00:08But today we're delighted to welcome the 2025 NCAA basketball champions, the University of Florida Gators.
00:18Congratulations. Hello, Tim. Congratulations also to a really great young head coach, Todd Golden, on the entire job he did, the season, the inspiration that he gave these players.
00:36He's unbelievable as a coach. I heard a lot of great things about him. Oh, would I like to be his agent?
00:44Don't go anywhere, coach. Stay, coach. You can't leave.
00:48And joining us this afternoon is University of Florida's interim president, Kent Foxx. Kent?
01:02Good. Congratulations. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who's doing a phenomenal job.
01:07Phenomenal. Keeping her safe.
01:11And, of course, there's no bigger Florida fan than Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
01:15Pam, why don't you and Marco, come up. Come up. Senator, come on up. Get up here. Come on up here, Senator.
01:24And I see Marco's son, Anthony, is a running back for the Gators football team. Whoa.
01:30That's not bad. That's pretty good.
01:33We're also joined by Senators Rick Scott, Ashley Moody. Rick Scott, where's Rick? Rick? Come on up, Rick.
01:41Ashley's up.
01:42Representatives Aaron Bean, Gus Bilirakis, Vern Buchanan, Kate Kamek. And if you want, come on up.
01:52This stage is meant for a lot of people, actually.
01:55Byron Donalds. Randy Fine. Randy. Come on up, Randy. Congratulations on your election.
02:04I was worried about you, Randy. I was worried. He ended up winning by 16 points, right? I wasn't too worried.
02:12Scott Franklin. Scott, thank you very much.
02:14Carlos Jimenez. Where's Carlos? Come on up, Carlos. Good guy.
02:22Mike Herodopoulos. Laura Lee. Laura? Laura Lee. Look at this.
02:28Hi, Greg. They don't have your name there. Greg, get up here, Greg. Greg Snoopy.
02:34Anna Paulina. Luna. Anna. Anna. Come on, Anna.
02:41Jimmy Petronis. Jimmy, congratulations. That was a big election. We got them all. We have Greg up here.
02:51Thanks as well to the wonderful members of the Florida State Legislature and a very special thanks to the NFL legend and University of Florida.
03:00I mean, one of the greatest players I've ever seen. I'll tell you what.
03:05As a college player, maybe the best ever. And you did damn well.
03:11And you did damn well in the pros, too. He was great. Despite being on the Jets, you did damn well.
03:19Come on up here, Tim. You got to come up here. Tim Tebow.
03:24And he's a terrific guy. He is a terrific guy. He's a winner. Boy, he was a winner.
03:31Well, you win two, right? And you almost won a third.
03:34Because nobody did much better. Nobody did that.
03:37I think we, you know, he goes down really as one of the best, maybe the best college football player, if you think about it.
03:43Based on, we can only base that on results, right, Tim?
03:46Which is all that counts. A great guy, too.
03:50The 2025 University of Florida basketball team was one for the history books.
03:55And I saw a few of those games. And they were tough games against great teams.
04:00You brought home the third national title in program history and made Florida the only Division I program ever to win three national titles in both basketball and football.
04:11That's not bad.
04:11The team was hot from the very beginning, starting off the year with a 13-game winning streak and roaring to a 27-4 record in the regular season against really, really good competition,
04:34including two wins over number one ranked opponents.
04:37In one of the pivotal moments early in the season, the Gators found themselves in a fierce battle with South Carolina.
04:44Great team trailing the Gamecocks, 52-38, coach. That's pretty good, coach.
04:50They're not too happy about it, are they? That's one of those, you know, you're happy.
04:54But they're not happy when that happens.
04:57With 12 minutes left in the clock fighting against time, the Gators clawed your way back into striking distance.
05:03With just five seconds left in the clock, senior guard Will Richard seized his moment.
05:14And drove in hard to sink a game winning layup, earning Florida a 70-69 come from behind victory.
05:22Well done. Where is Will? I want to see this guy.
05:25That's great, Will. Boy, oh boy, these are good-looking guys.
05:41One of my guys sat downstairs, he's a big guy, he said, these are the tallest human beings I've ever seen.
05:46You know, I have a son who's six foot nine.
05:48But six foot nine's not, I now see, you know, he always says, Dad, I'm not that tall compared to some of these guys.
05:54And now, I understand what he's talking about.
