Part VII: A journey to a national title; A rally that defies description

Walter Clayton Jr. launches the shot that put the Gators ahead for good against Texas Tech (UAA Photo)

The king was dead, its leader griping to anyone who would listen that the zebras were the difference in a coup that prevented a third reign over the kingdom of college basketball. UConn was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament by the Florida Gators and the only ones paying attention to Danny Hurley’s X-rated outburst were UConn fans who will go to their graves believing what happened in Raleigh was a conspiracy.

Despite the win over UConn and the sensational shooting of Walter Clayton Jr., the Gators weren’t exactly showered with respect, largely because Duke played in the second game at The Lenovo Center. The CBS crew of Grant Hill and Bill Raftery heaped tons of praise on Duke freshman Cooper Flagg but theirs was nothing compared to Dick Vitale a week earlier at the ACC championship in Greensboro. Vitale did everything but offer to bear Flagg’s first born child and proclaimed nothing or no one would stand in the way of Duke.

All that played right into the hands of Todd Golden and the Gators, who were headed to San Francisco for a Sweet 16 matchup with Maryland, formerly of the ACC and now a power in the Big Ten. Golden continued to sell the chip on the Gators’ shoulder and all this Duke/Cooper Flagg talk only made the chip grow bigger.

Golden wasn’t afraid to tell the world there wasn’t a team in the country the Gators couldn’t beat. Walter Clayton Jr., a first team All-American who wasn’t even a unanimous choice for first team All-SEC, seemed to be on a mission to prove to Vitale and all the Flagg oglers that he was the best player in the country. Not just the best clutch shooter, but the best player period. Walter proclaimed Florida’s 3-guard scheme that includes Will Richard and Alijah Martin as the “best backcourt in the nation.”

The media obsession with Duke and Flagg drowned out anything Golden had to say. It played right into the Gators’ hands.

March 26, 2025, Orlando to San Francisco   

On the 4-hour flight from Orlando to Denver where I change planes, I am seated between a Christian missionary to Burma, now known as Myanmar, and a Muslim cleric from Azerbaijan. The back and forth between the two about their spiritual and religious differences is respectful. I feel blessed to hear such thoughtful discourse. I learn that Myanmar, a country that banned Christians years ago, now has four million. I learn from the cleric that the thing he loves about America is that Christians, Muslims, Jews and people of every faith live peacefully side-by-side.

In Denver there is enough time to get a barbecue sandwich and some banana pudding at Brothers. Brothers is owned by a couple of Brits who toured the South to sample the different styles of barbecue before opening their own restaurant. The barbecue and banana pudding remind me of Corky’s in Memphis.

The flight to San Francisco is supposed to be short and sweet. Emphasis on supposed. We circle San Francisco for 40 minutes and when the captain announces we now have permission to land we’re still 22 minutes out from San Francisco International.

Taking BART to Union Square I encounter Wes. He’s originally from St. Petersburg, Florida, but 30 years in San Francisco. I ask what he misses most about St. Pete and he says it’s his mom’s church. He starts singing “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and I join right in. Next thing you know we’re joined by this Jamaican lady who starts singing “Blessed Assurance.” By the time we get to Union Square we have a regular sing-along going and maybe 12 people have joined us.

My hotel screwed up my reservation. The clerk is belligerent, telling me because I didn’t check in the day before my reservation is cancelled. I show him on my phone the reservation that proves the hotel got it wrong. Belligerent turns nasty. I call American Express which cancels the charge to the hotel. I call a Courtyard and talk to Jamal. He sends an Uber driver to pick me up. My seventh floor room is perfect.

Across the street from the hotel is Chuy’s Fiesta. It’s not much bigger than my hotel room. Four tables, 16 chairs. The shrimp quesadilla is huge and loaded with 20 shrimp. The girl at the counter quips, “Real Mexican food served up by real Mexican people. What’ll they think of next?”

