(Photo via Gator basketball digital media team)
The story of Todd Golden remains mostly untold.
The chapters that have been written, though, are remarkable. It’s included chapters as a Jewish basketball player playing for the Catholic college of St. Mary’s and then professionally for the Israeli team Maccabi Haifa. It’s included stops as an assistant at Columbia, Auburn, and then San Francisco, the latter of which escalated into his first head coaching job.
Now, this past weekend, the latest and most impressive chapter was also written there. It’s the chapter where the Golden boy returned to the Golden Gate city, the place where he got his first head coaching job to stamp his legacy at his current one. Along the way, as his once-unheralded players rose to the occasion to resemble Chase Center residents Steph Curry and Draymond Green, Golden etched his name in the history books of one of the proud programs of college basketball.
In a building that more permanently houses the NBA’s Warriors, Walter Clayton dropped 30 points including a pair of critical late threes, Thomas Haugh added 20, and the pair of new-age warriors piloted a late 18-4 run to rescue Florida from a 75-66 deficit with 2:50 remaining and propel the Gators to an 84-79 victory over Texas Tech—and their sixth Final Four in Gator basketball history.
This one might be the most unlikely of them all, considering how the game went.
Texas Tech was flying high in the rarefied air of an open skyway to the Final Four, holding a 71-61 lead with 6:18 to go following a JT Toppin layup, when their defense stalled and broke down, leaving Clayton alone to casually dribble into a corner and fire an uncontested three that bounced around off the rim before finally dropping. That suddenly sliced the Red Raiders’ seemingly comfortable ten-point lead down to seven. To their credit, they rebounded and rebuilt their lead to 75-66.
But then they totally collapsed, managing just two measly layups over the final three and a half minutes— one of which came with four seconds to go— as the terrific tandem of Clayton and Haugh put the Gator basketball team on their backs and carried their program all the way to San Antonio.
With 2:57 to go, Clayton missed a three. Darrion Williams of Texas Tech momentarily relaxed, apparently either thinking he had beaten Alex Condon out the rebound or that a teammate of his would get it. Instead, Haugh—who prior to the shot stood outside the three-point line fairly close to Clayton— came swooping in to snag the rebound, and immediately returned the ball to Clayton. Texas Tech, not wanting Clayton to do any more damage, double-teamed him.
That left Haugh open for an uncontested three. Which he buried. Six point game.
After the next of many empty Red Raider possessions down the stretch, Haugh set himself up just beyond the three point line, around the free throw line extension—and drained another three. Three point game.
Moments later, as the clock melted down to 1:50 to go, Haugh happily handed the torch to Clayton. One wicked crossover dribble to create some space later, Clayton proceeded to rise and fire a three. Tie game.
The Red Raiders briefly took the lead back on a twirling layup from Williams, but Clayton had more heroics up his sleeve. Initially appearing interested in a driving layup after being fed by Haugh on a cut, Clayton realized he’d have to rise through a forest of red jerseys to get a shot up. So he retreated, turning his back to the basket and dribbling the ball back to the outside.
Then, as if programmed remotely like an NBA 2K video game character, Clayton suddenly picked up his dribble the moment he exited the three-point arc perimeter. His feet left the ground. His body rotated so that his shoulders were squared toward the hoop. He released the ball at the peak of his jump. And though the ball glanced around the inside of the rim a couple times, it was as pure a shot as he’d ever launched.
And Florida led.
Trying to take the lead back, Williams attempted to bully his way in for a layup, but was met by the resistance of Haugh, Alex Condon, and Will Richard, who forced a tie-up. Fortunately for Texas Tech, the possession arrow favored the Red Raiders. Unfortunately for Texas Tech, Williams’ ensuing three missed and Martin got the rebound.
Down 78-77 with under 30 seconds to go, Texas Tech then committed a fatal error. With the shot clock winding down to 21 seconds, all the Red Raiders had to do was keep the ball in the backcourt for one more second, as Florida realized—seemingly too late—that it was about to get hit with a ten-second violation. But Williams bailed the Gators out by fouling Martin, who drained both free throws to make it 80-77 with 20 seconds to go.
From there, the classic basketball endgame commenced. Williams missed another three, Clayton hit two free throws to push the lead to 82-77, Chance McMillan added a quick layup for Texas Tech to cut it to 82-79, Will Richard hit two more free throws to re-adjust Florida’s lead to five, and Alex Condon sealed both teams’ fate by picking off Williams’ football-style inbounds pass and flinging the ball back down to the other end of the floor to wipe away the final ticks from the clock.
Warriors, indeed. Or, as one of them would later say about the other: “That’s a cold man right there.”
And as Martin caught the downcourt heave from Condon, the party was on. Martin fired the ball skyward to officially start the celebration as he added a second Final Four trip to his personal resume. Golden pumped his fists at the crowd, Gator chomped, and hugged his players one by one. Haugh pointed to his family and made a heart gesture with his fingers. With special shirts over their jerseys and hats on their heads, players climbed the ladder (except for 7’9 redshirt center Olivier Rioux, who didn’t need one) and took turns cutting down the net.
Each strand of that net will serve as a memento forever, a tangible piece of evidence for each player that he was there when the West was won in the Bay by a group of warriors who more than lived up to the nickname of the team that owns the building.
Now, the Gator basketball team is off to San Antonio and the Final Four. A rematch with Auburn, and Golden’s once mentor Bruce Pearl, awaits. Auburn won the SEC Title, and Florida won the SEC Tournament Title; the winner of this game will forever get to claim themselves as the best of the Southeastern Conference in the 2024-25 basketball season. And should the winner of that national semifinal win one more game, they’ll be able to call themselves the best in the country—and have the trophy of all trophies to prove it.
For now, though, that story can wait. History was already made in San Francisco this past weekend. A sixth Final Four banner will be raised in the O’Dome to commemorate what this team—winning the West Regional.
And that banner will forever stand as a monument to how the West was won—through Todd Golden’s Gator basketball team’s refusal to quit or accept defeat despite advanced analytics giving them a 95.67% chance to lose.
In other words, warriors.