05:58By the SEC tournament, Florida truly caught fire.
06:01The Gators even set a new tournament scoring record when you beat Alabama 104-82.
06:07In the closing minutes of the SEC championship game against Tennessee, the Volunteers cut the Gators 13-point lead down to five.
06:17Ooh, that's called sometimes choke time, coach.
06:20That's never good when you take that big lead and you're all, you're thinking about your victory speech.
06:26You forget to play basketball, right?
06:28You forget you've got to play golf or basketball or whatever, and then all of a sudden you say, oh man, we could lose this sucker, huh?
06:36That's never good, but you handled it.
06:38The pressure was on, you handled it.
06:40That's when star senior guard Walter Clayton Jr.
06:43I'll tell you, I hear he's, he's really good.
07:00See, he's really rich, too, you know, that he sees control of the game.
07:08Not yet.
07:09Not yet.
07:10Yeah, not yet.
07:11Right, not yet.
07:12Is he coming back, coach?
07:14No, he'll be playing the NBA next year.
07:16Well, then he's rich.
07:19Now, I hear he's unbelievable.
07:21Special.
07:22Going to be a very early draft choice, sir, I think.
07:24If they're smart.
07:26If they're smart.
07:27Sees control of the game and scored eight straight points, leading the Gators to your first SEC championship in 11 years.
07:34And earning himself a title in the tournament MVP.
07:38That's great.
07:39A lot of MVPs up there.
07:40Up next was the big dance.
07:43Florida opened March Madness with a commanding win over Norfolk State and followed it up by edging out two-time defending champ UConn.
07:52That's tough.
07:53And a thrilling 77-75 win.
07:55Some of these games are close, coach.
07:57You know what they say about those close.
08:00That means they have a good coach.
08:02I don't know about that.
08:02You won a lot of close games here.
08:05The Elite Eight brought to a face-off with Texas Tech down by nine.
08:10With under four minutes left, Florida responded with a furious rally led by sophomore Thomas Hawk, who made back-to-back three-pointers.
08:19Back-to-back.
08:27He's got good hair, too.
08:30Nice hair.
08:31He's got no hair loss problem, I can tell you.
08:37Thomas was still on full display as he earned his fourth double-double of the season by recording 20 points and 11 rebounds against the Red Raiders.
08:48And with an 84-79 victory over Texas Tech, you punched your ticket to the Final Four.
08:54Not easy to do.
08:56Not easy to do, fellas.
08:58Facing off against top-seeded Auburn, Walter Clayton again.
09:02Walter Clayton.
09:03This guy Walter Clayton has to be very...
09:06Walter Clayton Jr. turned in another big performance, dropping a career-high 34 points and became the first player since Larry Bird.
09:14How good was Larry Bird in 1979 to score 30 points or more in both the Elite Eight and the Final Four?
09:24That's some competition.
09:35They like Larry Bird.
09:36I do, too.
09:37So in the championship game against the Houston Cougars, what became one of the most hard-fought title games in college basketball history,
09:47the first half was a battle over every point, with both teams playing ferocious defense and the lowest-scoring first half of a championship game since 2011.
09:57The Gators fell behind, and it was looking bad, but in the second half, Florida stormed back with a 14-3 run.
10:05That's not bad.
10:06With less than 60 seconds left on the clock, Houston led by one point.
10:11Did you think you were going to win?
10:12I did.
10:13That's what he gets paid for.
10:19This guy's good.
10:22Houston then fouled Elijah Martin.
10:26Okay, where's Elijah?
10:33Giving him two free throws, which he easily sank.
10:37Were you nervous?
10:38I always think, here's a guy.
10:41He's got a sink.
10:41It's not that easy.
10:42I can name a couple of very big players that didn't do too well in that circumstance.
10:48Were you nervous when you were up?
10:50No.
10:52That's pretty good.
10:55He sank them both, Coach, right?
10:57Oh, if you didn't sink him, you wouldn't be up here right now.
11:01And nobody would ever call you again.
11:05That's great.
11:06That's a lot of pressure.
11:07That's a tremendous thing.
11:08Houston fouled junior guard Denzel Aberdeen, who expanded Florida's lead again, and that's great.
11:15Where's Denzel?
11:16I love that name, Denzel Aberdeen.
11:24I have a place in Aberdeen, Scotland.
