the team that committed seven turnovers before it picked up its first foul, trailed by 12 points in the second half, was ahead for only 63 seconds all night and never by more than two points and didn’t get a point from its All-American guard for the first 25 minutes end up cutting down the nets Monday night?
Why is Florida the national champion today, and Houston isn’t?
We could ask the 39-year-old coach, the youngest to win the national championship in 42 years, since NC State coach Jim Valvano went dashing around the court in Albuquerque.
“It’s kind of embedded in our DNA,” Todd Golden said. “They did what they always do. They stepped up”
By that he meant the comeback from nine points down to beat Auburn Saturday and from 10 behind to beat Texas Tech in the Elite Eight and the 7-4 record this season when trailing at halftime. And Monday night, the third largest comeback ever in a national championship game. The Gators stubborned their way to the podium because they felt — with the wind of the great Florida teams of the past at their backs — that was their mission.
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“We got the basketball program back to where it belongs,” Golden said, “which is raising trophies.”
We could ask one of the transfer guards who landed in Gainesville for a chance at a night like this, when he could make two free throws to put his team ahead to stay. “We’ve done it all year. We’ve been down too many times. We never blink, we never fold,” guard Alijah Martin said. “I mean, it’s self-explanatory. We’re here right now.
“If we’ve got to suit up, tomorrow we’ll do it.”
We could ask the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, who had torched Auburn for 34 points, and Texas Tech for 30 and had averaged nearly 25 points in the NCAA Tournament for Florida, taking the month of March and making it his own. Except Monday night, when 13 players on both sides had scored by halftime but none of them were named Walter Clayton Jr. For a while, every shot he tried clanged. His first point would not come until the 14:57 mark of the second half, his first basket not until 7:54.
“We’ve been saying all year our motto is ‘We all can go,'” he said. “We’ve got a team full of guys that can go. It’s not just about me, we’ve got multiple guys that can go get a bucket and do anything.”
“We’ve got guys who cover up each other’s flaws.”
Yet there were 11 crucial points from him in those last 15 minutes, and three times he brought his team even. There were his seven assists, which were two more than the entire Houston team. And in the final irony, after his flurry of big shots all month, his play that secured his team’s legend had to be made on the defensive end.
Five seconds left, Florida ahead 65-63, the Cougars’ Sharp ready to go for the win with a 3-pointer from the top. He was open, until he wasn’t. That was Clayton racing like Usain Bolt out to close on Sharp, who as he went up to shoot suddenly had a Gator in his face. He dropped the ball as he came back down, couldn’t retrieve it because that would have been a travel violation, and the ball scooted around, carrying Houston’s dying hopes. Florida’s Alex Condon recovered it like a fumble. He’s from Perth and it might as well have been Australian rules football.
And then time ran out.
“Just go 100 percent,” Clayton said of the play. “Honestly, my mind was just a little blank. Trying to get a stop.”
His coach appreciated that.
“The last play was just absolutely an amazing play,” Golden said. “Walter recovered, closed out, flew by his right side to not allow himself to foul.”
“I saw the ball loose. I was just hoping that we beat them to the ball. When Condon got on the floor, I figured it was either going to be a jump ball or we were going to come away with it. Next thing I knew, game was over. Just an incredible moment and something I won’t forget.”
We could even ask the mother of the Most Outstanding Player. Cherie Quarg was on the court as her son Walter celebrated. He had looked into the TV cameras and declared, “I can’t wait to see my mama.”
Mama talked about what led to this.
“He worked for this seven days a week,” she said. “He deserves it all. I’m overwhelmed. A lot of extreme happiness and extreme sadness. A lot of emotion.”
But not so many nerves when the Gators and her son had to work out of yet another hole. “We’ve done it so many times I actually was not as stressed this game as the other games. I was actually pretty good this game,” she said. “I cried it all out before we got here.”
As her son posed for pictures with the trophy, it was important to think back on two of the biggest decisions of his young life.
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Five years ago he was a two-sport high school star in the geographical center of the Florida peninsula. Which sport would be his future? Well, he hated football practice. “I love playing basketball, getting better at it. That’s one of the main reasons I stopped playing football,” he said. “I was kind of naturally good in football. I felt like if I would have stayed with football I wouldn’t have worked as hard and there’s some guys who would have ended up getting ahead of me.”
