The Gator boys always stay hot.
The 2025 Men’s Basketball National Championship, featuring Florida and Houston, was a heart stopping nail bitter that came down to the wire. The Gators were looking to claim the title for the first time since going back to back in 2006 and 2007, while the Cougars were seeking their first title in program history. In the end, despite both teams going back and forth ever since the tip, the Florida Gators were crowned National Champions for the 3rd time.
At 39, head coach Todd Golden is the youngest coach to win this tournament since NC State’s Jim Valvano did it 42 years ago at the age of 37. He’s the third-youngest of the modern era, after Valvano and Bob Knight at age 35 with unbeaten Indiana in 1976.
The first half was a defensive battle, with the Cougars holding a slim 31–28 lead at halftime. They kept Florida’s star player, Walter Clayton Jr., scoreless in the first half, with his first points coming at the 14:57 mark of the second half thanks to two free throws. He scored his first field goal with just under eight minutes remaining with a smooth and-one, finishing the game with 11 points (5 rebounds, 1 block, and 1 steal). Will Richard kept the Gators in the game early, scoring 14 points in the first half, and led Florida overall with 18 points, along with 8 rebounds, 1 block, and 2 steals.
Transferring over to Houston, their defense held opponents to 58.5 points per game this season and thrived on forcing turnovers. Coming into the title game, they were defending at 38.2% overall and 30.3% from the 3-point line. That was a key part throughout the last few days, especially after their shocking rally from nine down with two minutes left Saturday night to beat top-ranked Duke, and the Cougars played to it throughout the game, holding Florida to just 39.6% for the game and just 6 makes on 24 attempts from the arc.
In addition to Clayton and Richard, sophomore forward/center Alex Condon came in clutch. He scored 12 points, 7 steals, and 4 blocks.
The team popped off when needed, and put up good numbers. They scored 11 second chance points, 14 bench points, 28 points in the paint, and 10 off turnovers. They also guarded at 34.8%, including 31% after halftime when they forced seven turnovers. In fact, they held the Cougars without a field goal for nine consecutive possessions to complete the comeback. Despite Houston having just four turnovers through the first 34 minutes, Florida forced five over the final 3:24, including three in the final 91 seconds when the Cougars scored just one point.
The overall win was pretty special because it was their fifth win this season when trailing by double digits and the third-largest comeback in NCAA championship game history. Also, Florida is now the only school in the country to win 3 championships in both football and men’s basketball.
Besides their stellar performance, the Gators had quite the celebration back at their home during the watch party held in the O’Dome. The celebration was sold out with 11,355, which broke the original season high of 11,191 vs Mississippi (March 8) and paid attendance record of 11,255 vs Auburn (February 19, 2022).
For the tournament, the Most Outstanding Player award went to Clayton, and the All-Tournament Team featured him, Richard, LJ Cryer and J’Wan Roberts with Houston, along with Cooper Flagg with Duke.
When it comes to TV viewership, it was a slam dunk filled with great numbers to cap off an amazing season. Overall, the tournament averaged 10.2 million viewers across TBS, CBS, TNT, and truTV. Final Four Weekend averaged 16.4 million viewers for the 3 games, which is a 21% increase and the best in 8 years. In addition to this, the championship peaked at 21.1 million viewers on CBS, and it averaged 18.1 million. This is a 22% increase and the most watched championship since 2019. What makes this year’s championship even better is that the viewership numbers beat the best game of last year’s NBA Finals, which generated 12.2 million. This truly shows that college basketball is alive, well, and going to continue to rise as the next class of future legends comes in.
Looking ahead into next season, the top 5 teams in ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25 Poll feature Houston sitting atop at the #1 spot, Purdue at #2, Louisville at #3, UConn at #4, then Michigan at #5. Even though Florida won this season, they’ll be losing a lot of key players and have to rebuild, which ultimately puts them in the poll’s #19 spot.
It’s going to be very interesting next season, since different teams are either rebuilding from the ground up or continue to carry the momentum. As college basketball comes to close, the next NBA season will be approaching soon with the 2025 Draft being held on Wednesday, June 25 at 8pm on ABC/ESPN for the First Round and ESPN for the Second Round.
