Florida joins elite company for interesting stat after Todd Golden and Gators' NCAA Finals win vs Houston

The Florida Gators are back on top of the college basketball world, dismissing the Houston Cougars, 65-63, to win their third national title in the school’s history. While it took them nearly two decades going through the NCAA wilderness, it was all worth it for coach Todd Golden and his boys.

With this national title to add to their back-to-back titles back in 2006-2007, the Gators have added themselves to rarified air, being the fourth program with three or more national titles for men’s basketball since 2000, with the other three being the North Carolina Tar Heels, the Connecticut Huskies, and the Duke Blue Devils.

They are also the ninth program to have won three national titles in history. UCLA (11), Kentucky (8), UConn (6), North Carolina (6), Duke (5), Indiana (5) and Kansas (4) are the ones with more, and Villanova has the same number as them.

The Gators were the comeback kids of the tournament, taking pride in their defense to help them claw back from second-half deficits in multiple games this tournament. They came back from six or more point deficits in the second half of four of their six wins this tournament.

Against the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the Elite Eight, they came back from as much as ten points down. Against the Aubrun Tigers, they fell behind by nine points.

In the title game, Florida only held the lead for eight seconds in the first half and went down by 12 points early in the second half. However, Will Richard kept the Gators in the game, scoring 18 points with four big three-pointers.

Walter Clayton struggled early but made up for it with his defense and facilitating the offense. He then lived up to his reputation as a great closer by scoring his 11 points in the final 15 minutes, but he saved his best on the defensive end, doing a great closeout on Houston’s Emanuel Sharp, stopping him in the middle of his shooting motion as he was going for a three.

With Sharp looking for room, Clayton ran at him. The Houston guard dropped the ball and just watched it bounce, unable to pick up the ball lest he be called for travelling. Time expired as players from both teams battled for the loose ball.

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Title game another disappointing end to the Cougars’ season

The final Cougars’ possession where they were not able to get a final shot off is another anticlimactic ending to another March Madness where they fall short of the ultimate prize.

Head coach Kelvin Sampson's suffocating defense had the Gators on the ropes, but crucial turnovers late in the game ultimately cost them. They had four of them in the last 1 minute and 21 seconds of the game. Of these, the most crucial was Emanuel Sharp losing the ball off his knee on their second-to-last possession, which set up that fateful final turnover.

L.J. Cryer led the Cougars with 19 points, the only Cougar in double figures, with four other players with eight or more points. That performance though was not enough for them to end their title of being one of the best college programs without a national title.

The Cougars have topped their conference in six of the last seven seasons, made their seventh Final Four appearance, and Monday was their third runner-up finish. Now they head into another off-season, thinking what might have been, had one of those turnovers never happened, had those crucial missed shots gone in, and had they been able to get a shot off at the end.