Part VIII: A journey to a national title; Gators at the Duke Invitational
Updated: May 3, 2025
As the winners of the regionals converged on San Antonio, a substantial portion of the national media thought this was nothing more than the Duke Invitational. The Florida Gators had some support. Jay Bilas and Seth Greenberg of ESPN were sticking with Florida as their choice to cut down the nets, but there was this obsession with Duke and Cooper Flagg. Nobody was giving Auburn or Houston much chance to win.
Once in San Antonio, Flagg, to no one’s surprise, took home the big trophy as the national player of the year. When I watched him play two games in Raleigh a couple of weeks earlier, I thought Flagg is a very good player, but I didn’t feel compelled to call him the greatest thing since the elimination of the center jump after every made basket. When I turned in my National Association of Basketball Writers ballot, my national player of the year choice was Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr. with Johni Broome of Auburn No. 2.
I confided in some friends that I thought Duke benefitted from a very weak ACC and would have struggled to win more than 10-12 games in the SEC. I’ve never seen such a weak ACC nor have I ever seen such a strong SEC.
Before taking off for San Antonio, I tell Gator great Gary Keller Florida is the best team in the country and will win a national championship. He agrees but cautions first things first. To get to the national championship game the Gators have to play Auburn.
Thursday, April 3, 2025, Orlando, Austin and San Antonio
The combination of the Final Four and the annual coaches convention makes getting in and out of San Antonio a problem I don’t want to deal with so ace photographer Chris Spears and I are flying to Austin, then driving to San Antonio.
Going through security I put everything on the trays and last second put my Airpods on top of my computer. This lady that I would want on my side if I’m in a barroom and a brawl breaks out, chats with me as I go through the metal detectors. On the other side as I start putting everything back in my pockets this guy reaches on top of my computer and grabs my Airpods. I politely tell him to put them back, those are mine.
“No, no! These are mine,” he tells me. I disagree and he pulls out his iPhone to show that he has a connection to Airpods. “See, these are mine,” he says and tries to walk off.
I suggest he is a thief, which he comes back at me with a barrage of words that rhyme with fire truck. He’s trying to walk off and I call him thief again, this time loud enough that the Homeland Security lady comes over and asks what is the matter.
As I’m telling her what happened, and open my phone, the light on the Airpods the guy is holding turns green, proof they are mine. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out Airpods, says, “Little mistake. I’m sorry.”
He tries to walk off and the lady grabs him by the arm with one hand, grabs his carry-on luggage with the other. As I’m putting my computer back into my bag and getting ready to put my shoes back on, the lady discovers maybe 12 Airpods cases in his bag.
I’m hoping this isn’t an omen for the weekend.
***
When the plane touches down on the runway in Austin we see this beautiful terminal, part of which is under construction. Very nice, so why are we turning and heading out to the north 40? And when the plane stops there is no jetway. It’s down the stairs and a walk to what looks like a very large converted doublewide. This is the Frontier terminal. Swell.
And considering there is only one plane on the tarmac, why, pray tell, does it take 25 minutes for the luggage to arrive. In my mind, Karen Carpenter’s mellow voice starts singing “We’ve Only Just Begun.” The Airpods incident at the airport in Orlando is feeling like an omen.
Outside it looks like it’s going to rain. We get to stand in line for a bus that takes us to the main terminal. We wait. We wait some more. We continue to wait. Nearly 20 minutes later this bus pulls up. Not very big. Maybe 30 people squeeze in. Chris, who brought his lovely wife Kelly for this trip, and I wait. My knee, which took a pounding on the San Francisco hills, is hurting. I’m hungry. I don’t want to get rained upon. Give me another five minutes and I’ll have at least 10 new things to gripe and complain about.
The bus arrives and we go on a 15-minute ride on roads so narrow I hope nobody comes at us from the opposite direction. The guy sitting to my right hasn’t bathed in weeks. Either that or he sweats a lot. The lady on the left must have had three cloves of garlic for breakfast. Swell.
