On Monday night the the college basketball season ended with the Florida Gators ending on top. The number 1 seed ended the regular season by winning the SEC and then following that up by winning March Madness. Their path to win the 64 team tournament was not easy. They started off by blowing out 16-seed Norfolk State in the first round. They followed this up by beating the 2-time defending champs UConn in the round of 32 after a comeback win in the last three minutes. In the Sweet 16, Florida outlasted Maryland to send them back to the Elite Eight. There they had a late-game comeback win over 3-seed Texas Tech led by guard Walter Clayton Jr. and his 30 points. This sent them back to the Final Four for the first time sense 2007 when they won their last school title.
On Saturday night the college basketball Final Four took place where all 4 one seeds from each region made it. This was only the second time in tournament history that this happened.
The first game of the night was Auburn vs Florida with with each team looking to punch their ticket to the final. Auburn started the game off hot and had control of the game for the whole first half before Florida mounted their comeback. Led by Walter Clayton Jr. and his 34 points the Gators came back from down 10 to end up with a 79-73 victory.
The Second game of the night was an even better game than the first game that went down. Duke led by Player of the yYear and freshman Cooper Flagg went up against Houston. Duke started the game off hot and took control of the game going into the half and continued dominating for the first part of the second half. But Houston’s slow pace of play and menacing defense is what kept them in the game. They mounted their comeback by only allowing one FG for the last 10 minutes of the game. Houston staged a late comeback going on a 15-3 run to end the game and ended up taking game-winning free throws with 20 seconds left before Cooper Flagg missed what would have been a game-tying shot which sent Houston to the championship where they would face Florida.
In the Championship Houston was the more dominant and physical team where they ended up having a 12-point lead late in the second half. This is when Florida started coming back after being down the entire game. Florida’s depth was quickly able tot get the game to a one-possession game where both teams kept trading buckets. When late in the game Florida led the game by 1 with one minute left. After a Houston turnover with just under 40 seconds left in the game, Florida was fouled and made one free throw to be up two with 19 seconds left. Houston would have a chance to force the game to overtime or even win the game. Houston came out of their time out with a play to win the game but ended up not getting a shot up and Florida won the National Championship.
After one of the most chalk years of March Madness, it led to probably the best final four games we have ever seen, with clutch shots, crazy comebacks, and incredible stories.
