This was summed up with another game.
In a championship match with the white fin where each possession looked like a fight, the Florida won the last punch. Houston completed. And for the Kelvin Sampson couguars, this difference ribbon will tingle for a long time.
“They played a game more than this evening,” said Sampson, denied his 800th career victory and his first national title of a 30 -year career in a competition where his team followed only 64 seconds overnight. “We have lost two points. That’s what it happened. “
This game and the championship were decided in the final coil. With five seconds to go, Emanuel Sharp of Houston caught the ball near the top of the key, preparing to get up for three potentials. But it was at this point that Walter Clayton Jr – Florida’s All -American goalkeeper who had struggled to find a rhythm all night – came to steal towards him, a complete sprint, high hands, remaining just out of center to avoid clogging.
Sharp hesitated. He dropped the ball. And in this fraction of confusion, it was over.
“My mind was a little empty, honestly,” said Clayton. “I was 100%going, trying to stop. We ended up getting it. “
The Florida bench broke out. The Australian team center, Alex Condon, plunged to the ground and covered the loose ball while the horn was. The Gators stormed the court to celebrate, 65–63 NCAA winners and champions for the first time since their consecutive titles under Billy Donovan in 2006 and 2007.
“I just dived on it, heard the buzzer leave,” said Condon. “I didn’t feel real. A crazy feeling.”
Up to the last three minutes, Houston had checked. They are one of the slowest teams of all academic basketball, and the game was played in the Grind-it-out tempo where they thrive. The cougars had only committed four reversals during the first 36 minutes and 35 seconds. Then in such a quick and shocking collapse, they turned the ball five times in the 3:24 finals, including on each of their last four possessions.
This condemned section:
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1:21 – Joseph Tugler stripped the painting
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0:52 – LJ Cryer lost the ball under pressure
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0:26 – Sharp has dribbled the ball of his leg in a triple team trap
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0:00 – Sharp dropped the ball on the final game, unable to recover without traveling
During this period, the cougars failed to manage a single attempt to shoot.
“Incomprehensible in this situation,” said Sampson. “We don’t need a three. We just needed a good look. And we didn’t even have a shot. “
For a program defined by its tenacity at the end of the game and its composure all season, the collapse was both unusual and heartbreaking. This is a devastation right there with 1983, when the power Jama Phi Slama led by Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler were defeated by a heavy outsider of the North Carale State on Lorenzo Charles Alley-Oop Dunk with madness of March.
“It was a force of ours all year round, won tight matches,” said Sampson, who made his third appearance in the final four after previous trips with Oklahoma in 2002 and Houston four years ago. “But tonight, we didn’t do it.”
Clayton, who did not score up to almost 15 minutes remained, finished with 11 points and the decisive defensive game.
“We are working on this kind of thing in practice,” he said. “Jumping to the side so that you do not deceive the shooter, staying on pump false. He pumped, thrown the ball and Do (Condon) went on it. We won the match.”
For Houston’s elders, the loss was deeply deep.
“I wanted him so much for him,” said Jewan Roberts, speaking of Sampson, who, at 69, would have become the oldest coach to win a national title. “So, so much, so badly. And it hurts. It was my last time I wore the jersey, and I feel terrible.”
LJ Cryer, who led all the scorers with 19 points, always dealt with the end.
“We thought it was a match if we were playing well, we could win,” he said. “And we played well. We just didn’t play very well in the last three minutes.”
Golden, who has become the youngest coach to win a national title since Jim Valvano with NC State in 1983, knew that the Gators had to play on the sidelines. And they did it, refusing Houston’s offer for the first championship of the program in 80 years of history and reducing the cougars to a third bridesmaid.
“In the section, we just made major winning games on the defensive,” he said. “This last game was absolutely an incredible game. Walter recovered, closed without a pierce, and Condo did what he does – has become physical, Dove on the ground, made a winning game.”
It was the difference: four final possessions, four reversals, zero blows. And another game for Gators.
