Walter Clayton Jr. and Florida are heading to the Final Four after beating Texas Tech in the Elite Eight. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
(Ezra Shaw via Getty Images)
Florida needed a late surge to get to the Final Four.
The No. 1 Gators went on a 12-2 run to take the lead with less than a minute to go on the way to an 84-79 win over No. 3 Texas Tech.
Star guard Walter Clayton Jr. scored the final six points of that run with two 3-pointers. Clayton tied the game at 75-75 with 1:47 to go and then buried another with 59 seconds remaining to give Florida the lead for good.
Texas Tech took control of the game in the second half and led 75-66 with 3:14 to go. But the Red Raiders didn’t score for nearly two minutes. And in that span, Florida had completely erased the deficit thanks to two crucial missed free throws.
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Tech had a chance to tie the game after Alijah Martin made two free throws with 20 seconds to go. But Darrion Williams’ 3-pointer with 16 seconds to go bounced off the rim and Clayton sealed the game at the free-throw line. The Gators finished the game on an 18-4 run.
Florida got back into the game as Williams and JT Toppin — the Big 12 player of the year — both missed the front end of 1-and-1 opportunities at the line.
Williams missed a free throw with 2:43 to go in between 3-pointers by Thomas Haugh to cut Tech’s lead to three. Toppin then missed a free throw with 2:08 to go and Clayton hit the first of his two back-to-back threes on the ensuing possession.
Clayton finished the game with 30 points and was 13-for-14 from the free-throw line. Haugh had 20 and was 4-for-6 from behind the arc. Williams and Toppin combined for 43 points, but the points left on the line ended up defining the game more than their combined 18 field goals.
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Florida has hounded teams all season long with their length and Tech wasn’t fazed by it, especially in the second half. Toppin had no problems going to the basket and getting buckets as Florida struggled to find an answer for the pick-and-roll combinations that were getting him isolated in the lane.
But the Gators only needed one opportunity to seize, and Tech provided it.
After the bracket was revealed, Florida was the opening favorite for the national title. And the why was obvious. Florida won the SEC tournament in convincing fashion to earn the final No. 1 seed and entered the tournament on a six-game win streak that included four double-digit victories.
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The Gators lost just four games during the regular season and all four of them came to teams that made the SEC tournament. Plus, Florida boasted regular-season wins over Auburn, Alabama and Tennessee. Those three teams were all seeded among the top eight in the tournament. The Gators are one of the deepest teams in college basketball with six players averaging at least eight points a game and Clayton being one of the best guards in the conference with Alabama’s Mark Sears.
But as the season went well on the court, it’s also been plagued by accusations against the coaching staff. Head coach Todd Golden was the subject of a Title IX investigation at the start of the season and assistant coach Taurean Green is the subject of a different investigation.
Golden, who is married with two children, was accused of harassing multiple women. In a report by the Alligator, Florida’s student newspaper, two former Florida students detailed their alleged experiences with the coach and said that he first made contact via social media. One said that Golden had gone to her location after she posted it on social media and said that Golden had sent unsolicited pictures of his genitalia to her.
Florida said in late January that it had done a “thorough investigation” that found no evidence that Golden violated Title IX rules.
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Less than two weeks before Golden’s case concluded, an ESPN report detailed an allegation from a Florida athletic department staffer that Green had kissed her and put his hand down her pants against her consent while in Florida’s athletic facilities.
Neither Green nor Golden missed any time on the bench during the season.
