In one of the most competitive and exciting Final Fours in recent history, the Florida Gators emerged as college basketball’s national champions.
Having four number-one seeds in the Final Four for the first time since 2006 gave us three thrilling games in San Antonio. Florida advanced to the Finals by topping top seeded Auburn. Houston joined them by staging a furious comeback to shock Duke in Saturday’s semifinals.
Houston, the top defensive team in the nation, jumped out early in Monday’s finals and led Florida at the half. The Cougars extended their lead to 12 points midway through the second half. The Gators responded with some defense of their own. They caught and passed Houston with just over a minute to go and came up with a stop in the final seconds to pull out the victory.
Florida grew comfortable coming from behind in the tournament. This was the third straight game the Gators managed to rally from a big deficit in the second half. They were down nine points against Auburn early in the second half of Saturday’s Final Four matchup and were down by as many as 10 points against Texas Tech in the Elite Eight.
With their rally from 12 points down on Monday night, the Gators became the first champion in the last 20 years to overcome at least a nine-point deficit in all three of those rounds.
The national championship was Florida’s third since 2006, making 39-year old Todd Golden the youngest head coach to win the title since Jim Valvano in 1983. It was also the SEC’s first national championship since Kentucky beat Kansas in 2012.
Will Richard led Florida with 18 points, making four 3-pointers in the first half to keep the Gators within striking distance. Houston guard L.J. Cryer finished with a game-high 19 points in the loss.
