SAN FRANCISCO — You could see it in Todd Golden’s eyes with three minutes left. He could sense it. Everyone in the Chase Center probably could too. Surely the University Avenue bars of Gainesville, congested with belligerent fans, did as well.
A historic season, cementing the turnaround of a dormant college basketball power, was disappearing with every second, every shot.
That was until Walter Clayton Jr. rose.
With a Final Four berth on the line, trailing 77-75 despite a 9-2 run in the last two minutes, Florida’s senior AP All-American gathered himself. Under-recruited, underrated and now amid the biggest moment of his life, he had never been calmer. With one swift motion, turning his back to the basket, he whipped around, releasing a flawless shot. One reminiscent of the NBA legend that graces the Chase Center’s court any other given night. The NBA legend he had been compared to only three days earlier.
As the ball traveled through the air, Golden turned the other direction — his facial expression had changed. He was confident, and with the crowd’s roar, he was justified.
Despite trailing by 10 points in the final six minutes, top-seeded Florida, behind the sheer will of Clayton Jr. and his 30 points, outlasted third-seeded Texas Tech 84-79. It was a physical, back-and-forth Elite Eight contest that featured seven lead changes, 34 total fouls (in addition to an absurd number that weren’t called) and, most notably, the Gators outscoring the Red Raiders 18-4 in the game’s final three minutes. With its improbable comeback, Florida now advances to its sixth Final Four, the second-most of any Division I program and its first since 2014, solidifying a historically efficient rebuild.
“I'm incredibly proud to be able to be here in year three,” Golden said. “And to get Florida back to the Final Four is something that's incredibly special. When I was fortunate enough to get this position three years ago, I'm not sure this was something that [I thought could happen].”
After sinking a pair of free throws with 10 seconds left, solidifying a five-point, game-ending lead, Clayton Jr. turned to the crowd with a statement.
“We’re f***ing here. I’m that guy.”
Up to this point, he had already been incredible throughout the NCAA Tournament, averaging 20.6 points per game entering the evening. But what he did Saturday night was different.
“There's not another player in America you would rather have right now than Walter Clayton with the ball in his hands in a big-time moment,” Golden said. “The biggest thing in those moments is you need to have somebody that wants to take those shots. They're obviously difficult plays, but someone that has the confidence to step up and make incredible individual plays. And Walter did that for us tonight.”
It wasn’t an efficient shooting evening for Florida. Prior to the final five minutes, the Gators couldn’t find a shot that Texas Tech didn’t contest, hitting at a tournament-low sub-30 percent clip. But then, Florida’s star stepped in.
The consensus All-American scored eight points during Florida’s game-defining 18-4 run to end the evening, earning himself the NCAA Tournament West Region MVP award. Moments before his game-sealing turnaround 3, the senior had knocked down another that suffocated Texas Tech’s second-half lead to a 75-75 tie. Prior to those final moments, it hadn’t been his night, only knocking down his first 3-pointer with a little over five minutes remaining. He wouldn’t have gotten that opportunity without another all-region contributor.
Through the first 35 minutes of Saturday night, sophomore forward Thomas Haugh, who comes off of Florida’s bench, had been its only offensive contributor. This wasn’t entirely surprising. Only two days earlier in the Sweet Sixteen, he had been the spark that got Florida’s offense going with 13 points and a team-high nine rebounds, filling in after sophomore forward Alex Condon suffered an ankle injury.
Haugh finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds on 4 for 6 from 3, but his effect was most notable down the stretch.
After entering halftime down 40-35, Texas Tech roared out of the locker room, taking a lead three minutes into the second period that it wouldn’t surrender until the final minute on Sunday.
But that’s when Florida showed its resilience. With the clock dwindling under three and half minutes left and the Gators trailing 75-69, Haugh knocked down a much-needed three — the first shot of Florida’s closing run. Seconds later, he added another that pulled the Gators within three, sparking a growing hope that reached 2,300 miles back to Gainesville, Florida.
