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One last college basketball game remains in the 2024-25 season and if Saturday’s Final Four is any indication, it’s going to be quite the ride.
Florida and Houston will collide in San Antonio’s Alamodome for the men’s title after a national semifinal round that was simply magical. The Gators got to this point by surviving a heavyweight bout with fellow SEC team Auburn, outlasting the Tigers through the heroics of Walter Clayton Jr. The Cougars earned their way into this contest with one of the most unlikely comebacks in Final Four history that included trailing by six with 75 seconds to play.
Both teams will have needed Sunday’s day of rest. Houston’s head coach Kelvin Sampson said Sunday that his players will have plenty left in the tank after their incredible rally against Duke.
“Lives are so consumed by our next game, your next game. I’m glad last night was not our last game, that we do have a next game,” he said. “That’s a good thing for this group because I’ve enjoyed coaching this team.”
The game between the Gators and Cougars tips off at 8:50 p.m. ET on CBS and pits the No. 1 seeds from the West Region and the No. 1 seed from the Midwest Region.
If you want to watch via streaming services, Fubo carries the game as does the March Madness Live app.
If styles make matchups, then we’re in for an intense battle on Monday.
Houston comes in sporting one of the nation’s best defenses, which was a key factor in their win against Cooper Flagg and Duke on Saturday night.
On the other end of things, Florida’s explosive offense can barely be contained once it gets going and Gators guard Clayton is the straw that stirs the drink.
“We’re an elite offensive team, a top-10 defensive team. They’re a top-10 offensive team and elite defensive team,” Florida head coach Todd Golden said. “I think it’s going to be a contrasting battle that way. Hopefully, we can get the game up and down a little bit. They’re going to impose their will as they’ve done on everybody this year. We’re a pretty tough team also.”
He added, “They’re absolutely an elite team. The way they guard, they’re going to make it really hard on us. I think they’ll pressure the ball screen, try to get the ball out of Walt’s hands. But they rotate, they’re long, they play so hard, so tough. We’re going to have great mental and physical toughness if we want to give ourselves a chance tomorrow night.”
The Gators average a tick over 85 points per game and have been on an absolute tear this season. The Cougars only allow about 58 points per game and can ratchet up the pressure in the blink of an eye as the Blue Devils learned on Saturday – Duke made one free field goal in the final 10 minutes of its game against Houston.
“They’re the best defensive team in America. They have just a great identity as a program of just being both physically and mentally tough. That’s something we’ve tried to pride ourselves on this year,” Golden said. “Houston I would say is a great example of that. Not only this year but Coach Sampson and his program have done it for a long time now.”
The Final Four was all about Clayton and Houston’s LJ Cryer. Expect much more of the same on Monday.
Clayton pulled off something only one other college player has done when he scored 34 against Auburn in the Final Four: back-to-back games racking up more than 30 points in the Elite Eight and Final Four. The only other player to pull off that feat was Larry Bird, the legendary Indiana State and Boston Celtics star.
It was Clayton who took the biggest shots in crunchtime after the Gators overcame Auburn’s strong first half. In fact, when the Tigers were getting out to a lead and dominating the opening stages of the game, it was Clayton who kept them in the contest by slashing to the basket repeatedly for layups and sinking 3-pointers.
He shares that in common with Cryer, who was Houston’s only bright spot on offense for much of Saturday night. The senior guard at one point had half of his team’s points before the rest of the Cougars squad woke up and caught fire in the final minutes.
“Our best player, the guy that kept us in the game, was LJ. He kept us in touch with them. So, when the time came, we had an opportunity to get the lead down where we could put some game pressure on ‘em, LJ was the guy,” Sampson said.
Each player will be the focus of the opposing defense on Monday night, and Golden said Clayton’s teammates are going to have to step up to get him the same kind of looks he enjoyed on Saturday.
“I think Walter is going to be able to run around it a little bit, keep them on their toes in terms of whether he’s going to get off it quick and let somebody else make the play or get in the paint,” he said.
Sampson is 69 years old while Golden is 39. They’re very different head coaches but they share one thing in common: they’re both going after their first national title on Monday.
Golden is known to be an analytics whiz who looks to the numbers to guide his game plans, while Sampson is much more old school.
“We’re very analytical in everything we do. We talk about that a lot. Whether it’s roster building, whether it’s scheduling, deciding who I want to play, game scouting reports, etc.,” Golden said.
“It’s more than any one specific thing, the way I like to explain it, a macro outlook on our decision-making and how we build out. We try to gather as much data as we possibly can when it comes to any sort of decision, then make what decision that data tells us to make. Then we got to live with the consequences. It’s not always going to work. Life is not perfect. You want to give yourself the best chance to be successful and live with the results.”
Sampson said he’s definitely learned from coaches like Golden and Duke’s Jon Scheyer, another young head coach who is already succeeding early in his career.
“The game is in good hands with the young coaches. I think they’re better set up to navigate these choppy waters that we have in front of us than maybe the old guys that coached the game when there was no shot clock, no three-point line. Then we had a 45-second shot clock. Most of these young ones don’t even know that,” he said before the Final Four tipped off. “I know I learned from ‘em. There’s a lot to be learned from these young guys, how they do things, their ideas, their energy. There’s a lot of things I don’t know. I’ve always been pretty good about not knowing what I don’t know.”
But that respect doesn’t mean that Sampson isn’t looking to score one for the sport’s elders on Monday.
“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,” Sampson said on Sunday with a smile. “I saw Tubby (Smith) and Rick Barnes, Tom Izzo, (Gregg Popovich), a bunch of the older coaches. They all kind of had similar messages to me: win one for the old guys, something like that.”
