Florida Wins National Championship with Stunning Comeback

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00:00watching the comeback that Florida pulled off down by as many as 12 early in that second half,

00:05fighting, clawing their way back, and then those final 20 seconds.

00:09And that final possession for Houston, not able to get a shot up, loose ball on the floor.

00:14Alex Condon of the Gators dives on it, recovers, and Florida wins a national championship

00:19for the third time in program history.

00:22As you have thought back on last night, as you sat here on this desk,

00:26what is your overall takeaway for the Gators' national crown?

00:30That they at no point put together 40 minutes of basketball,

00:35but they put together minutes of basketball when they had to.

00:39Look at the second half, obviously, against Maryland.

00:42Talk about the comeback that they had versus Texas Tech.

00:45This was a Florida team that was playing better than maybe anyone in the country

00:49going into the NCAA tournament that really never played their best basketball,

00:55but they played the right basketball at the right time.

00:58And for them to make that comeback, it's kind of crazy because it's kind of like

01:03turnaround is fair play, right?

01:04We saw Texas Tech, big comeback late, turnaround, choke next time.

01:08You saw, you know, obviously Houston, big comeback versus Duke.

01:11Then they turn around next game, and they fumble it.

01:14So, you know, to me, it's really a testament of Todd Golden and his maturity at 39.

01:20The adjustments that he made from the first to the second half, going to the horn set,

01:27getting Walter Clayton off the ball and running more screening active for him,

01:31got a couple of backdoor layups, got a nice re-screen off the horn set.

01:35It was just magical, smart basketball from someone at 39 years old to adjust on the fly like that.

01:42I was really, really impressed.

01:43You take a look at Walter Clayton, coach, zero points at the half, 11 points in the second half,

01:47named the MOP.

01:48But understanding this, handicapping this game for me, watching it before it played out,

01:52saying, you know what, he's going to have to have a big game if they want to win,

01:5525, 26 plus points, which is what he's been doing throughout the entire tournament.

01:58But I found myself watching this game saying, Houston might win this game by 15 or 20 points.

02:03And it was a close game early on, but you saw the defensive sets like Houston.

02:06Florida had no answers for what they were doing.

02:08You said to yourself, sooner or later, Houston's going to find the rhythm on offense

02:11as one of the most efficient teams in the country on offense as well as defense.

02:14And it never happened.

02:15Why did it never happen or click for the Houston offense?

02:18It's just their inability to knock down threes.

02:20The best three-point shooting team in the country could have hit big shots in the moment.

02:25And if you really peel back and look at the Houston shooting, right,

02:28their 230th or 240th and two-point shooting percentage.

02:33And then you look at the number of free-throw attempts per field goal attempts,

02:36they were, I think, at the 330s, if I'm not mistaken.

02:39So, this is the Houston team that lived and died at the three-point line.

02:43They were ice cold versus Duke.

02:44They got hot late first half and carried over to second half.

02:47And it just didn't transition over to this game.

02:52I just thought that, you know, Florida found different ways.

02:56Houston stayed what they did offensively.

02:58You saw Florida go to the wing ball screen late first half, get the bigs on the roll,

03:03get their ball.

03:03Walter Crane Jr. doing a good job of passing and getting other guys the ball,

03:07and then switching their offense in the second half.

03:10They adjusted simply, Donnie.

03:12Houston did not.

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