When we finally are dumped at the main terminal it’s a hike to Alamo to rent my car. Finally, something goes easy. Four minutes and I’m on my way to decide which midsize SUV I’ll be driving. Chris and Kelly have another car rented so they can detour on the way to San Antonio through Wacky Waco to stay at Hotel 1928, owned by HGTV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines.
***
Once in San Antonio, credentials secured, Whataburger is the next stop. We used to have one in Gainesville, another in Starke, but they went belly-up due to financial difficulties of the owner. No such problem in San Antonio where the chain is headquartered. The Whataburger double with cheese and extra jalapenos, fries and a drink comes to $7.24 which is only slightly more expensive than a Happy Meal.
Home for the next few days is at the home of friends Larry and Pauline Gross. Larry is a longtime Gator fan who grew up in Tampa playing golf with Eddie Pearce and making his way to the armory to watch rassling with Gordon Solie on the microphone going from spinning toe hold to atomic elbow drop to sleeper hold without a blink. Pauline is a retired Army colonel. Upstairs I’ve got an office to use, a seriously comfortable bed and an Airedale named Boss who has adopted me and will stand guard over me until I depart.
Dinner is just up the interstate from their neighborhood to the original Rudy’s Barbecue at Leon Springs. We wait in line, order the brisket, some ribs, pork and cole slaw. While waiting a lady offers us a slice of jalapeno sausage, which melts in our mouths with a rather nice kick at the end. When we grab our cardboard carton with the food on it, she tosses in a link with a smile, then hands a few sheets of wrapping paper. “Our fine china,” she tells us.
It has been years since I was at the original Rudy’s. The barbeque is still incredible and the sauce tangy but not thermonuclear. Larry has been sending me Rudy’s sauce and cases of Dink’s barbecue sauce (from Bartlesville, Oklahoma) for years.
Back at Casa Gross, we sit by the pool under a high Texas sky. Boss and Charlie the lab keep us safe from intruders.
Friday, April 4, 2025, San Antonio
Friday is traditionally fan day before the Final Four. Fans who only dream of finding a ticket at a reasonable price come to watch all four teams practice. The bands, cheerleaders and mascots are all there along with thousands of fans. The Alamodome is a rocking place and we’re still more than 24 hours before the Gators will tip off against Auburn.
At his press conference, a very confident Todd Golden talks about how he sealed the deal to land Walter Clayton Jr. out of the portal. Clayton was the MAAC Player of the Year at Iona, playing for Rick Pitino. When Pitino took the St. John’s job expectations were that Clayton would go with him, but Golden made a convincing case for Florida.
Just when it seemed Clayton was going to be a Gator, Walt went to New York to visit Iona teammate and close friend Daniss Jenkins. On Easter Sunday 2023, Walt’s mom let Golden know St. John’s and Pitino seemed to be making headway with a last ditch pitch.
“I guess one of the benefits of being Jewish is that we don't celebrate Easter,” Golden said. “Got on a plane that afternoon, flew up, met with Walt on Easter Sunday evening, me and Coach Korey McCray. Had a great meal talking through everything with him. Before we left that night, he let us know he was going to come home.
“I think that extra effort, going up there and sitting with him, reconfirming our vision for him, what our program would be like was really important. Obviously I'm really glad we got on that plane. It was really well worth it.”
In a little more than 24 hours, that spur of the moment flight will prove to be one of the smartest decisions Todd Golden ever made.
Saturday, April 5, 2025, San Antonio
Game day. The pregame meal will be at San Antonio landmark Chris Madrid’s along with Larry, Pauline and daughter Morgan. This is the new Chris Madrid’s. The original, where I first got to know the food, burned down replaced by this one which is jam packed. No reservations so it’s grab a seat soon as you find one open. We spot one with four chairs out on the patio. Larry secures it. We order, food is brought to our table, and it’s every bit as good as it was way back when at the old restaurant. The burger is huge and the jalapenos have some extra kick to them. Life is good.
