1 week Ago By Tom Blow
Florida has won the men's NCAA Tournament after beating Houston on Monday . The Gators completed a staggering comeback to stun the Cougars , who boasted a 12-point lead at one stage. Florida was only in the lead for 17 seconds before regaining it around the final minute of the contest and not letting Houston back in, winning 65-63.
Will Richard top scored for Florida, putting up 18 points, with Walter Clayton Jr. and Alex Condon adding 11 and 12 points respectively. L.
J. Cryer produced an excellent display for Houston , scoring 19 points, but he was the only Cougar to score double digits. It's Florida's first national championship in men's basketball since the two it won in 2006 and 2007, having also finished as runner-up back in 2000.
As for the Cougars, they remain without a national title and are now three-time runners-up (1983, 1984, 2025). The Cougars were in charge for most of Monday's game. They were up by as much as eight points during the first half before the Florida made it a three-point game at halftime.
Houston again pulled away after the break - going up by 12 points - but the Gators again fought back to level the contest at 48-48 with just over seven minutes remaining. Both teams traded blows after that before Florida took control during the final couple of minutes. Cougars head coach Kelvin Sampson would've become the oldest head coach to win the men's NCAA Tournament at 69.
He was asked about the prospect of achieving that feat heading into Monday's game. "It's probably a good question," he replied. "When you're pressing 70, you look at things a lot differently.
I mean, you're grown up now. You're 70 (smiling). I've spent a little time this morning with my grandkids.
First time I went to the Final Four in 2002, my son was on the team, or he was on the bench with us. Over the years, things kind of come full circle in someways. "Last night I got so many texts.
I haven't returned any. There's too many to even look at. I didn't even get through all of them.
.. But I haven't thought a lot about what's next.
I get so focused on the team, trying to figure out how to help them." Yet Sampson won't be able to respond to those messages as a national champion. He's 30 years older than his opposite number Golden, who wasn't even born when Sampson started coaching.
Golden said before Monday: "I mean, he's just an amazing coach. "That's the biggest challenge. He's done it at an incredibly high level for a long, long time, at a lot of different places.
Coach Sampson and the Houston program is definitely one of if not the toughest programs in America. They've been doing it for a long time. "In my estimation, a little underrated, as hard as that might be to believe.
They're just an elite, elite program. They're so consistent, they're so tough. 19-1 in the Big 12 this year.
18-game winning streaky think right now that they're on. It's a huge challenge for us." As it turned out, Golden's Gators were up to that challenge.
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