Part IV: A journey to a national title; No problems, just inconveniences

Urban Klavzar nails a three in the win over Auburn (UAA photo)

Robert Fulghum, an author and philosopher famous for finding simplistic solutions to stressful situations, once said, “If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience.” Just days before the loss to Tennessee in Knoxville, the spectre of the Title IX investigation of Todd Golden was lifted when an independent investigative firm out of California could find no evidence of allegations of sexual harassment among other things. Never a problem. Just an inconvenience. Then came the sprained ankle suffered by Walter Clayton Jr. at Tennessee. That proved to be another inconvenience.

That was small stuff since Clayton missed only one game, but there were injuries to Alijah Martin, Alex Condon and Sam Alexis. Big problem at some places, not at Florida. Just more inconvenience. Critics expected the Gators to crack, but the adversity they dealt with and overcame in February proved to be the major turning point of the entire season. Injuries thrust Denzel Aberdeen and Tommy Haugh into the starting lineup where they performed spectacularly. Seeing a front court depleted by injuries, Micah Handlogten burned the redshirt.

Over the next six games, the Gators found their mojo, emerging confident, deep and the team nobody in the country wanted to play. Over at ESPN, Seth Greenberg and Jay Bilas removed the Gators from their suspects list to the most likely to succeed in March. Not everyone in the country was convinced, but that played right into Golden’s hands. Nobody, but nobody ever played the disrespect card like Todd Golden.

When everyone else saw problems, Golden saw opportunity. They saw thorns, Golden saw roses.

You can’t win a national championship in February, but you can build the momentum that carries over into March. The momentum began in Gainesville when the Gators faced a very good Vanderbilt team minus Walter Clayton Jr.

Alex Condon nails a three against Vanderbilt (UAA photo)

February 4, 2025, Gainesville

No Walter Clayton Jr.? No problem. Just inconvenience.

With Walt watching on the bench in civvies, Denzel Aberdeen took over the point and ran the team flawlessly against Vandy. He handled the ball, distributed to teammates and was rock solid defensively. He scored 13 points and passed for three assists.  

The most important number? Zero. As in zero turnovers.

“You know, no turnovers again, controlled the game,” Todd Golden said after the Gators imposed their will on Vanderbilt, 86-75. “(Tyler) Tanner is one of the best on-ball defenders in the country and he didn’t allow him to force any turnovers on him. And again, he just controlled the game in the second half.”

Aberdeen had to take his game to a whole new level because Alijah Martin went out in the first half with what turned out to be a hip pointer. He ended up playing 27 minutes, but they were painful minutes and it was obvious something was wrong.

No Walter? No Alijah? No problem. Just inconvenience. Other people stepped up their games.

No Clayton meant someone else had to take over the scoring load. Will Richard obliged by going into one of his shooter’s comas. He bombed in five threes in seven shots en route to a 21-point, 7-rebound, 3-assist game. When Richard wasn’t stretching the Vandy defense, Alex Condon was overpowering the Commodores in the paint at both ends of the court. Condon finished with 19 points, nine rebounds and two blocked shots.

Aberdeen’s former bench-mates did their part. Tommy Haugh had eight points, nine rebounds and four assists along with a steal and a blocked shot. Urban Klavzar hit a couple of another area code threes so clean the net barely moved. Sam Alexis scored five including a critical three that gave the Gators the lead for good with 11:54 to go in the game.

Beating Vandy minus Walt and with A-Mart slowed to a crawl is one thing. No. 1 Auburn was next.

February 8, 2025, Auburn, Alabama

Ahead of the road trip to Auburn, Walter Clayton Jr. was declared fit to play. That was the good news. Game day Alijah Martin was a no go. Problem? Hardly. Just more inconvenience. Denzel Aberdeen slid over to the wing and Urban Klavzar’s 3-point shot was on radar lock from the moment he got off the bus.

Clayton did an absolute tap dance on Auburn. When they laid off him, he bombed in four 3-pointers. When they tried to take his shots away, he found open teammates. Nine times. He blocked a shot. He got a steal. He grabbed six rebounds.

Will Richard (12 points) and Denzel (10) did their part, and they got help from Klavzar who hit all three of his 3-pointers. They stretched the defense which left Alex Condon, Tommy Haugh, Rueben Chinyelu and Sam Alexis to overpower Auburn and Johni Broome in the paint. Condon went off for 17 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and a steal. Haugh had 16 points, nine rebounds, three assists, three blocked shots and a steal. Chinyelu and Alexis combined for seven points, three rebounds, one assist and one blocked shot.

We got a glimpse of things to come in the first half when Auburn jumped out to a 20-11 lead. Some teams have knees that turn into jelly when they go down by nine early in a hostile arena. It was just another day at the office for the Gators, who took control with a barrage of threes – one by Richard, one by Klavzar and one by Alexis – as they outscored the Tigers 37-18 the rest of the half.   

