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I’ll never understand how Florida won that game, but I’ll never wonder how the Gators won it all
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It’s been 10 minutes since Emanuel Sharp left his feet and watched a mad scramble for the ball ensue as time ran out, and I still don’t know how Florida just won a national title.
Don’t get it twisted. I know how Florida got to that stage and I know what characteristics were evident during that run to erase a 12-point deficit, which was the 3rd-largest ever overcome in a national title game.
Grit. Resilience. Poise. Toughness. Take your pick. All apply.
But it’ll take several rewatches of that game to truly understand how Florida pulled that off that 65-63 national championship win for the ages.
Even when the clock hit 0:00, I still didn’t believe that the Gators had just closed out a title in that way. Let’s throw win probability stats out the window (for now) and instead, just ask the obvious question. In a game that Florida led for just 17 seconds before the final minute — did that ever feel truly inevitable for Florida? Maybe that depends on the beholder. After all, this was a Florida team that had to overcome a 10-point deficit in the Elite Eight and had to dig itself out of a 9-point hole in the Final Four victory against Auburn.
But man, Florida saved its best comeback for last.
Mind you, this came on a night in which Walter Clayton Jr. had his worst game of the postseason. The guy who had 30+ points in each of the last 2 games with an average of 24.6 points in the NCAA Tournament didn’t have a made shot until he got an and-1 to fall with 7:54 left in the game. So how did he stay involved? After he couldn’t muster anything from long-range early, he played the role of distributor with 7 assists. Several of those went to Will Richard, who kept Florida in the game with 14 of Florida’s 28 first-half points.
For those 2 guys, though, their most memorable plays of the night came on the last 2 Houston possessions with Florida clinging to the lead. The first was when Richard made the bold decision to reach in without fouling on a driving Sharp, who watched the ball roll off his leg out of bounds. Without that defensive prowess, Florida might’ve allowed a bucket or fouled Houston in the double bonus to surrender the late lead.
The defensive moment that’ll stand the test of time will be Clayton’s close-out on Sharp to force the awkward sequence.
It’ll take dozens of rewatches of that one for that sequence to ever make sense.
Houston had Florida’s offense in complete disarray. Whether that was the limited airspace to Clayton or the pressure that the Cougars applied at the rim, the nation’s No. 1 defense looked the part throughout that instant classic.
That was Florida’s worst offensive output since that 64-44 loss at Tennessee over 2 months ago.
Didn’t matter.
That was Florida’s largest deficit in the NCAA Tournament.
Didn’t matter.
That was Florida’s first game with multiple technical fouls this year (it had 1 all year before Monday night).
Didn’t matter.
It didn’t matter that Florida came into this tournament with a 30-something coach who had never won an NCAA Tournament game. Todd Golden did a masterful job adjusting on that stage. Whether that was using all 4 of Florida’s bigs to mix up looks on J’Wan Roberts or attacking the basket without screeners, the Gators were indeed the better team in the second half.
Still, though. This was the tough-as-a-2-dollar-steak Houston team that did the impossible with its comeback against 1-seed Duke. That’s not the type of team that surrenders a 93% win probability in the second half (that was when it was 45-34 at the 14:07 mark).
Just add it to the Florida legacy file. While we’re at it, let’s add a few other words to it.
Inevitable. Unflappable. Iconic. All apply.
When we look back on this team’s run, we’ll appreciate things like Thomas Haugh finishing at the rim as he was fouled to spark a Florida run, or perhaps the lasting image will of the Final Four be that Alijah Martin dunk for the ages against Auburn. We’ll lose track of things like the massive defensive impact of Micah Handlogten during his 9 minutes, and we might even forget out Florida didn’t come unraveled when Rueben Chinyelu slammed the ball in frustration and drew one of those 2 aforementioned technicals.
Every bit of that defined this all-time Florida run. To emerge from a historically dominant SEC as conference tournament champs and earn a 1-seed was one thing, but to rally back from second-half deficits repeatedly against the toughest path ever for a No. 1 seed since the tournament expanded in 1985 was an all-time feat. The Gators completed an all-time task.
Monday was the final box to check for immortality. I still don’t know how, but Florida found a way.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
