A great Final Four in college basketball does not automatically equate to a great NCAA Tournament just as a great NCAA Tournament does not automatically equate to a great Final Four. The 2006 edition of the NCAA Tournament was magnificent for four rounds, upset-laden and drama-filled, culminating in Fairfax, VA commuter school George Mason ascending to a Final Four that was an absolute dud when they were resoundingly beaten by the Florida Gators who went on to win the title in another dull rout. Not that it mattered. If Florida were the official, unequivocal 2006 champs, George Mason, nevertheless, won the 2006 NCAA Tournament in spirit. Both those things can be true. And so, ironically, Florida earned the 2025 National Championship by winning a chalk-heavy, cinderella-less NCAA Tournament that will be forgotten and a pressure cooker Final Four that will be remembered.
The Gators beat Auburn on Saturday night in the first semifinal by getting physical with its premiere player, Johni Broome, who by the end was pleading every play for a foul to be called, as sure a sign as any that your goose is cooked. In the other semifinal, meanwhile, Houston overcame a double-digit deficit to defeat Duke in the final moments in a vintage case of Duke schadenfreude, the kind of improbable comeback that emits Team of Destiny vibes. Destiny is fickle during March Madness, though, and 48 hours later Florida did to Houston what Houston did to Duke. If the championship tilt was a better all-around game than Duke v Houston, it was still peculiar, often intense, frequently dramatic, not always high in quality. Both teams began with a bevy of missed shots and there was a vexing interlude in the second half when the referees seemed to call so many fouls on Florida, that they then reversed course and seemed to call even more fouls on Houston, grinding the contest’s momentum to a halt. And epitomizing how in one way or another, every player struggled, the best player on the court, Florida’s First Team All-American Walter Clayton Jr. struggled the most, not even scoring his first point until the second half, suffocated all night by Houston’s relentless defense. When at one point he got out ahead on a fast break, with a clean look at a three-point shot finally imminent, Houston’s Mylik Wilson closed down on him so quickly to snuff out that open look that you could sense him internally screaming. Even so, he dished out seven assists, made his free throws, and with three minutes left, down 60-57, Clayton Jr. rose up and buried his one and only three of the game as if he was reading the stage direction right out of the screenplay.
More than any baskets scored, Florida won in much the same way Houston carved out its lead, by clamping down on defense and reeling itself back in from 12 points down as the imperturbable Cougars gradually became more and more perturbed, demonstrably proven by the final possession in which trailing 65-63 and setting up a shot to win it, they didn’t even get that shot off. It was a gut-wrenching thing to witness, really, Houston guard Emanuel Sharp leaving his feet and realizing mid-air that if he did take the shot, it would be blocked by Clayton Jr. but knowing that if he did not take the shot, he would be called for a travel upon landing, the moment you have dreamed of all your life, the last second shot to win the championship, turning into a hardwood Sophie’s choice. I could not stop thinking about the agony that must have flooded his mind in that split-second. In fact, Florida foreshadowed this ending in their semifinal when they closed out so quickly on Auburn’s Chad Baker-Mazara on a three-point attempt, he found himself in the exact same position as Sharp and wound called for a travel, leaving him with a wry smile. As such, Sharp chose door number three, not shooting the ball, dropping it in front of him and letting it bounce, and rather than collecting it himself and being called for a double dribble, hoped one of his teammates could grab it before a Gator. That was how the game concluded, with something akin to a wrestling match as the clock ran out. If it was anti-climactic, it was fitting, a game that often felt like a wrestling match ending like one.
In the immediate aftermath, the Gators celebrated, save for Clayton Jr. who first sought out Sharp. To console him, yes, but also, it seemed to me, to acknowledge that he knew just how close he came to having Sharp be the one to console him.
