Title game takeaways: Florida always be closing
theScore runs down the top storylines from Monday's epic national title game between Florida and Houston.
Clayton not Florida's only closer
Few things in sports are more exciting than a massive comeback, and Florida produced no shortage of them throughout the NCAA Tournament. The Gators overturned deficits in almost every single game and fittingly rode another epic comeback Monday to win the 2025 national championship.
UConn and Texas Tech fell victim to the Walter Clayton Jr. show earlier in the bracket, but this time around it was a team effort that delivered the Gators the biggest prize in the sport.
The deficit was 11 when Clayton subbed out at the 14-minute mark of the second half, and Denzel Aberdeen, Alijah Martin, and Thomas Haugh went to work immediately, cutting that deficit to three. The teams went back and forth the rest of the way, and Houston was clinging to a one-point lead in the final two minutes.
The supporting cast then delivered once again. Will Richard's swarming defense produced a steal and a block, Alex Condon registered three steals in the final two minutes, and Martin and Aberdeen supplied the free throws that secured the the Gators' third title.
Clayton was named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player and etched himself into tournament lore with his performances throughout March Madness. However, it was the rest of the Gators that did the heavy lifting Monday when the team needed it most.
Deja vu for Houston
It was a familiar story for Houston, who came into the final boasting its best offensive unit of the Kelvin Sampson era. The Cougars' third championship game defeat was reminiscent of their futile showing in their first title matchup 42 years ago.
Sampson's squad shot a season-low 34.8% from the field. Houston's strength all season had been its top-ranked 3-point accuracy, but it made only 6-of-25 attempts from deep. Starters LJ Cryer, Emanuel Sharp, and Milos Uzan were all 40% 3-point shooters entering play. However, the trio went a combined 5-of-22 from beyond the arc, with only Cryer making multiple threes.
The Cougars had an opportunity to shut the door on the Gators but hit a dry spell down the stretch - just like Duke did two nights earlier. Houston didn't make a single field goal during a key five-minute stretch between the 11:29 mark of the second half and the 6:24 mark. During that span, the Cougars' six-point lead was cut to two. That slight opening was all Florida needed to complete another comeback victory.
Gators head coach Todd Golden is the youngest bench boss to win a national championship since Jim Valvano, who famously led NC State to a 54-52 win over Houston in the 1983 title game.
Defense wins championships, even for Florida
Golden came to Florida as an offensive wizard, and that part of the game has been as good as advertised for the Gators. Led by Clayton, the offense ranks second in the country, according to KenPom's ratings, and lit up scoreboards in both the regular season and NCAA Tournament.
However, Houston showed throughout the season that it will drag just about anybody down to its pace and style of play, and that was the case for a large part of the game Monday. Nine turnovers in the opening half - an unfortunate trend in the tournament for the Gators - saw them trail at the break, with the Cougars very much playing on their terms.
That changed drastically in the second half, but it wasn't the offense that was the catalyst for the comeback. Instead, it was the defensive unit that really turned the tables. Florida was whistled for five straight fouls to open the half, and while that helped balloon Houston's lead to 11, it showed the Gators were not going to be pushed around. It also put pressure on the officials to even things out - something that happened in short order with a slew of Houston fouls.
Once the Gators made their charge to get things tight in the final two minutes, their defense came through. Florida forced four turnovers in the final 2:05 and didn't even allow the Cougars to attempt a tying or game-winning shot in the final 30 seconds.
The defense was a very strong aspect of Florida's team this year, ranking as KenPom's sixth-best unit in the country. However, it entered Monday's game a distant second to Houston's outstanding defense, a perennial powerhouse under Sampson's watch. That matchup tilted down the stretch, and it's one of the main reasons the trophy is heading to Gainesville instead of Houston.
Houston's uncharacteristic errors
It's rare to see a disciplined Houston squad beat itself. It entered the national championship game with the 10th-best turnover margin and averaged just nine per contest. The Cougars did a great job taking care of the rock for the majority of Monday's contest, posting only four turnovers through the first 36:35. But the only thing that will be remembered are the five turnovers over the final 3:24, which led to six crucial points for Florida in what ended up being a one-possession game.
The Gators immediately capitalized on the first miscue, as Clayton buried a game-tying three immediately after Cryer stepped out of bounds. Houston then coughed up the ball three more times over the final minute of regulation. Cryer got blocked from behind on a drive to the basket, while the last pair of errors were made by Sharp.
With the Cougars down one with 26 seconds left, the junior guard got the ball knocked off his knee as he dribbled into a crowd of Florida players. Sharp had a chance to redeem himself on the game's final possession but stopped in the middle of his shooting motion when Clayton closed out his potential game-winning 3-point attempt.
Houston went scoreless for the last 2:05 as a series of miscues prevented it from getting off a single shot. It's a bitter pill to swallow for the Cougars, who exhibited so much mental toughness throughout the campaign but were ultimately undone by themselves.