Chompians! Inside the Gators’ epic co meback

SAN ANTONIO – How fun was that?!

The 2024-25 college basketball season ended with a proper flourish as Florida rallied from 12 points down to beat Houston 65-63 to win the national championship. Yes, the same Houston Cougars who came back from 14 points down to knock off Duke on Saturday night.

Script. Flipped.

The riveting contest and weird ending, where Houston was unable to get off a shot despite being down by only two points, was a fitting finale to an epic Final Four. All the No. 1 seeds advanced to San Antonio, and they gave us a trio of memorable games.

I’m old enough to remember when people said this NCAA Tournament was boring. I guess narratives are tricky. Yes, we didn’t have the usual Cinderella upsets, but the payoff was considerable as each round delivered one powerhouse matchup after another. Let’s all remember this next year, when those same people try to construct their balky narratives to make sense out of what is happening. We all should have learned by now that nothing makes sense in the NCAA Tournament. That’s why we love it so much.

I hope you’ve enjoyed our coverage of March Madness, both on the men’s and women’s sides. We’ve been churning out an incredibly high volume of content, and have sent you a Hoops HQ morning email on 21 of the past 25 days. As of tomorrow, we’re back to our regular three-emails-per-week cadence, but don’t think for one second that we are dialing down our intensity. If anything, we are ramping up as we cover all the news about the transfer portal, recruiting, roster construction, the NBA and WNBA drafts, the impending approval of the House v. NCAA settlement and lots more.

At Hoops HQ, college basketball is a 365-day-a-year sport. The games may have ended, but the work goes on — joyfully.

So congrats to the UConn women and Florida men, and thanks as always for your support of Hoops HQ. —Seth

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CHOMPIANS! Gators Pull Off Yet Another Comeback to Top Houston and Win Title

By Seth Davis

There stood Todd Golden, looking even younger than his 39 years and nine months. He was standing outside Florida’s locker room, reveling in the NCAA championship his team had just claimed by virtue of a 65-63 comeback win over Houston.

His gray pants didn’t quite grasp his skinny legs. His black T-shirt hung loosely over his narrow shoulders. Even his gray-and-white Jordans looked too big for his feet. He had a backward hat on his head, a net around his neck, and a water bottle and protein bar in his left hand. As each player, coach and staffer bounded jubilantly down the hallway, Golden slapped each guy’s hand, embraced him and beamed joyfully while they headed for the locker room.

As sophomore center Rueben Chinyelu approached, he said to Golden, “Your high school coach is outside.”

Golden slapped Chinyelu’s hand and hugged him as well. When Chinyelu headed to the locker room, Golden asked no one in particular, “Can someone get my high school coach?”

That last detail taken care of, Golden was ready to join his team inside the locker room.

It was fitting that Golden waited until the last possible moment to make his grand entrance. His team also waited a long time — almost too long, actually — to wrest this championship from the strong hands of the mighty Houston Cougars. But once again, just as it has done so many times this season and especially during the NCAA Tournament, Florida arrived in the nick of time. When it was over, the Gators…

Inside Houston’s Locker Room: “This One Ain’t Leaving You Anytime Soon”

By Eric Prisbell

Everywhere you looked, there were tears. Shouts of four-letter expletives came from a backroom, as did the banging. Some players with towels over their heads apologized to reporters because they couldn’t stop weeping enough to answer questions.

The scene in Houston’s locker room following its 65-63 loss to Florida was a flood of raw emotion. Houston players, the staff — everyone was grappling in real time with the lowest basketball moment of their lives.

How does one process this? One game after a remarkable 14-point comeback to beat Duke, the script completely flipped, with the Cougars squandering a 12-point second-half lead in what matched the third-largest comeback in a title game. Houston closed the game committing turnovers on four consecutive possessions. The Cougars didn’t get off a shot in the game’s final 1:21. And in the closing seconds, with Houston trailing by two, the ball found the usually sure hands of three-point shooter Emanuel Sharp. In a moment of indecision, Sharp went up for a jumper but lost control of the ball. Florida recovered the fumble.

In an instant, the buzzer sounded, the confetti fell — but for the other team.

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