Two years ago, having proven himself at Iona, he was looking to transfer up the food chain. His Iona coach Rick Pitino was headed for St. John’s. That seemed like a great idea. But then this young new coach at Florida was also interested and that was home. Home won out. Barely.
Two decisions that were really bad news for 2024-25 Houston Cougars. They just didn’t know it yet.
They do now. He was here this night, for this moment, to hit big shots late and then put a final stake through Houston’s heart with defense.
“God blessed us with all of the right calls,” the mother said of her son’s fork-in-the-road decisions. “He’s definitely led us on this journey.”
It was as if all the Gators’ roads from so many places had converged on one trophy podium. They had come from hither and yon, showing up in the bright lights of the SEC from quieter outposts, chasing this very shining moment.
Not many predicted they’d be here Monday night. Not when this season began, anyway. They were picked to finish sixth in the SEC. Surely, their league full of barracudas would chew up these guys from… wherever. But here they were, having beaten two No. 1 seeds in San Antonio and taken out defending champion UConn the week before.
“I feel like we have a team full of guys with chips on our shoulders,” guard Will Richard had said. “The coaching staff as well.”
The coach came from San Francisco, where they won national championships, but that was 70 years ago, 31 years before Todd Golden was born. Martin from Florida Atlantic, center Rueben Chinyelu from Nigeria. There’s a reason he was wearing No. 9. He was sitting in church last year thinking about whether he should transfer from Washington State to Florida and came across Joshua 1:9 in the Bible: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” And that included the Alamodome.
There was Australia’s Condon, who is more than 11,000 miles from home when he plays in Gainesville for Florida. He will forever be the last Gator to have touched the ball on Championship Monday, ending another tense trial by fire. “We make our fans be worried always,” he observed.
There was Richard, who kept Florida alive with 18 points, until Clayton broke loose. He started his career at Belmont. “We love playing for each other,” he said. “We love being Gators.” And there was Clayton, who came so close to being a St. John’s Red Stormer.
All their journeys, winding into the same title celebration.
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“It took a little bit to get all these pieces together,” Golden said. “But to a man, they all pull the same direction. There’s no unselfishness in our locker room. A guy like Walt gets asked all the questions, all the attention… but there’s no animosity there, no one concerned about that. These guys are just trying to win a championship.”
It was so perfect how all this worked out.
Perfect for Golden.
He saw all his construction plans work out. Not everyone who plays the transfer portal ends up smiling. But he has put steel into this program. The Gators have 13 double-digit comebacks to win in his three seasons.
“To become a part of our program these last couple years, you had to buy into our vision, you had to buy into putting the program above yourself,” he said. “Four of our starters are transfers. They’re all guys who bought in. They all have from the moment they’ve gotten to campus.”
Perfect for Florida.
It had been 18 years since the Gators ruled the sport, with the famous repeaters of 2006-07 coached by Billy Donovan. Now Florida is back, and who was in town to be introduced as a member of the newest class inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame? Donovan. “Just an incredible full-circle moment,” Golden said.
Perfect for the SEC.
Yeah, yeah, everyone knew about the regular season noise. How the SEC had produced the last three unbeaten teams to fall — Tennessee, Florida and Oklahoma. How the conference had won 88.9% of its non-league games during the regular season (a record) and absolutely leveled the ACC. How the conference sent a tidal wave of 14 teams into the tournament bracket and seven into the Sweet 16.
But without a championship, would all that pale? Florida made sure no one will ever know.
Perfect to end an epic Final Four, where no second half lead was safe. Not Auburn by nine, Duke by 14 or Houston by 12. Fate zigged and zagged in San Antonio.
The Gators did it by out-toughing the tough, by refusing to give against an opponent renowned for that, as the world saw Saturday when Houston blew past Duke.
“Saturday we found a way to win,” Kelvin Sampson said. “Tonight maybe not so much. That’s been a strength of ours all year long, was winning close games. But tonight we didn’t.”
The other team had something do with that. The team that intended to be in this spot all along.
“When we put that jersey on,” Martin said, “it just means more.”
Especially now.
