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00:00watching the comeback that Florida pulled off down by as many as 12 early in that second half,
00:05fighting, clawing their way back, and then those final 20 seconds.
00:09And that final possession for Houston, not able to get a shot up, loose ball on the floor.
00:14Alex Condon of the Gators dives on it, recovers, and Florida wins a national championship
00:19for the third time in program history.
00:22As you have thought back on last night, as you sat here on this desk,
00:26what is your overall takeaway for the Gators' national crown?
00:30That they at no point put together 40 minutes of basketball,
00:35but they put together minutes of basketball when they had to.
00:39Look at the second half, obviously, against Maryland.
00:42Talk about the comeback that they had versus Texas Tech.
00:45This was a Florida team that was playing better than maybe anyone in the country
00:49going into the NCAA tournament that really never played their best basketball,
00:55but they played the right basketball at the right time.
00:58And for them to make that comeback, it's kind of crazy because it's kind of like
01:03turnaround is fair play, right?
01:04We saw Texas Tech, big comeback late, turnaround, choke next time.
01:08You saw, you know, obviously Houston, big comeback versus Duke.
01:11Then they turn around next game, and they fumble it.
01:14So, you know, to me, it's really a testament of Todd Golden and his maturity at 39.
01:20The adjustments that he made from the first to the second half, going to the horn set,
01:27getting Walter Clayton off the ball and running more screening active for him,
01:31got a couple of backdoor layups, got a nice re-screen off the horn set.
01:35It was just magical, smart basketball from someone at 39 years old to adjust on the fly like that.
01:42I was really, really impressed.
01:43You take a look at Walter Clayton, coach, zero points at the half, 11 points in the second half,
01:47named the MOP.
01:48But understanding this, handicapping this game for me, watching it before it played out,
01:52saying, you know what, he's going to have to have a big game if they want to win,
01:5525, 26 plus points, which is what he's been doing throughout the entire tournament.
01:58But I found myself watching this game saying, Houston might win this game by 15 or 20 points.
02:03And it was a close game early on, but you saw the defensive sets like Houston.
02:06Florida had no answers for what they were doing.
02:08You said to yourself, sooner or later, Houston's going to find the rhythm on offense
02:11as one of the most efficient teams in the country on offense as well as defense.
02:14And it never happened.
02:15Why did it never happen or click for the Houston offense?
02:18It's just their inability to knock down threes.
02:20The best three-point shooting team in the country could have hit big shots in the moment.
02:25And if you really peel back and look at the Houston shooting, right,
02:28their 230th or 240th and two-point shooting percentage.
02:33And then you look at the number of free-throw attempts per field goal attempts,
02:36they were, I think, at the 330s, if I'm not mistaken.
02:39So, this is the Houston team that lived and died at the three-point line.
02:43They were ice cold versus Duke.
02:44They got hot late first half and carried over to second half.
02:47And it just didn't transition over to this game.
02:52I just thought that, you know, Florida found different ways.
02:56Houston stayed what they did offensively.
02:58You saw Florida go to the wing ball screen late first half, get the bigs on the roll,
03:03get their ball.
03:03Walter Crane Jr. doing a good job of passing and getting other guys the ball,
03:07and then switching their offense in the second half.
03:10They adjusted simply, Donnie.
03:12Houston did not.