At the Alamodome I arrive early. Walking into an empty arena I think back to the first Final Four I covered in St. Louis in 1973. The late great Bill Walton scored 44 points, hitting 21-22 from the field in an era when there was no dunking allowed. UCLA won its seventh straight NCAA title. No one will ever break that record and no one will ever have a night like the one Walton had as UCLA walloped Memphis State 87-66. A year later the Final Four was in Greensboro. In the semifinals Norm Sloan and North Carolina State ended UCLA’s run of national titles with an 80-77 double overtime in which the Wolfpack came from 11 down in regulation, seven down in the second overtime.
Today, I believe, is going to be a war. Bruce Pearl and Auburn are looking for their first national championship. Florida coach Todd Golden is like a second son to Bruce Pearl. Steven Pearl, Bruce’s son and assistant, is Todd’s best friend and close as a brother. These guys really love each other but on this day only one team can win the game.
Thirty minutes before the opening tip, I am greeted by a Duke writer who says, “Going to be a fun game Monday night. Can’t wait until we play the Gators.” I do believe the Gators are going to win, but I’m not all that impressed with Duke, which I saw twice in Raleigh. I watched on TV in November when Duke lost to Kansas and Kentucky. I thought Duke got a home job when it beat Auburn in December.
My press seat is next to Kenny Cross, the fine basketball writer from Lindy’s and long time friend. Next to him is Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel. I tell Kenny what the Duke writer said and he responds, “They’ll be lucky to beat Houston. They’ve never played anyone as physical as Houston.”
Ten minutes before the opening tip I go to get something to drink. I run into an Auburn guy who tells me, “We’re screwed. Roger Ayers is calling this game.” A couple of minutes later, a Gator fan tells me, “We’re screwed. Roger Ayers is the most overrated official in the country and we had Courtney Green when we played UConn.”
That seems to settle it. The fans have spoken. Both teams will get screwed by the officiating.
Saturday, April 5, 2025, San Antonio
I love the last couple of minutes before the opening tip of a Final Four game. Although I wish the games were still played in regular basketball arenas instead of these domed stadiums, it’s still inside and the electricity in the air can’t be matched. They play most of the college football championship games indoors, too, but it isn’t the same as basketball. I’ve concluded over the years that it’s because there are four teams at the Final Four, four fan bases, four bands and the hopes and dreams of millions riding on the outcome of two games played in approximately the same time as one football game.
As the seconds tick down before the introduction of the starting lineups for Florida-Auburn, the hair stands up on my arms and the back of my neck. I feel like I’m going to be a part of a very special day. I’m 73 years old and I am wondering how many more Final Fours I’ll attend. I look at the Florida bench. Good kids. Thanks to Todd Golden and basketball SID Denver Parler we in the media have so much more access to players than with football. And, of course, at NCAA events, the locker rooms are open on practice days and after games. I know these kids and I like them. I like their chances to beat Auburn and Bruce Pearl. Bruce is a friend, but today I believe it will be heartbreak for him and his team.
Introductions done, tipoff imminent, I turn to Kenny Cross and confidently say “Florida. It’s a good day to be a Gator.” He replies, “The Gators are better than Auburn and Duke isn’t tough enough to beat Houston.”
I can live with that.
A few minutes into the first half it’s evident Auburn is well prepared and playing with confidence. The first half is Johni Broome’s game. He is looking like a first team All-American the way he overpowers Florida’s big guys in the low blocks. He is a lefty and not a high riser but he compensates by backing defenders down and getting his right shoulder in their chest so they can’t block his shot. He scores 12 in the first half, but it seems he could have scored 20. The Tigers score 26 first half points in the paint.
It's not all Broome. He gets help from Chad Baker-Mazara and Miles Kelly who both hit a pair of threes. It’s an impressive first half for Auburn, which leads by nine on three occasions before settling for a 45-38 lead at the intermission.
