March Madness has come to an end, and when the dust settled, the No. 1 seed Florida Gators took home the men’s hardware while the No. 2 seed University of Connecticut Huskies captured the women’s trophy.
Both tournaments saw relatively few upsets this year, but just enough to ensure that once again, nobody achieved the sought after feat of a perfect bracket. The Gators and Huskies were the odds-on favorites in every game they played in the tournament. This, however, does not take away from the daunting path that both teams had to face to win their respective national championships.
Florida began its path out of the West Region with a sweat-free 95–69 rout of the No. 16 seed Norfolk State Spartans — this would be their last win in such fashion. The Gators’ next challenge lay in the back-to-back defending national champion UConn Huskies. The story of the comeback kids from Gainesville began with this game.
The Gators trailed by as many as six points and were behind for a large portion of the second half. However, Gators star point guard Walter Clayton Jr. sank two clutch three-pointers down the stretch to lead Florida to a 77–75 nailbiter victory, dethroning the defending back-to-back champs. Clayton Jr., a former Iona Gael, was joined in the backcourt by fellow transfer guards Alijah Martin and Will Richard. Widely regarded as the best backcourt in the nation, the three guards all began their careers at mid-major schools before transferring to join Head Coach Todd Golden’s Gators.
Transfers having an impactful presence is not out of the ordinary for this Gators squad. Out of the eight contributing players throughout the tournament, five are transfer students, with four of them being starters. Richard transferred in from Belmont prior to the 2022–23 season as Coach Golden’s first recruit at the helm of the University of Florida’s team. Since his addition, he has been a three-year starter for the program.
Before the 2023–24 season, the Gators picked up another key transfer, center Micah Handlogten, who came in as a starter last season before a gruesome leg injury in last year’s SEC Championship that cut his season short. Handlogten was initially redshirting this season while completing his rehab, but decided to forego his redshirt and suit up when Florida’s starting forward Alex Condon and backup Sam Alexis both went down for a few weeks with injuries mid-season. Prior to this year, the Gators landed freshman Washington State transfer center Reuben Chinyelu, who immediately came in as an impact player, starting all 40 games this season.
The Gators’ next game was a Sweet Sixteen reptilian matchup against the No. 4 seed Maryland Terrapins. Maryland kept it close in the first half, trailing by just two points entering the second half of play. Florida came out of halftime hot and ran away with the game, winning 87–71 behind 29 combined points from Richard and Martin.
Two days later, the Gators faced their toughest test yet, the No. 3 seed Texas Tech Red Raiders. The game went back and forth, but all of a sudden, the Red Raiders had claimed a nine-point lead with less than three minutes left. Lifelong diehard Florida Gator fan and sophomore forward Thomas Haugh drilled two quick threes to cut the lead to three. Clayton Jr. followed with two ridiculous 3-pointers of his own and before anybody could blink, Florida had the lead with less than a minute remaining. They escaped with an 84–79 victory, propelling them to the school’s first Final Four appearance since 2014, thanks to 20 and 30 point performances out of Haugh and Clayton Jr., respectively.
Florida and Auburn tipped off in San Antonio, Texas for an SEC matchup in the Final Four. Again, the Gators found themselves down by nine in the second half before Clayton Jr. once again rose to the occasion and saved the day with the help of 17 points from his backcourt counterpart Martin. Clayton Jr. dropped a career high 34 points, making him the first player since Larry Bird in 1979 to have back-to-back 30 point games in the Elite 8 and Final 4.
After a thrilling comeback between the other set of No. 1 seeds that saw Houston stun Cooper Flagg and Duke, the stage for the national championship was set. The Florida Gators were seeking their third national title while the Houston Cougars were searching for their first.
Both teams came out cold shooting-wise, and coupled with Houston’s elite defense, the game was low scoring, with Houston heading into the half up 31–28. The Gators needed to come out of the half firing on all cylinders after Houston had held Clayton Jr. to zero points in the first half. They did exactly the opposite. Suddenly, Houston went on an 8–0 scoring run and found themselves up 12. The Gators didn’t flinch. Clayton Jr. entered his takeover mode and ended up with 11 points after not scoring until there was less than 15 minutes remaining.
Clayton Jr. wasn’t the star of the night though, as Richard’s hot hand contributed 18 points to go along with eight rebounds and two assists. The Gators fought back with gritty defense, free throw shooting, and good ball movement to take a two-point lead with 17 seconds remaining.
