(Photo via Gator basketball digital media team)
The Gator boys stayed hot, alright— from start to finish of their magic carpet ride.
And as another rallying cry went, they’ll remember the Alamo for the rest of their lives. Long after that slogan was first used, a new batch of fighters used that battleground to upgrade their collective status from mere mortals to Gator basketball immortality.
And so, as the work was put in on and off the court over the winter and spring of 2025, what began as a fun saying gradually evolved into a slogan synonymous with greatness as the Gator basketball program unlocked blue blood status with its third national championship.
Yes, you read that right. Gator basketball is officially a blue blood now after defeating Houston, 65-63, to add national championship trophy number three to the school’s basketball trophy case. Any questions?
No? Good. Didn’t think so.
Florida has now tied Villanova with three national championships. Want the list of schools with more? Sure: it’s seven schools. UCLA, Kentucky, North Carolina, Connecticut, Duke, Indiana, and Kansas. That’s it, that’s the list.
Perhaps it’s how Florida won their most recent title that’s most amazing.
Never mind the crazy finishes to their wins over Auburn in the national semifinal and Texas Tech in the national quarterfinal. This one takes the shock factor cake.
Houston, known for battering and bruising teams to death with its overpowering physicality, tried to do the same to Florida. And for awhile, it seemed like they were succeeding. The Cougars hauled down fifteen offensive rebounds, forced thirteen Florida turnovers, and limited the Gators’ usually lethal transition offense to just a stray bucket.
More generally, this was billed as a classic clash of styles between Houston’s defense-first, half-court game and Florida’s machine-gun style offense that simply outscores their opponent. Houston certainly won the battle of styles. They got the exact style of game they wanted, a rough-and-tumble affair in San Antonio that they controlled for most of the game.
But Florida still had a few tricks up its sleeve.
Down 42-30 early in the second half and 45-34 with 14 minutes to go, Florida did what their now-famous rally cry suggests. They got hot. And they stayed hot.
Alijah Martin’s three cut the deficit down to 45-39, and moments later, Thomas Haugh was fed by Will Richard for a layup that trimmed the deficit down to four—and his ensuing free throw on the and-one reduced it down to three. After a few minutes of the teams exchanging free throws, Walter Clayton—who’d been held scoreless for the first half—sliced through the defense and laid it in to draw the Gators within one before tying it on his subsequent free throw.
Back and forth the teams went some more, with Houston taking the lead and Florida matching with scores of its own, highlighted by Clayton draining a three from the top of the key to tie it up once more at 60 with 3:14 to go. Moments later, with the score tied once more, Houston’s Joseph Tugler split a pair of free throws and Florida came down the court looking for their first lead since 8-6, but Clayton’s three missed. And that was when it became clear that Florida would win this game not with prolific scoring, but with defense.
Seeking some breathing room, Milos Uzan launched a three to try to give Houston a four point lead with under a minute and a half to go, but Richard stuck a paw out and deflated its arc. The ball went to LJ Cryer, who missed a jumper, and Tugler seemingly got his teammate’s miss but was promptly pickpocketed by Alex Condon. A pair of free throws from Martin gave Florida the lead back.
Driving to give the Cougars the lead back, LJ Sharp was then stripped by Richard. The ball careened off Sharp’s knee, returning the ball back to Florida. The subsequent foul gave Denzel Aberdeen a pair of free throws, which he split with 19.7 showing on the clock.
And that set up the final possession, in which Houston had the chance to end the game that they’d dictated the style of all night. They got the rock fight they’d wanted with a team that just didn’t like to play that way. So for Houston fans, having the game come down to one possession must have felt like a fitting conclusion to the 40 minutes of regulation, in which the Cougars could either tie the game or win it.
They never got the chance to do either.
With about five seconds to go, Emanuel Sharp went up for a game-winning three. But with Clayton bearing down on him like a runaway locomotive, Sharp realized his shot would be rejected back to last Tuesday if he released it. So he tried to pull the ball down on a pump fake.
One problem—he’d already left his feet. So having picked up his dribble and left the ground with the ball, he couldn’t come down with it. Immediately figuring this out, Sharp simply let go of the basketball, allowing it to bounce unmanned on the floor. At that point, both Sharp and Clayton—who’d just whizzed by him on the block attempt—began frantically pointing at the ball, willing on their teammates to pick it up before someone on the other team did.
And of all people, it was Alex Condon who came swooping in to do so. The Australian hadn’t had the best showing in the NCAA Tournament, but he showed up when it mattered most, diving onto the loose ball with all the energy he had left after a bruising weekend against the likes of Johni Broome and J’Wan Roberts.
From there, just one order of business remained: get rid of the ball to avoid the foul and end the game. Condon turned and flipped the ball back to Clayton, who dribbled out the final seconds and transformed the AlamoDome into a party zone.
Within seconds, orange and blue confetti was raining down on the court as blue-clad Gator basketball players jubilantly ran around chomping at their loyal fans, tens of thousands of which had made the 1000+ mile pilgrimage from Gainesville to be there. Ladders and a stage were brought out. Florida players and staff mounted each of them to claim their prizes, a strand of the net and the national championship trophy.
From there, the party promptly spilled onto the respective streets of Gainesville and San Antonio. Traffic lights were climbed in Gainesville as the team boarded a boat and cruised down the river in San Antonio. Players shotgunned beers lobbed onto the deck by fans as Todd Golden, the Toddfather of them all, smiled like the proudest of papas, net around his neck, as he waved and chomped at his adoring fans.
That’s when it started settling in. This is done. The journey is finished, the mountaintop has been reached.
The Gator basketball program is once more the best in the land.