The Gators look very beatable as they head to the locker room. The big guys, especially, need to find some mojo because they’ve been completely outplayed. Inspiration needed. It comes in the form of a pep talk by Clayton. We see the points, the passes, the clutch plays. What we don’t see is the stuff that goes on in the locker room or at practice. He’s a leader. Not in your face, but a leader. Reminds me of those EF Hutton commercials from years past. “When EF Hutton talks, people listen” is how they would go. That’s Walter Clayton Jr. He scored 14 points in the first half to keep the Gators within striking distance, but he needed help from the big guys.
“Walt kind of got our bigs together at halftime and gave us a nice little pep talk,” Tommy Haugh said, comments affirmed by Micah Handlogten.
It must have worked. Twelve seconds into the second half Alex Condon dribbles down low, draws a defender to him, bounce pass to Rueben Chinyelu who goes up between two Tigers for the first points. This will not be a high scoring game from Florida’s four big guys – 18 with Haugh accounting for 12 – but they dominate the boards in the final 20 minutes and more importantly, they shut down Broome.
Down 49-40, the Gators score nine straight points over a 1:20 span to tie the game. A three-point play by Will Richard, a Clayton three and a step back 3-pointer by Alijah Martin even things up at 49-49. Auburn meanwhile is 1-5 from the field out of the locker. Momentum belongs to the Gators.
Following a media timeout, Auburn’s Tahaad Pettiford drives down the right side of the lane to the rack. He goes up but so does Chinyelu. It’s like a volleyball joust at the net. Pettiford is roofed. Chinyelu not only stuffs him but takes the ball away. He casually flips the ball to Clayton who picks up speed with every dribble, going over, under, around and through four Auburn defenders, laying the ball in with his left hand over Chaney Johnson to give Florida a 51-49 lead.
The Florida contingent erupts. They’re beginning to believe. The body language of Auburn’s players and fans tells a different story, but there is still a long way to go and this one will ebb and flow like waves at the beach.
With 15:12 remaining in the game, Broome scores, getting his right shoulder into Chinyelu’s chest. Lefty shot ties the game at 51-51 and Chinyelu is whistled for a foul. Broome bricks the free throw. Later on when Auburn desperately needs Broome to come through at the line, he throws up a couple of SCUDs. Broome will not score again because Florida has ratcheted up the defensive intensity. The effect on Auburn’s offense is devastating. The Tigers can’t score on the inside and Broome becomes a most ineffective rebounder and defender.
“We did a great job of guarding Johni one-on-one in the second half,” Golden said. “I think he was 1-4 from the field. We started getting out in transition a little bit, saw the ball go through the basket, started gaining some confidence. We obviously played a really, really good second half.”
Following the Clayton dash through the Auburn defense, the Gators go into an offensive funk that lasts nearly four minutes, almost as if that 11-2 run took out their legs. There was a terrible possession that resulted in a desperation airball three by Alijah Martin. A flagrant foul on Chinyelu. A double dribble by Richard. Turnovers by Clayton and Denzel Aberdeen. All-in-all, there are seven empty possessions.
It's the perfect opportunity for Auburn to reassert itself and play strong like it did in the first half, but the Tigers manage only four points for a 55-51 lead. Bruce Pearl will look back on that four-minute stretch and determine this was when the Tigers lost the game. Florida’s defense went beast mode throughout the second half, but especially during that stretch. We pay attention to the points but we tend to overlook the fact that the kenpom.com analytics rated Florida the No. 6 team in the country when it comes to defensive efficiency.
The Florida offense gets its wakeup call from Clayton who steps back in the corner and launches over 6-7 Chad Baker-Mazara. It’s a high arcing rainbow that finds the bottom of the net cutting Auburn’s lead to a single point (55-54).
The next five minutes are a tug-o-war. Florida rediscovers its offense, Auburn refuses to buckle. It goes back and forth until the definitive defensive play of the game. It’s a hatpin that begins deflating the Auburn balloon. Pettiford tries a second time to challenge Chinyelu, this time at the foul line but as he tries to elevate for a shot, Chinyelu punches the ball out and Martin retrieves. He sprints down the court the way he used to blow past secondaries when he was an all-state QB at North Pike High School in tiny Summit, Mississippi. Baker-Mazara and Chaney Johnson converge but Martin powers up with a vicious dunk that does everything but rip the rim off the glass.