Alex Condon scores two second half points against Maryland (UAA Photo)

March 27, 2025, San Francisco

By the time the Florida-Maryland game at the Chase Center tips off, I have concluded that San Francisco is (a) the best food city in America and (b) every bit as expensive as New York. A great place to visit, but I don’t think I would want to live here.

With 12:16 remaining in the first half, the stomachs of every Gator in the entire world go into spin cycle. Alex Condon goes down with an ankle injury. Now we know why it was so important for Micah Handlogten to burn his redshirt. It’s not just Rueben Chinyelu, Tommy Haugh and Micah against Maryland’s dynamic twosome of Derik Queen and Julian Reese but a zebra crew led by Bart Lenox. Bart, I think, gets paid by the toot of his whistle.

The combination of a 9-shot advantage at the foul line and 13 Florida turnovers keeps this game very tight. Somehow the Gators eke out a 40-38 halftime lead, but there is a feeling of uneasiness.

“We were able to go into halftime with the lead even though we had 13 turnovers in the first half,” Todd Golden said after the Gators advanced to the Elite Eight game with an 89-71 win over Maryland. “Once we got there we were able to recalibrate a little bit and the message was simple: We’ve got to keep defending, obviously continue to stay aggressive on the glass but we have to do a better job of taking care of the ball. If we didn’t do that, we would have put ourselves in jeopardy of going home tonight.”

Moments before the second half begins, Condo walks to the UF bench in uniform and without any noticeable limp. Florida fans in the crowd let out a roar. One of the Gator fans seated right behind my press row seat proclaims, “Look who’s back! We are going to win!”

The second half is quite a contrast to the first. The Gators quit making the silly turnovers (only four in the second half). The passing is crisper and the ball moves so quickly that it leaves holes in the Maryland defense. The Gators seem to get to every 50-50 ball and they dominate the rebounding. Defensively, even though the Gators continue to have difficulty stopping Queen, they lock down the 3-point line.

The game turns on a pair of dunks by Chinyelu and a 3-pointer by Alijah Martin that expand Florida’s lead to 55-44 with 14:19 left in the game. The Martin three is like throwing 100 pounds of chicken in the lagoon at Gatorland. Let the Big Gator eat! Everybody gets into the act at both ends of the court.

The scoring is so nicely distributed that Maryland’s defense is stretched and frazzled. Six Gators score double figures – Will Richard (15), Martin (14), Walter Clayton Jr. (13), Tommy Haugh (13), Denzel Aberdeen (13) and Chinyelu (10).  

The defense is what makes Golden smile.

“We were elite in the second half,” Golden said. “We did a great job of staying aggressive, handling their pressure and their quickness and their length. Our defense stayed consistent. We were awesome on the glass all night, both sides of the ball and we started taking advantage of the opportunities we got in transition. That allowed us to step on the gas a bit and break away from them.”

The Saturday opponent will be Texas Tech, which had a miracle finish to beat Arkansas in overtime.

As I’m walking out of the Chase Center, I detour to where Arkansas is boarding the buses, the Razorbacks’ season over. John Calipari has a devastated look on his face, but he looks up, sees me and smiles. I get a hug.

“So sorry about your stepfather,” he tells me. “Your mother is okay?”

I tell him yes, ask about his family and wish him the best. He hugs me again. This is the side of John Calipari that more people should see.

March 29, 2025, San Francisco

At the Friday press conference, Golden talks about the fact the Florida roster doesn’t have a single player who was a 4-star or 5-star recruit out of high school. He says he isn’t opposed to recruiting them, but in his opinion it is much more important to find talented guys who (a) are coachable, (b) fit the system and (c) fit the culture he’s built at UF. 

Emphasis on culture. This is what separates the Gators from everyone else. The Gators have a roster of guys who play for each other. Nobody is concerned with who scored the most points or who got the headlines. They’re all about the winning and they play hard, not willing to let their teammates down with a lackluster effort.

Golden says, “If they’re five stars that want to be a part of what we’re doing, great. If not, we’ll continue to find Tommy Haughs and Alex Condons and go get guys that compete their tails off and are really prideful about wearing the Florida jersey and doing it that way and live with the results.”

