SAN ANTONIO — As the buzzer rang throughout the corners of the Alamodome, Walter Clayton Jr. wandered into the back of the frame. In the senior guard’s line of sight were his teammates launching into the air in jubilation, ceremonially hugging one another amid a range of joyous motions, and the celebrations in San Antonio were only starting. But Clayton Jr. was already looking forward to the NCAA National Championship.
The senior guard awaited the line of celebratory players in the arena’s southeast corner, briefly exchanging the same message with each of them: “One more.”
That was one of the many pertinent snapshots from April 5 night. The evening opened with a heavyweight fight between the SEC’s two greatest giants, a fitting way to open one of the strongest Final Four fields ever, and no player delivered more than Clayton Jr.
His career-high of 34 points, which makes him only the 15th player in the modern era to score 30 or more in the Final Four, willed Florida past Auburn 79-73 to its first national championship since 2007, where it’ll face Houston. And “willed” might be too reserved.
“The togetherness of our team, the love we all got for each other, allows us not to break apart during adversity,” Clayton Jr. said. “We just stay together in those moments.”
The next frame comes moments earlier, with a minute and a half left in the second half. Clayton Jr. is on the ground, after having heaved up a layup through heavy contact, collapsed among the many photographers eagerly snapping photos of the weathered star.
The ball had gone in, and with a shove from Auburn senior guard Denver Jones, Clayton Jr. had to get up and head to the line. That made it a six-point game in the closing moments, Florida’s largest lead of the day to that point, and yet he didn’t look fazed whatsoever.
Six of his 11 makes on April 5 were layups, as the Auburn frontcourt rarely could stop Clayton Jr. when he drove. That was especially notable when Florida looked aimless and half-awake throughout parts of the first half.
“He's incredible,” Florida sophomore forward Thomas Haugh said after the game, taking a brief moment to define his thoughts. “We trust him in those situations. He knocks down big shots day after day.”
But it was his 20 second-half points that made the difference.
That, as they say, isn’t normal. It also isn’t surprising.
Only a week earlier, it was Clayton Jr. who pushed Florida to the Final Four, knocking down a string of arduous shots to complete a 10-point Elite Eight comeback. At the time, it was hard to imagine the senior eclipsing that moment. Who else’s last couple weeks have featured All-American celebrations, player of the year nominations and a 24.6 points per game clip in the NCAA Tournament? (Which, for that matter, would’ve led the nation this year.)
So, his performance on April 5 shouldn’t come as a shock. It surely, however, deserves its flowers. Becoming the first player since Larry Bird (1979) to score 30 points in both the Elite Eight and Final Four isn’t a small feat. Beating the top overall seed from the best college basketball conference for a second time isn’t either.
“Walter… stepped up late making big-time shots, which allowed us to pull out this victory,” Golden said on Sunday.
April 5 checked a box for Florida. It had been relatively shaky throughout the tournament, stumbling past UConn and Texas Tech, while Auburn largely hadn’t struggled. Florida also won the SEC Tournament without having to take on the conference’s other goliath, the Tigers.
But as the buzzer sounded in San Antonio, all of those doubts dissipated. It was a championship, in some ways, solidifying Florida as the highlight of the SEC, which sent a record 14 teams to the tournament. In doing so, Florida inadvertently became the posterboy for an evolving college basketball world in which the SEC is establishing its dominance.
But now it moves on to the greatest stage of them all.
That, in itself, is an accomplishment no one would have imagined entering this season, as Florida began the year outside the top 25 in KenPom — the widely respected and commonly used college basketball metric site. It surely wasn’t expected when Golden arrived in Gainesville three years ago.
While it boasts a pair of national championships and arguably the greatest modern stretch of college basketball, UF advanced to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament just once in its last nine postseason berths. Without Billy Donovan and his four Final Fours, Golden and Florida’s victory on April 5 would be a program-defining moment, and it will likely be celebrated in Gainesville as such.
“[It’s] a great accomplishment for our program to make it here to the Final Four,” Golden said. “I'm incredibly proud of these guys for getting this win. We're alive, man. We're playing for this national championship on Monday night.”
Houston and Florida used all 40 minutes to dance past their respective opponents in Duke and Auburn, with both needing eight-plus-point comebacks to get the job done.
The Cougars are a methodical, slow-paced unit that rely on their defense to suffocate opponents. As national championship fate would have it, Florida is nearly the exact opposite. Just as Clayton Jr. so dutifully presented on the national stage on April 5, the Gators aim to drown teams offensively, especially from behind the arc.
That contrast will make for a battle of pace of play, but taking things slower might not be an issue for Florida. At least not for Clayton Jr., which is where the final snapshot unfolds.
As the Final Four court was rapidly cleared to make way for the second semifinal, the senior guard walked into the tunnel, looking down. With hands reaching from the stands, looking to get a momentary brush of the budding NCAA Tournament star, he was unfazed, murmuring the same statement from before: “One more.”
This isn’t the finish line. One more game stands between the Gators and its first title in 18 years.
“I guess you could say I haven’t really had time to reflect on what I’ve been doing,” he said. “I’ve just been focused on us winning games with these guys.”
Contact Noah White at nwhite@alligator.org. Follow him on X @noahwhite1782.
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.