11:26I like that name.
11:27Aberdeen.
11:29And he's a good player, Coach.
11:30I wouldn't, I'd like to have him say, no, not that good.
11:35You look like a good player.
11:37On Houston's final possession, the Gators clamped down, pressured the ball.
11:42That's right.
11:42I saw that game.
11:43That was a crazy game.
11:44And forced a turn over, the ball rolled loose, and the Gators clinched the national championship 65-63 in one of the most exciting games and championships they've ever had.
12:04That's true.
12:06Great coaching.
12:07Lesser teams would have crumbled.
12:09That was a hell of a game.
12:11Tim, what do you think?
12:12Pretty good, right?
12:12The best.
12:13That was pretty good.
12:15And under that pressure, very few teams could have withstood that.
12:19That was an amazing moment, actually.
12:21And those two throws, free throws by Denzel were pretty amazing.
12:26But time after time, you refused to let up.
12:29I mean, think of it, all these close games and against great teams, and a lot of those guys are going into the NBA.
12:35And you won, Coach.
12:36You just kept winning.
12:37You refused to let up when the odds were against you.
12:40And that's the mark of true champions, all of you.
12:43The coach is great, and the team is great.
12:45And the coach feels really, I asked him, first question, how do you think you'll do this year?
12:49You know, in other words, forget about last year.
12:51How are you doing this year, right?
12:53We always think forward, Coach.
12:54But he said he thinks he's going to have a fantastic team.
12:57Will you go and rank top five or so, or one, or maybe?
13:00I think we'll be top five.
13:02Five?
13:02Good, Coach.
13:02That's good.
13:03Well, if you're top five, that means with you as a coach, you're going to win, right?
13:06So I think so.
13:10So, again, congratulations to a well-earned victory.
13:15And all I can say is go, Gators.
13:16We love you and forward.
13:17I'll tell you, we love you and forward.
13:19And now, Coach Golden.
13:21Coach.
13:22Thank you, Coach.
13:23Well, it's my passport.
13:32First of all, thank you, Mr. President, for inviting my team and our program to the White
13:36House to celebrate our national championship.
13:38It means everything to us.
13:38So thank you very much.
13:39And we're going to take you to the Oval Office.
13:41We're going to go to the Oval Office after this.
13:43The Oval Office, Patrick, and that's right.
13:45Yeah.
13:46And then we just want to thank all of our friends and family and supporters of our program that
13:50are here today enjoying this moment and celebrating with us.
13:53If it wasn't for your all support all year, we wouldn't be here.
13:57So thank you all very much.
13:59Mr. President, I like to think of our program similarly to how you think of the United States.
14:04We're a meritocracy.
14:05All right.
14:05We work really, really hard no matter what you look like or where you come from.
14:08If you put the team first and win, we're going to play you.
14:12And we have a program full of that, guys that have great attitudes, great work ethics.
14:16Most importantly, want to be at the University of Florida.
14:18All right.
14:19We have young men that have great physical tools, great basketball talent.
14:23In fact, as Mr. President said, a number of these guys will be participating in the NBA
14:27next year or when their time at Florida is up.
14:30But the reason why we were successful this year is we had incredible team talent.
14:33We had guys that were willing to play together, sacrifice individual stats and records for the
14:39greater good of the group, and it led us to a 36-4 record and a trip to the White House.
14:43I'm incredibly proud of my players and our staff and the work that we've done over the last year.
14:58And our goal is to do everything we can to put ourselves in position to be here again next year.
15:02But we've got a lot of work to do in the meantime.
15:05But again, Mr. President, thank you so much.
15:07And to show a token of our appreciation, we have an autographed team basketball and a Donald Trump jersey
15:14with number 47 on it.
15:15All right.
15:19To honor your 47th term as President of the United States of America.
15:23Thank you all very much.
15:32Go Gators!
15:32Go Gators!
15:40I'm not sure they'll want to.
15:42I think the most exciting room anywhere in the world is called the Oval Office.
15:47And I'm going to invite the coach and the team down to the Oval Office.
15:51I might even ask our great representatives, senators, Marco, everybody, to come down with
15:55them.
15:56And we'll take some pictures in the Oval Office.
15:58And I have a special little coin for them, a really nice coin.
16:01I hope they never lose it, because if they do, it's a lot of money, that coin.