Before the crowd of 68,000-plus can roar they let out a collective gasp. The scoreboard shows Florida 66, Auburn 63. The Gators are ahead for good, but they will still need some Walter time to ensure the win.
The final five minutes were this dizzying array of Clayton showing that he’s the best player in the country and the Florida defense doing its thing. Of Florida’s final 13 points, Clayton lights up Auburn for 10. The 3-pointer from the left side of the key was off a dribble handoff from Haugh and over 6-4 Denver Jones with 4:29 left for a 69-65 lead. With 2:24 to go Clayton schools 6-11 Dylan Cardwell off the dribble. The Red Sea parts and Walt goes straight to the rack for a layup and a 71-68 Florida lead. With 1:33 left he makes four Auburn defenders look silly. He takes a hit, puts the ball in the basket and then nails the free throw. Gators lead 74-68. Fouled with 9.6 seconds to go he hit both free throws for the final margin.
“He's poised, calm and collected, confident in himself,” Richard says of Clayton. “We have that confidence in him. We see him practice, see his work ethic. We're glad everybody else is getting to see him do it in a game.”
Defensively, Haugh got a clean block but was called for a foul with 4:47 to go. Alex Condon stuffed Dylan Cardwell at the rim. It was clean but he was called for the foul. Cardwell made only one of two at the line. Condon got perfect position on the baseline to draw a charge from Broome with 2:44 to go when Florida was nursing a 69-68 lead. With 53.5 seconds left, Condon closes so fast on Baker-Mazara that he aborts his jump shot and comes down with the ball. Traveling.
Auburn won’t roll over and die, but the Tigers don’t have enough juice to overtake Florida. For the third time in five NCAA Tournament games, the Gators have rallied and each time Walter Clayton Jr. has delivered the critical shots.
The Florida Gators are going to play for a national championship. Sitting at my computer in the media room, I have a satisfied feeling that I’ve had before. In Indianapolis in 2006, the Gators beat media darling George Mason in the semis. A year later in Atlanta, the Gators beat UCLA in the semifinals. Both times the Gators won the national championship on Monday night.
I like Florida’s chances. In the immortal words of the late, great Jack Palance, “Confidence is very sexy, don’t you think?”
Saturday, April 5, 2025, San Antonio … three hours later
In the final eight minutes, Houston wipes out a 14-point deficit to beat Duke, 70-67. In the final 10:30, Duke manages only one made shot from the field. Trailing 68-67 with eight seconds to go, Duke puts the ball in Cooper Flagg’s hands, but the National Player of the Year chokes. He short arms a wide open shot in the lane that barely grazes the front of the rim.
The national media is in shock. Duke walks off the floor in disbelief. Cooper Flagg looks like someone stole his puppy.
It will be Florida going for its third national championship and Houston, 0-3 in the NCAA championship game.
Tomorrow: Once again the Gators stage an improbable rally to win the national championship.
Another Top Shelf work of Art, reliving A Team for the Ages !
Another one rides the Bus, theres A Smelly ole Bum sitting next to me has'nt showered in A year, I think I'm missing my I Pods , I thinnk my wallets gone, this damn bus has stopped agin, letting A couple more skunks get on !
Go Gators
Franz, in another blog here on Gator Bait Media, one of your colleagues said you’re going to turn these columns into a book. Can you confirm?
I wasn’t there…. But….. just lived it this morning with Franz and loved every word 💕
Thanks, Franz! Your narrative of travel, friendships, accommodations, conversations and then reliving the games takes along the rest of us who couldn’t be there. I laugh in your recap of the journey from Orlando to a terminal in Austin. I well up emotionally with Gator pride in reliving each game. Your series is a keeper for me.
I knew the aubie game wouild be tough. I think aubie ran out of fas because of pour defensive pressure