"Something I won't forget": Florida HC Todd Golden grateful for 2 Emanuel Sharp mistakes as Gators win 3rd NCAA title

Florida coach Todd Golden led his No. 1-seeded Gators to the national championship on Monday evening. The Gators mounted a comeback from 12 points down in the second half to beat the No. 1-seeded Houston Cougars 65-63 and clinch the natty.

The final two minutes of the game were characterized by four Cougars turnovers, with two coming from Houston star Emanuel Sharp. The first time, he was stripped of the ball by Gators guard Will Richard with 26 seconds remaining, while Florida star Walter Clayton Jr. forced a fumble on the last Houston possession to close out the game.

During his postgame news conference, Golden hailed his team's defensive effort while pointing out that the game changed on those two turnovers by Sharp.

"Down the stretch we just made some big-time winning plays defensively," Todd Golden said (11:35). "It's all cloudy and kind of a blur, but the one that sticks out is when I believe it was Sharp (Emanuel) drove right off the lane line and Will (Richard) stripped and ripped right off his leg with about a minute to go. That was a huge play for us. And then the last play was just an amazing play.

"You know, Walt (Clayton) recovered, closed out and like he said, flew by his right side to not allow himself to foul. Sharp understood that he couldn't touch the ball otherwise it would have been a turnover, and Condal did what he does, dove on the floor and get physical, make a winning play. Just an incredible moment and something I won't forget."

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Todd Golden's team turn the tables on the Cougars

On Saturday, the Houston Cougars mounted their own stunning comeback by scoring the game's final nine points against the Duke Blue Devils in their Final Four clash to book their spot in the national championship game.

The Gators entered the national championship game with the third-highest scoring offense - 85.3 per game - but were held to just 39.6% shooting from the field and 25% from beyond the arc, tallying 13 turnovers.

In a speech delivered to his players in the dressing room after the win, Golden hailed the "ugly win."

“Each and every one of you guys should be incredibly proud of what you just accomplished,” Todd Golden said.

“Every time, it doesn’t matter how. We can outscore people. We can get to a hundo. Tonight, we had to do it a different way. We played an incredibly tough, gritty, great program. We had to win an ugly game.”

To emphasize the enormity of the save job Todd Golden's team pulled off on Monday evening, the Florida Gators only held the lead for a combined 63 seconds and only took their first lead of the night with 43 seconds remaining.