Florida Edges Out UConn 77-75, Advances in NCAA Tournament

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00:001-8 matchup, one seed in Florida, favored by nine and a half points. But not just your usual eight

00:06seed in the two-time reigning national champion Connecticut Huskies. And we knew that Dan Hurley

00:13and his Huskies would come out prepared. That's exactly what we saw. A tied game at the break,

00:1831-all. Back and forth the entirety of those second 20 minutes with UConn actually out in

00:25front for a good majority of it until Florida woke up at the end. And a stretch run led by

00:31clutch moments from Walter Clayton Jr. Florida edges out UConn 77-75. The number one seed in

00:39the West Region is on to the second round, or the second weekend I should say, in the Gators

00:45in the two-time reigning champs. Dan Hurley's Huskies have their quest for a three-peat ended

00:50in the round of 32. 77-75 the victory for Florida. UConn does cover as a nine and a

00:57half point pregame dog. Probably played as well as you thought UConn could, easily staying inside

01:02that number with a legitimate chance to win outright. That was a fantastic performance by

01:06UConn on that bid to try to get the back-to-back-to-back national championship games

01:11and do a feat that hasn't happened in quite some time. But understand this too, like Florida shot

01:1647% as a team from the three-point line with a bit of volume and won that game by two points.

01:21So now we take a look and say, okay, Florida is mortal as opposed to just absolutely laying

01:26waste to the SEC down the stretch and probably having some of the most impressive victories

01:31on their own season. But maybe none more impressive yesterday than Walter Clayton Jr.

01:35in the second half, late in the second half, taking control of that ball game. That's the

01:39sign of a champion here. It doesn't always have to go your way. You have to win by 25 points every

01:43game with easy walkaway victories. It's nice to have some adversity, which the Florida Gators did

01:47yesterday and handled it very well down the stretch. No shame in UConn, but I did see, you know,

01:52I get a kick out of Danny Hurley. Like, I think it was Sam Baylor, like, hey, don't let the refs

01:56job you like they did us. Like, we don't watch the game, which is good, in studio with any volume on.

02:01So you're not getting any commentary there that's going to jade your opinion. But at the end of that

02:05game, I never once said, oh my goodness, UConn got the shaft here by the refs at that point. So I

02:10think he was just trying to be edgy at the end of the game, but no shame in UConn's game. It's

02:14hard to win against really good teams and they fought hard and they stayed inside the number

02:18with a chance to win. That's all you can expect with Florida moves on as we thought they would.