(Photo via Gator basketball digital media)
Throughout history, a lot of battles have been fought in and around San Antonio, TX.
That made the home of the Alamo a fitting location for the reprise of the SEC’s clash of the titans, one final bonus edition of the SEC on CBS—with every bit as much on the line as football games in Atlanta under the same taglines.
This was, truly, a fight to see who could claim to be kings of the SEC—and play for the national championship.
Well, OK. A little more context is needed. The Auburn Tigers will forever be remembered as the 2025 SEC Basketball Champions, a distinction they earned with a 15-3 regular season record. They’ll have to hold onto that title dearly, and it’ll have to suffice as their core memory of the 2024-25 college basketball season. Because it was the Florida Gators who will forever be remembered as the best team in the SEC that year.
Not only did Florida defeat Auburn head to head on the Plains back in February, but now the Gator basketball squad also holds the ultimate bragging right. They beat Auburn when it mattered most, 79-73, in the Final Four, to advance to their fourth national championship game in school history.
Johni Broome got all the ink and the accolades, but he was largely the undercard on this night, overshadowed by Walter Clayton’s 34 points and one wild Thomas Haugh basketball fling at the hoop that somehow went down to vanquish whatever hopes Auburn had left. And it was Florida who came off the mat from a 49-40 deficit with 17:49 remaining in the national semifinal with an 11-0 run to get back into a game that seemed to be trending Auburn’s way—and give themselves a chance to take it over late.
And take over late, Walter Clayton did.
The former Iona guard hung 15 points on Auburn in the final 12 minutes of game action alone, including a critical three to stop Auburn’s 6-0 counter-run to Florida’s 11-0 jaunt and trim Auburn’s newly-regained lead down to 55-54. Auburn attempted multiple defensive adjustments, including double-teaming him and trying to funnel him into the corner to trap him. And each and every time, Clayton simply made shots over the defense anyway.
Clayton certainly had some help, though.
Will Richard has cooled off in the scoring column in the NCAA Tournament, but his abundance of energy helped fuel the Gators in other ways. He forced three turnovers, all of them the live-ball variety, by simply sticking a hand in the dribble-sphere at the right nanosecond to poke it away. He also pulled down six boards, oftentimes parachuting into the lane to snatch the ball out of the air over Auburn and Florida players alike.
By his standards, Thomas Haugh had a quiet game. But Auburn would certainly admit that they felt his presence. The PA native scored “only” twelve points while also blocking a pair of shots in the lane—great footwork to stay with the Auburn bigs, by the way—and snag seven boards. And then there was his aforementioned wild, off-balance heave in the general vicinity of the hoop that somehow went down—as he was being fouled. (He missed the free throw, but that’s another story).
How about Alijah Martin? The FAU transfer made sure his second trip to the Final Four would be more fruitful than his first by dropping 17 points and grabbing three boards. He also picked Tahaad Pettiford’s pocket on a drive, and made memes for two separate dunks—one in which he impersonated Michael Jordan, taking flight from the free throw line on a breakaway, and the other in which he rose above a pair of Tigers to slam the ball down with violence.
Don’t forget about Rueben Chinyelu, either. The ex-Washington State big man from Nigeria was unstoppable on the boards, pulling in nine rebounds and also backing down Johni Broome in the paint before spinning away for a pair of baby hooks that went down.
This is the point. This is the 2024-25 Gators. Walter Clayton is undoubtedly the star, but this Gator basketball team doesn’t win these without his supporting cast.
Terrible officiating? Johni Broome being able to get away with assault and battery? A continued decline in performance from Alex Condon?
No matter. Florida—at least through five of the six games needed to win it all—has proven able to withstand and overcome it all.
And now, for the big one.
Florida’s headed to its fourth national championship game, having lost its first one before winning the next two. A victory tonight against Houston locks up Florida’s status as a blue blood, with three national championships. A third ring would tie the Gator basketball program with Villanova in the natty count, and the list of teams with more than them is a short one: UCLA, Kentucky, North Carolina, Connecticut, Duke, Indiana, and Kansas. And given that Indiana hasn’t won a title in nearly 40 years (1987), there’s a case to be made that Florida should simply replace the Hoosiers in that blue blood tier.
But let’s not think too far ahead. There’s still a game to play. Florida has one more street fight to win before it can think about that, and against a Houston team known for its physicality and defense, it promises to be the nastiest street fight of all.
Even if Florida does lose this game tonight, though, their spot in school history is well secured. The moniker “Gata boys stay hot!” is forever linked to one of the most enjoyable rides any Florida basketball team has ever provided its supporters. The fondness with which Gator fans will remember this squad won’t be altered by whatever tonight’s result is.
The only thing tonight’s title tilt against Kelvin Sampson’s Houston Cougars will change is whether or not this Gator basketball team is the one that vaults the program up to blue blood status.
And for guys who have given so much to this program, like Clayton, Richard, Martin, Haugh, Condon, and Chinyelu, that would be the ultimate way to show the ultimate level of respect to the program that molded them into the men they are.
By leaving their beloved school better off than how they found it.