Haugh and Condon should be the poster children of what Golden has built at Florida. Haugh wasn’t heavily recruited out of high school in Pennsylvania. He was going to Richmond when Golden hired Richmond assistant Kevin Hovde. Golden was in Las Vegas for an NBA Global event to scout Rueben Chinyelu when Condon caught his eye playing for Australia.

“We both weren’t heavily recruited out of high school,” Haugh said. “He [Golden] kind of went against the grain and picked us out we’ll always have an appreciation for Coach.”

Chinyelu resisted Golden in Las Vegas, but after a year at Washington State, he transferred to UF.

The Florida backcourt is made up of three transfers, none of whom were big time recruits out of high school. Walter Clayton Jr. spurned football offers from Alabama, Georgia, Notre Dame and Florida to play basketball two seasons at Iona before transferring to UF. Will Richard, son of former Clemson linebacker Al Richard, spent his freshman year at Belmont of the Ohio Valley Conference then transferred to Florida. He was Golden’s first recruit. Martin was an All-State quarterback in Mississippi who threw for 2,100 yards and ran for another 1,300 his senior year, but he chose a basketball scholarship to Florida Atlantic rather than play football. He was a driving force in FAU’s run to the 2023 Final Four. He transferred to Florida prior to the 2024-25 season.

Talking with a couple of Bay Area media guys, one of them says, “If Florida wins the national championship it’s going to set the recruiting industry back light years. These guys are all 5-star players now but out of high school they were no-stars.”

Dinner is at a Korean restaurant that has the best kimchi I’ve eaten in the United States. The food is great and there is basketball on TV. Life is good!

Tommy Haugh hits the first of two 3-pointers in the rally against Texas Tech (UAA Photo)

March 30, 2025, San Francisco

It’s funny the things you think about in the middle of a basketball game. The morning of Florida’s Elite Eight game with Texas Tech I finished reading “Marine! The Life of Chesty Puller.” At Guadalcanal, his troops surrounded and outnumbered by a crack Japanese division, Puller told his officers, “They are in front of us, behind us and we are flanked on both sides by an enemy that outnumbers us 29:1. They can’t get away from us now!” Puller’s troops defied all conventional wisdom and won that battle.

When Florida was down 71-61 to Texas Tech with 6:18 left in the game whose winner would advance to San Antonio for the Final Four, it looked like the Gators were about to become the fourth UF team to go down in flames at the Elite Eight. Forty-six seconds later, Texas Tech All-American JT Toppin let fly with a wide open three that looked good all the way until it clanged off the rim. As the Texas Tech contingent in the Chase Center let out a collective groan, Tommy Haugh ran down the rebound in the corner and flipped it to Walter Clayton Jr.

Clayton dribbled down the court and halfway into the paint. Seeing a crowd he dribbled out to the left wing, turned and let fly with what looked like a bad decision three. The ball hit the rim, bounced high and hit the rim again, but instead of caroming off, it landed softly in the net, cutting the Texas Tech margin to 71-64.

At that moment, Chesty Puller came to mind and I thought the Gators had Texas Tech exactly where they wanted. There was still plenty of time left, but something about Walter Clayton Jr. told me he wasn’t about to let the Gators lose. When a game is on the line and the Gators are trailing, Walter Clayton Jr. has whoever the Gators are playing at a distinct disadvantage.

Of the final 23 points the Gators scored in their 84-79 Elite Eight win, Clayton scored 13. He hit three 3-pointers, snaked his way through three Texas Tech defenders for a layup, blocked a shot, grabbed a rebound, made passes that Tommy Haugh converted into clutch 3-pointers and for good measure drained a pair of free throws with 10.6 seconds to go.

Clayton was fearless, living in a moment that wasn't too big for him.

“The biggest thing in those moments is you need to have somebody that wants to take those shots,” Todd Golden said. “They're obviously difficult plays, but someone that has the confidence to step up and make incredible individual plays and Walter did that for us tonight.”