“The thing about Tommy, and it goes for other guys on our roster as well, he's a winning player. He just finds ways to impact the game and to help the team win the most,” Golden said. “He could be starting for pretty much any team in America. Obviously he'll start for us next year.”
The evening wasn’t without its hiccups, and for nearly 15 minutes in the second half, it appeared Florida’s NCAA Tournament was tracking towards a painful ending. Coming out of the half down by five, Texas Tech got its offense moving. The Red Raiders finished the game shooting 43%, but in the middle of the second half, they knocked down 6 for 8 as part of a 12-2 run that ended in a 10-point lead with just under eight minutes remaining.
The Gators entered the evening with a focus on containing Texas Tech junior forward Darrion Williams, but failed to do so during that stretch. He finished with 23 points, one of four players across both teams to record 20-plus and one of six to reach double-digits. Offense was expected, as both programs are among the top 5 in offensive efficiency, per KenPom, but it came in runs, and despite Texas Tech and Williams’ spurt in the second half, it was Florida that finished the game efficiently.
With their respective runs, the pair of teams traded the lead seven times, and prior to the spurt that gave Texas Tech its 10-point gap, neither held a lead larger than six. That was due to the evening’s sporadic shooting nature and chippiness, but incredibly even play.
After the game, as the media awaited Texas Tech taking the podium, the box score was distributed among journalists and public relations officials. After about 25 seconds of analysis, one statement summed up the game everyone had just watched.
“Which team is which?”
In an Elite Eight contest NCAA and CBS officials could only dream of, Florida and Texas Tech were essentially even at everything. Both highly efficient offenses shot the same 43 and 37 percent clips from the field and 3, respectively. Both teams only recorded 11 assists, while Florida only outrebounded Texas Tech by seven.
The only true disparity came in the turnover margin, where the Gators were loose with the ball 12 times to Texas Tech’s seven. That was an area of concern for Florida entering the evening after committing 14 first-half turnovers against Maryland, and the Red Raiders took advantage, scoring 22 points off of Florida’s slip-ups. But the Gators’ bench, which was another point of interest before the game as it features four consistent contributors, offset that by outscoring Texas Tech’s reserves.
“Guys could just break apart during those moments,” Clayton Jr. said. “We all stayed the course, stayed together. And I think that just goes to show the togetherness of the team, the love we have for each other to get through those tough times.”
When Golden’s press conference opened, a line followed him out of the blackout curtains that coated the media cave underneath the Chase Center. With the vague ring of “It’s great to be a Florida Gator!” chants denoting their entrance, a significant portion of the 39-year-old coach’s staff joined him — a representation of how Florida got here.
In three years, Golden revived a college basketball program that less than 20 years ago was on top of the nation, and he did it with his people. With a Picasso painting of a roster that features a mixture of transfers, senior returnees and sparsely recruited underclassmen, Florida has been built to survive any game. Against Texas Tech, it was a physical battle that featured moments and calls inducing statements from Golden and the crowd behind him that he wouldn’t want his mom to hear. A game in which Florida had to fight in a way it hadn’t this season.
San Francisco is coated in a fog of Gator confidence after Saturday’s improbable 85-79 win, and now, having out-drawn the Red Raiders in their duel, Florida will take the court in San Antonio, Texas, for its first Final Four berth since 2014. It’s the Gators’ sixth time advancing to the NCAA Tournament’s final stop, which places it behind North Carolina and Michigan State historically, despite only making its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1987.
Top-seeded Florida will face either No. 1 seeded Auburn or No. 2 seeded Michigan State, which play on Sunday night in Atlanta. The Gators will take the court at the Final Four on Saturday.
“It's crazy. I feel like I'm dreaming. I was watching the round of 64 in the eighth grade sneaking my phone into science class watching it,” Haugh said. “Now to say I'm playing in the Final Four is wild.”
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.
