Looking Back On Historic Gators Men’s Basketball Season

The Florida Gators basketball team had a historic 2024-25 season in its return to national prominence. As the dust settles after the tremendous campaign, here are some of the Gators’ achievements from the final months of the season.

Third championship

Florida’s win Monday earned the school’s third basketball national championship. UF is one of nine schools to win three or more basketball national championships. Additionally, Florida is now one of five schools that has won multiple basketball national championships in the 21st century (North Carolina, UConn, Duke and Kansas).

Florida is the only school in the country with three basketball national championships and three football national championships. Michigan State has two basketball national championships and claims three football national championships, but its most recent football national championship came in 1966. No other school has two of each.

Florida is also the only school that has won a national championship in both football and basketball in the past 30 years. All three championships in both sports came in that timeframe.

Florida claimed its fifth SEC tournament championship this century. The only team with more is Kentucky with nine.

EVERYONE SAY GO GATORS!!#GoGators | Presented by @WellsFargo pic.twitter.com/Uv9V6XFp2r

— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) April 8, 2025

Hardest tournament path

Florida’s path to the national championship may have been the most difficult a team has ever faced. En route to their national championship victory, the Gators defeated teams ranked No. 32, No. 10, No. 9, No. 4 and No. 2 in KenPom. The Gators also beat No. 19, No. 6 and No. 5 in the SEC Tournament. In their final three regular season games, the Gators defeated No. 18, No. 6 and No. 22.

The Gators’ final stretch of the season ended with a record of 7-0 against teams in KenPom’s top 10. None of those games was at home.

The Gators, ranked No. 1 in the final Associated Press rankings Tuesday, were the champions of one of the best conferences in college basketball history. The SEC sent 14 teams to the NCAA Tournament in 2025, setting a record for most teams from a single conference. Seven of those 14 teams advanced to the Sweet 16, which is also a record.

Cardiac Gators

The Gators had three monstrous comebacks in the last three games of the tournament. In the Elite 8, Florida trailed Texas Tech 71-61 with under 6:30 in the game. With under three minutes left, Florida trailed 75-66. ESPN Analytics gave Texas Tech a 95.6% chance to win at that point. Florida came back and took a 78-77 lead with 59 seconds left. The Gators won 84-79.

In the Final Four, Florida trailed Auburn by nine early in the second half. The Gators were losing 49-40, and Auburn had an 85.5% chance to win. They came back to win 79-73, outscoring Auburn 41-27 in the second half.

Finally, in the National Championship game, Florida trailed 42-30 in the second half. The Gators ended up taking a 64-63 lead with 46 seconds left in the game. It was their first lead since they led 8-6 in the first five minutes of the game. Houston had a 93.9% chance to win at that point. Florida held Houston to two field goal attempts and 0 points in the final two minutes. The Gators won 65-63. The comeback is tied for the third-largest comeback in national championship game history.

DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK! ️

Florida is the only national champion over the last 20 years to overcome a deficit of 9+ points in the Elite 8, national semifinal and national championship pic.twitter.com/C9Mh5IlTTo

— ESPN (@espn) April 8, 2025

Walter Clayton Jr.

Florida guard Walter Clayton Jr. had one of the best seasons by a Florida basketball player of all time. Clayton earned first-team All-America honors from all consensus selectors. He is the first Florida player to be named a first-team All-American by any outlet.

While Walter Clayton Jr.’s performance in the National Championship was uncharacteristic given his contributions throughout the season, he had two outstanding games in the preceding rounds.

Clayton scored 34 points in the semifinal against Auburn and 30 points in the Elite 8 against Texas Tech. This back-to-back performance was the first time a player scored 30+ points in both the Elite 8 and Final Four since Larry Bird in 1979. These games were the first and third most points he scored in a game this season. It was also his fourth and fifth time scoring 30 or more points in a single game in his college basketball career.

In addition to these performances, Clayton earned the award for Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. Clayton was also named the SEC Tournament MVP earlier in March.

Golden Era

Todd Golden‘s performance as head coach of the Gators has improved each year since he arrived in 2022. The Gators went 16-17 and got crushed in the first round of the NIT in his first season. In 2023-24, Florida returned to the NCAA Tournament after missing the cut for two years only for the Gators to fall short in a tight loss in the first round. In his third year, the Gators were national champions.

Golden had an 0-2 record in the NCAA Tournament before the championship run with one of the losses coming in his previous stint as head coach of San Francisco. Only three other head coaches since 1963 have won national championships without having any prior tournament wins.

The age difference between Golden and Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson is 30 years. Golden is 39 years old, and Sampson is 69 years old. This matchup was the largest age gap between coaches in the national championship. Sampson became a head coach almost four years before Golden was born.

Todd Golden is the youngest head coach to win a #NationalChampionship since the legendary Jim Valvano #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/r7szTkE2zP

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 8, 2025

Golden is the youngest coach to win a national championship since Jim Valvano won as head coach of NC State in 1983 (coincidentally, also a two-point win over Houston). Golden is also the youngest coach to win a national championship since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

With a historic season in the rearview mirror, Gator fans have a lot to look forward to in the coming years despite the departure of major contributors. Golden has proven he can be the coach to bring sustained basketball success back to UF.