Florida makes pushes until the match for the title of the NCAA, will face the Houston team which pushes the others

San Antonio (AP) – Florida went from picking to finish sixth from the damaged conference in the Southeast to push until the last Monday evening of the season.

Now, the Gators are faced with a Houston team that simply pushes the teams with its suffocating defense.

The Big 12 Houston champion and Florida will meet during the national championship match in the Alamodome to finish only the second NCAA tournament when all the standard n ° 1 reached the Final Four.

However, this title game match is a surprise and presents two teams that have not been so far for a long time. Betmgm Sportsbook had Florida listed as a 1/2 favorite.

The cougars (35-4) won their semi-final on Saturday evening by overcoming a 14-point deficit in the last eight minutes for a 70-67 Stunner Duke and Freshman Sensation Cooper Flagg, the national player of the year of the AP.

It was after Florida (35-4), with the Guardian of the All-America, Walter Clayton Jr. 79-73 Victory Above the dry rival auburn.

Houston, who has a sequence of 18 consecutive victories, has been in his first national championship match since consecutive appearances in 1983 and 1984 during the Phi Slama Jama era.

It was the first in Florida since he won his consecutive titles in 2006 and 2007 under Billy Donovan. The Gators, with the third year coach Todd Golden, have a sequence of 11 consecutive victories since a defeat in Georgia at the end of February.

“It’s quite incredible,” said Golden. “In three years, I had the chance to build an excellent staff who are aligned, who works very hard for each other. Then we have just accumulated a large group of guys on our list. It took a bit to collect all these pieces. But for a man, they all shoot in the same direction. ”

The cougars have won 30 of their last 31 games for two prolongs over three days in a tournament in Las Vegas at the end of November. Their only defeat since was 82-81 in OT on February 1 in Texas Tech, an Elite Eight team. Their other defeat this season: 74-69 in Auburn in the second match.

Coach Kelvin Sampson and Houston also produced the Final Four four years ago, losing against the possible Baylor champion in the national semi-finals of the NCAA tournament in a bubble in Indianapolis due to the cocovid-19 pandemic. LJ Cryer, now the top scorer in Houston, was a first -year student for the Bears in this title team.

Now, the cougars will play for a championship after being the first Texas team to make a Final Four held in the Lone Star State – after so many discussions on the other teams that went to San Antonio.

“All year round, I tried to stay outside of social media and things like that. I really don’t see this kind of thing,” said Cryer. “I’m just trying to listen to the Sampson coach, and he thought we were the best team in the tournament, so it’s the only person I listened to.”

Florida entered the semi-finals on Saturday n ° 2 in Kenpom’s adjusted offensive efficiency by scoring 129.1 points by 100 possessions, and Clayton had its second match of 30 consecutive points. He is the top scorer of this NCAA tournament with 123 points (24.6 per game) and made 18 of the 32 shots (0.563) with 8 of the 16 3 points the last two games.

Houston was ranked first in defensive efficiency adjusted to 87.4 points for 100 possessions, and was one of the four schools – all the teams that made the Final Four – to rank among the top 10 of Kenpom.com for the offensive and the defense. The cougars were 123.9 points to classify the 10th offensively.

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