In the second half, the lead expanded to 21 on a 3-ball by Klavzar with 14:21 to go. From that point on, it was just a matter of playing out the clock. For the second time in a little over a month, Florida had knocked off the No. 1 team in the nation.

This win made a statement for the 20-3 (7-3 SEC) Gators. That 30-point win over Tennessee was no fluke.

“It’s a really big win for us,” Golden said. “Obviously, it’s a needle-mover in terms of NCAA seeding. It’s a needle-mover in terms of where we finish in the SEC. I’d be hard pressed to believe there’s going to be another club that’s going to be able to come in here in conference play and get a win.”

Tommy Haugh shoots over Mississippi State's Riley Kugel (UAA photo)

February 11, 2025, Starkville, Mississippi

More inconvenience for the now No. 3-ranked Gators. Thirty seconds into the game against Mississippi State, Alex Condon went down with a severely sprained ankle. In the second half, Sam Alexis will suffer a high ankle sprain. Alijah Martin is in civvies, still unable to play with his hip pointer. No problem.

Mississippi State is the No. 22 team in the country that will eventually make the NCAA Tournament field of 64, not exactly a bottom feeder. For the first 20 minutes, the Bulldogs have upset on their minds, but then Denzel Aberdeen and Tommy Haugh take over. Trailing at the half, 34-33, Aberdeen gets a three and a dunk while Haugh gets a rebound, two assists and a steal in the first four minutes of the second half as the Gators take control, 42-34. The lead will swell to 20 (58-38) and those once bold Mississippi State Bulldogs will barely put up a defense.

Aberdeen will finish with 20 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals. Once again zero turnovers. Haugh is all over the place. He nearly gets a triple-double off the bench – 16 points, nine rebounds, eight assists – and on the defensive end he has two blocks and two steals. Clayton gets 19 to go with six rebounds, six assists and a steal, while Rueben Chinyelu and Will Richard will finish with 10 each.

Aberdeen has made the transition from bench to starter seamlessly, but with Condon and Alexis down, Haugh will have to play with the same kind of insane energy that made him an absolute terror in Starkville.

Golden describes Haugh as “one of the guys who delivers the heartbeat for this team, and the passion in which he plays, the toughness, the consistency, of being coachable as he is to go out and execute on the floor what the coaches want him to do is everything … It’s an elite effort for him tonight.”

February 13, 2025, Gainesville, Florida

“I’m back” tweeted Micah Handlogten. The injuries to Alex Condon and Sam Alexis impressed a need bigger than taking a redshirt for the 7-1 Handlogten. On Rob Browne’s SEC Sidelines podcast I am asked the impact of Handlogten’s return.

“With him back, the Gators are the favorites to win the national championship,” I tell him.

That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

Micah Handlogten (3) is the last line of defense against South Carolina (UAA photo)

February 15, 2025, Gainesville, Florida

South Carolina comes to the O-Dome, probably still kicking itself for blowing a 14-point lead to the Gators back in Columbia. The Gators led only five seconds in that one, but it was the most important five seconds of the game. Alex Condon and Sam Alexis are out and Alijah Martin is dressed but his status is questionable coming back from the hip. No problem. Just another inconvenience. In their absence, Denzel Aberdeen and Tommy Haugh will be in the starting lineup.

On this night, Denzel and Haugh will be the stars in an easy 88-67 win. Aberdeen goes off for 22 points, three rebounds, three assists and a steal. Haugh’s stat line reads 20 points, six rebounds, three assists, one blocked shot and two steals. Between the two of them they hit 14-22 from the field, 8-13 from the 3-point line.

Micah enters the game at the 15:48 mark in the first half. The sold out O-Dome crowd erupts in an absolute lovefest greeting. The look on Micah’s face says everything. The crowd just confirmed that he made the right call to come back. Twenty-one seconds into the game, Micah’s pass to Aberdeen is converted into a 3-pointer that puts the Gators up 15-6. He will play 20 minutes, scoring two points while grabbing three rebounds. He hands out five assists, blocks two shots and comes away with two steals.

A-Mart returns also. He could have started but deferred to Denzel. That’s unselfishness for you. In his 24 minutes, Martin scores 11, hitting 3-5 from the 3-point line.

Clayton takes only nine shots. Instead of focusing on putting the ball in the hole, he spends the night getting the ball to teammates. He finishes with 10 points, four rebounds, eight assists and two steals.

The defense is incredible. The Gators spend the game running the Gamecocks off the 3-point line. They attempt only 12 the entire game. The Gators score 21 points while forcing 13 South Carolina turnovers.

Florida is 22-3, 9-3 in the SEC. When Condon comes back healthy, this is going to be formidable. I’m sticking with my prediction. The Gators are the favorites to win the national championship.