In the final 5:24 the Gators outscored Texas Tech 23-8. In the final 2:50, the Gators outscored the Red Raiders 18-4. Walter Clayton’s fingerprints were all over the rally from dead in the water to a punched ticket to the Final Four. The Gators were surrounded and Walter Clayton was Chesty Puller.

It is in moments like this that coaches look their team in the eye, searching for fear and doubt. At the under-4 media time out, Golden looked the Gators in the eye one-by-one. He didn’t see a hint of doubt in anyone’s eyes as he told them what had to happen if they wanted to extend the season. Call this his win or else message.

“We were down nine or 10, whatever it was,” Golden said. “The message was we've got to make every winning play down the stretch.”

It was either make the plays or this magical mystery tour would come to an abrupt end. Good teams fold under such circumstances. Great teams rise to the occasion and make the plays they have to make. Offensively, defensively, when plays had to be made, a Gator made the plays. Games like this are always decided by toughest team.

The Gators were down 75-66 when Clayton missed a three that Haugh came out of nowhere to rebound. Dribbling the ball into the left corner, Haugh passed to Clayton who put the ball on the deck, drawing two defenders into the corner that Haugh had just vacated. Bad mistake on their part. Haugh was wide open 10 feet away on the wing. Clayton hit him with a chest high pass and the ball was next seen descending through the net. The clock showed 2:50 remaining. It was 75-69 and the Texas Tech people were as nervous as Gators were giddy.

A missed Texas Tech free throw and 23 seconds later, Haugh buried another three. Texas Tech doubled up on Clayton, who got the ball to Will Richard and over to Haugh, wide open on the right wing. At 75-72, Florida fans felt a surge of confidence. Texas Tech fans were about to lose their lunch, particularly when Toppin bricked another free throw and Haugh rebounded.

At the other end, Clayton dribbled around the perimeter looking for an opening. Dribbling left with 6-6 Darrion Williams defending, Clayton did a crossover, stepped back to his right and let fly with a game-tying three. The score 75-75 with 1:47 left on the clock. Enough time for both teams to win or lose this one, but Florida had Walter Clayton Jr. Texas Tech did not.  

After Tech took its last lead with 1:23 to go who else but Clayton had the answer? In a play that will go down as perhaps the greatest in Florida basketball history, Walter Clayton Jr. took a little lob pass from Haugh into the lane. Two dribbles into a double team, Clayton retreated, dribbling back out to an open spot the right side of the lane. Back to the basket he wasted no time setting his feet, instead pivoting and launching the three that put the Gators ahead for good, 78-77, with 59 seconds left to play.

Total delirium among the Florida contingent. Doom and gloom among the Red Raiders. One point could have been a million because they had no one capable of stopping Walter Clayton Jr. It was over and they knew it.

The final 59 seconds were all about Florida defense and made free throws. The Gators smothered Texas Tech at one end, didn’t miss at the foul line at the other. Clayton was 2-2, Alijah Martin 2-2 and Will Richard 2-2, all three of them unfazed by the pressure.

The Florida bench erupts as the Gators rally against Texas Tech (UAA Photo)

This was a 40-minute game but no one is going to remember what happened in the first 34 minutes. They will only remember what happened when Walter Clayton Jr. took the game over, especially the last 2:50. From teetering on the verge of a call for last rites, the Gators staged a dramatic rally that defied description. Some teams refuse to lose. Florida was that team.

Walking back to the hotel, the evening chill overwhelmed by the warm glow of one of the great performances I've ever seen in all the years I've written about college basketball, I ran into Gator fans celebrating at the famous Pinecrest Diner. Seeing the media badge that I was still wearing they asked me what I thought about the game.

“The last five minutes were played right in front of me where I was sitting,” I responded. “I could almost reach out and touch. I saw it and I still can’t believe what I saw. When Walter Clayton Jr. is on your team, no deficit is safe. They can say what they want about Cooper Flagg or Johni Broome, but the best player in the country – and it isn’t even close – is Walter Clayton Jr.”

Tomorrow: The comeback against Texas Tech was miraculous, but it almost paled in comparison to what happened in San Antonio.