SAN ANTONIO --- After leaving class on Friday afternoon, Hannah Skalicky and a couple friends darted to her dorm and began packing the 19-year-old mathematics freshman’s car. They had a 15-hour drive ahead of them to San Antonio, Texas.
Only six days earlier, they watched as Florida defeated Texas Tech 84-79 in comeback fashion, solidifying a berth to its first Final Four since 2014. Pandemonium ensued.
In the next 30 minutes, semifinal student tickets went on sale, gobbled up in moments by Florida’s eager fans. Skalicky was lucky enough to grab one, and turned to making travel plans, which created a significantly larger hassle than anticipated.
When trying to work out travel plans over a frantic phone call with her parents, Skalicky was told she should “wait til next time.” Her plea, in response, was built around one question that unites a melting pot of Florida fans:
“How many times is your school going to make it to the Final Four?”
Skalicky will be at the Final Four Saturday night when Florida takes on Auburn at 6:09 p.m. EST. So will thousands of other Gators. Between mass carpools and emotional ties, here’s how they got there and what it means.
The Texas trek
Similar to Skalicky, thousands of Florida students and fans are making 15-plus-hour drives to San Antonio, college basketball’s final stage this year. Many of those decisions, though, came at the last minute.
On Saturday night, Florida trailed by 10 points in the final three minutes. In turn, most fans didn’t purchase their Final Four tickets ahead of the game’s conclusion. But as Walter Clayton Jr. resurrected Florida’s national championship hopes, ticket sites were flooded with buyers.
Florida’s student section sold out less than an hour after the game’s conclusion, and, like Skalicky, students immediately turned to making travel plans. On the budget of a college attendee, that featured a lot of car rides.
“It didn't really become a reality until when there was 30 seconds left in the Texas Tech game,” 18-year-old marketing freshman Eric Liu said. “We were like, ‘Oh my gosh, we're actually going to do it.’”
Liu and a few similarly elated friends are taking turns caravanning to the Longhorn State. They left on Friday, with plans to arrive with more than enough time for Saturday evening’s game. Another group of friends is running on a similar timeline.
Jesse Meija, a 19-year-old data science sophomore, made the decision to go while at The Swamp Restaurant, which morphed into a breeding ground for Final Four travel plans during the Elite Eight. With a pair of friends, he set out Friday as well, making stops in New Orleans and Houston before arriving in central Texas around midnight.
For Meija, the 15-hour drive wasn’t ideal, but he wanted to “get there as cheap as possible,” which became increasingly difficult through the air. In the days following Florida’s victory, flight prices out of Gainesville, Tampa and Orlando to San Antonio all skyrocketed. By Monday afternoon, few flight options remained, with each costing well over $1,000 roundtrip.
When he arrived in San Antonio, he was met by a swarm of Florida fans.
Once in a lifetime
When Florida was sorted into the West Region of the NCAA Tournament bracket, there was always the knowledge it would end up in San Francisco if it won in the first two rounds. When that came to fruition, the Gators headed to California in droves.
Niti Modi, accompanied by her boyfriend’s parents, landed in San Francisco March 26 before Florida’s March 27 Sweet Sixteen meeting with Maryland. The 21-year-old psychology senior had been to all of Florida’s home games, the entirety of the SEC Tournament and each of Florida’s first two NCAA Tournament contests.
“This is an incredible opportunity,” she said before boarding her flight to the West Coast. “This team deserves our support as students, and what better way to do that than to travel across the country for it.”
Before boarding her flight back from San Francisco, Modi said she knew immediately after the team won that she had to make her way to San Antonio. That level of support is shared across Florida’s fanbase.
With the much more abbreviated trip to Raleigh, North Carolina, for the first two rounds, Florida fans turned out en masse. While other major college basketball programs resided at the tournament location, including heavy March Madness favorite Duke, Florida’s entire section at the Lenovo Center sold out days before any of the others.
That’s a testament to the sheer interest of Florida’s fanbase in this run. It’s been over a decade since Florida had this opportunity, and it’s nearing 20 years since its last national championship.
Bryn Dubin, a 21-year-old political science senior, left her Jacksonville driveway at 3 a.m. on Friday en route to Texas. Having gone to games throughout her first three years at Florida, she witnessed as the team budded from SEC bottom-feeder to championship contender. With the increased production has come an astonishingly more interested student fanbase.
Now, she and hundreds of other UF students will descend on the Alamodome Saturday night, hoping to extend their time before making the extensive drive back to Gainesville. They’ve willed their beloved Gators this far, what’s a couple more games?
“Getting to go to the Final Four my last year,” Dubin said. “That's something that I think I'm going to remember the rest of my life.”
Contact Noah White and Juliana DeFilippo at nwhite@alligator.org and jdefillipo@alligator.org. Follow them on X @noahwhite1782 and @JulianaDeF58101.
Noah is a Spring 2025 Assistant Sports Editor and Copy Desk Chief. He's a second-year journalism major who enjoys reading and shamefully rooting for Tennessee sports teams. He is also a Liberty League Women's Soccer expert.
Juliana DeFilippo is a first-year journalism major and general assignment Avenue reporter. In her free time, she loves to read and work on crossword puzzles.