February 18, 2025, Gainesville, Florida

Oklahoma tried to outquick the 2nd-ranked Gators, believing their smaller front court guys could get to the rack. It seemed like a good idea at the moment, but as the Sooners were quick to discover, Florida’s big guys have no problems moving their feet and defending the perimeter. The result was Florida’s third straight game holding an opponent to fewer than 70 points. The Gators’ 85-63 win had everything to do with a relentless, efficient defensive effort.

In improving to 23-3 (10-3 SEC), the Gators held Oklahoma to only 49 shots from the floor. The Sooners managed only six second chance points. Only Jeremiah Fears, a likely NBA lottery pick, shot well (22 points) but one-man attacks just don’t work well against a defense that doesn’t take possessions off.

This one was over before the first half clock flatlined at 0:00. The Gators went on a 17-4 run that featured 3-pointers by Urban Klavzar, Denzel Aberdeen, Alijah Martin and two by Will Richard that staked UF to a 37-17 lead. From there it was a matter of cruise control offensively, intensity defensively.

Richard gave credit to Martin, the Florida Atlantic transfer whose intensity on the defensive end of the court is contagious.

“A-Mart (Alijah Martin), he’s taken us to a different level, just how he impacts the game, picking up full court,” Richard said. “I don’t feel like he gets enough credit for what he does for us on the defensive end. He’s definitely taken us to another level. The emphasis is definitely there and it’s brought us to another level.”

Five Gators scored in double figures led by Walter Clayton Jr. with 18, Richard and Martin with 14 each. Rueben Chinyelu, who was brilliant defensively, scored 11 and Klavzar became the ninth Gator to reach double figures this season with a 10-point effort.

February 22, 2025, Baton Rouge

Back in the spring of 2022, the Gators hired Todd Golden to replace the departed Mike White. LSU hired Matt McMahon from Morehead State. Consensus at the time was that LSU got the better end of the deal. Nobody was thinking that way when the Gators traveled to Baton Rouge ranked No. 2 nationally and looking like a team that will get a No. 1 seed when the NCAA announces its 64-team field.

For a half, however, McMahon and LSU seemed quite capable of springing a monumental upset. After bolting out to a 29-15 lead, the Gators went stone cold. LSU suddenly couldn’t miss as the Tigers finished the half on a 22-2 run, one of the worst stretches of basketball the Gators played all season.

“I think we got way too comfortable in the first half,” Tommy Haugh said after Florida’s 79-66 win. “We got that lead and thought it was going to be easy. That’s not the SEC. You get settled in and that can happen.”

There was some carryover into the second half, but when Walter Clayton Jr. scored six straight points to cut the deficit from eight to three (41-38), the Gators got back into a groove at both ends of the court. Clayton put the Gators ahead for good (49-48) with 12:16 to go but it wasn’t until Alijah Martin scored six straight points to stretch the lead to 10 (69-59) with 4:18 to go that the Gators had full control.

The big guys were difference makers. Rueben Chinyelu had his best game of the year with 19 points, 13 rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots. Haugh had 16 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, one steal and one blocked shot. Martin scored 14, Clayton 13 and Denzel Aberdeen 11.

The Gators outrebounded LSU 48-33 and outscored the Tigers in the paint 44-24.

February 25, 2025, Athens, Georgia

Thirteen minutes into the game the entire Gator Nation was asking who are these guys? Those same Georgia Bulldogs the Gators had blown out so handily in January were up 39-13. You would have thought Georgia was the No. 2 ranked team in the country and Florida was the team struggling to win enough games to eke their way into the NCAA field.

To the Gators’ credit, they did come back to actually take the lead in the last two minutes, but so much effort was spent coming back that there was no energy left to finish. Georgia 88, Florida 83.

It’s a game the Gators had no business losing. They were outscored in the paint 34-32 and they missed way too many free throws (18-29 for the game).

In the final 27 minutes of the game, with the exception of the missed free throws the Gators were outstanding offensively and the defense was intense. Florida outscored Georgia 70-49 after that extended period of first half ineptitude. Defensively, the Gators forced 17 Georgia turnovers that were converted into 29 points.

“We just put ourselves in too big a hole,” Golden said. “Obviously getting down 26 points 13 minutes into the game is not ideal when you’re trying to win a basketball game.”

Florida dropped to 24-4 overall and 11-4 in the SEC. With three games to go in the regular season, bracketologists Joe Lunardi and Jerry Palm dropped the Gators off their No. 1 lines. Auburn had all but clinched the SEC regular season title, but the race for second, third and fourth and the double bye at the SEC Tournament was up in the air.

Prior to Georgia, the Gators were playing like a championship team. The Georgia loss was so unexpected and the first half was so miserable that there was talk the Gators might drop all the way down to a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Too many people were thinking the Gators had a problem. This wasn’t a problem. It was simply an inconvenience.

Tomorrow: With the arrival of March, the Gators start putting things together. When the Gators rebounded from a 3-game losing streak to go on an 11-game run to the 2006 national championship, Joakim Noah coined the phrase “the Gator Boyz are hot!” The Gator Boyz were about to get hot again.