Last night, the Florida Gators defeated the Houston Cougars 65-63 to earn the school its third-ever title and its first Division I Men’s College Basketball Championship since 2007. This also signifies the first-ever championship for Gators head coach Todd Golden at any level of competition.
“It’s a heck of an accomplishment,” he said during the team’s postgame press conference. “I’m super proud of everybody in my program, top to bottom. My staff, who has been together for three years, has worked incredibly hard to help get our players to this point. And our players, they’ve been the difference all the way along… I do think what separates us and what has separated us all season is our team talent in the way our guys have played together and for each other all year. Because of that, we can call each other national champions for the rest of our lives.”
Despite trailing by as much as 12 points, the Gators were able to claw their way back into the contest before taking a 64-63 lead with 43 seconds to go in the game. They would only score one more point, but that would be enough to earn Florida its fourth come-from-behind win in six NCAA Tournament games and the Championship.
“I just think [about] our grit down the stretch and how hard we played defensively,” said Gators sophomore forward Alex Condon, who finished with 12 points, seven rebounds, and four steals. “I think we got nine stops towards the end of the game. It was just a team effort to get this win. It was crazy.”
THE FLORIDA GATORS ARE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS ONCE AGAIN 🏆 pic.twitter.com/a8WD5WcQlO
— ESPN (@espn) April 8, 2025
Even though Florida is known for offense, their defensive prowess ended up winning them the National Championship. The Gators’ smothering defense prevented the Houston Cougars from getting off a successful shot on the final possession of the game, allowing Florida to hold on for the two-point victory.
“I’m just going through those last two possessions more than anything else,” said Houston Cougars head coach Kelvin Sampson during the team’s postgame press conference. “It’s incomprehensible in that situation we couldn’t get a shot.”
With five seconds left in the game, Houston junior guard Emanuel Sharp jumped in the air for a three-point attempt but failed to shoot the ball at the basket as a defender came barreling towards him, which caused Sharp to throw the ball at the ground in order to avoid being called for a travel. That resulted in a mad scramble for the ball between Florida and Houston players as the game clock expired.
“We’re down two, and obviously, we didn’t need a three,” explained Sampson. “With Emanuel, we were struggling to score the entire second half. We got good looks, but Florida was doing a good job running us off the line and forcing us to score it. We just didn’t do a very good job of finishing some shots… At the end, you’ve got to get a shot. You’ve got to do better than that.”
“FLORIDA IS BACK ON TOP OF THE COLLEGE BASKETBALL WORLD!” pic.twitter.com/IeLecOAcSb
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) April 8, 2025
Florida senior guard Walter Clayton Jr. didn’t have the best night shooting, but he made a key defensive adjustment on the final play of the game by attempting to block Emanuel Sharp’s shot, which forced him to throw the ball away.
“Sharp kind of creeped down to the baseline,” said Clayton. “I saw a back screen. I’m yelling ‘back screen’ at (Condon). Sharp ended up slipping it. They tried to set little elevator screens. We work on it in practice, closing out, jumping to the side so you don’t foul the shooter. He pump-faked, threw the ball down, [and it] ended up being a good play… The feeling’s just surreal. It’s a crazy feeling. I honestly can’t even explain it, but it feels good, though.”
The blame should not be pinned solely on Emanuel Sharp. The Gators didn’t allow the Cougars to score a point in the final 2:05 of the game.
“Our defense won us the game tonight,” explained Todd Golden. “We got nine straight stops at one point in the middle of the second half… Walter [got a] great closeout. And, Condon [made a] great hustle play to win the game. That’s what made this team special all year is that we can win [in] different ways, and we showed that again tonight.”