The final possession was underwhelming for fans, to say the least. Houston had possession yet found themselves in a swarm of blue struggling to find an open man. They landed on junior guard Emmanuel Sharp, who began to take a 3-point jumper before Clayton Jr. closed the gap, contesting the shot. Sharp had no shot and bounced the ball to avoid an “up– and–down” travel, and couldn’t pick up his dribble. After a scramble for the ball ensued, the Gators ended up with possession, winning their third National Title 65–63 in Golden’s third season as head coach. The 39-year-old became the youngest head coach to win the tournament since North Carolina State’s Jim Valvano in 1983. His Gators only led for a grand total of 64 seconds during the national championship game, but they took the lead when it mattered and held on tight.
Clayton Jr. was named MVP of the tournament after averaging 22.3 points per game during the madness.
“My team held me down until I was able to put the ball in the basket,” Clayton Jr. said. “Shout out to the boys.”
Florida’s 36–4 season comes to an end on a 12-game win streak as champions of the SEC tournament as well as National Champions for the first time since 2008, mounting multiple wild comebacks.
In the women’s tournament, the UConn Huskies entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed in the Spokane Regional. They cruised past the No. 15 Arkansas State Red Wolves by a score of 103–34 in the Round of 64, the largest margin of victory in any tournament game this year. Next, they faced the 30–2 South Dakota State Jackrabbits, hot off an upset of No. 7 Oklahoma State. UConn quickly put any hopes of another upset to bed, routing the No. 10 seed 91–57 to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.
The Huskies were led by Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd, a fierce duo of guards, as well as forward Sarah Strong. Bueckers, a well known name, has been at UConn since 2020. She was in the starting lineup as a freshman and sophomore before an injury sidelined her. That summer, prior to her junior season, Bueckers tore her ACL while playing pickup and had to undergo surgery, causing her to miss the whole 2022–23 season. She responded well last year in her third season. She posted 21.9 PPG, started in 39 games, and led the Huskies to the Final Four where they lost a heartbreaker to Caitlin Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes. In Bueckers’ return to UConn for her senior season, she scored 19.9 PPG, leading the Huskies to a 31–3 record entering the tournament.
The Huskies faced the No. 3 seed Oklahoma Sooners in the Sweet Sixteen. Things weren’t looking great for UConn early as OU led 36–32 at the half. Bueckers wasn’t going to let her team crash out of the tournament that early. She dropped a career high 40 points en route to a runaway comeback victory that the Huskies secured 82–59. Connecticut moved on to the Elite Eight where they would face the No. 1 seed of the region, the University of Southern California Trojans. UConn dominated the first half and entered the intermission up 14 points. USC cut the lead all the way to five before the final quarter began, but that’s as close as they would get as UConn pulled away, winning 78–64 to place them in their second straight Final Four. Bueckers again had a stellar performance with 31 points accompanied by 22 out of the aforementioned Strong and 15 from senior guard Kaitlyn Chen.
In the Final Four, Connecticut would face their second straight No. 1 seed out of the Golden State, the University of California Los Angeles Bruins. Once again, the Huskies deemed the No. 1 seed no match for them as they crushed UCLA 85–51 thanks to a 22-point game from Strong and a 19-point performance from Fudd. The Huskies would now advance to compete in their 13th national championship as a program, attempting to win their 12th and avenge their 2022 championship loss to South Carolina.
UConn would square off against their third straight No. 1 seed in the South Carolina Gamecocks in the National Championship game in Tampa, Florida. Like clockwork, UConn jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. They soundly defeated the Gamecocks 82–59 to win their first title since 2016 and 12th overall. Fudd and Strong both put up stellar performances, each with 24-point games with Strong also having 15 rebounds. Bueckers put up 17 points and ended her career as a UConn legend by winning her first national championship and ending the season 37–3.
Fudd was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player after consecutive great performances. The choice was obviously not an easy one as the trio of Fudd, Bueckers, and Strong all dominated throughout the tournament.
UConn Head Coach Geno Auriemma now has won 12 national titles, the most all-time.
“I love you,” Auriemma said to Bueckers postgame. “That’s all you can say.”
UConn had a tournament run very different from the Florida Gators, complete dominance compared to instant classics with comeback victories. In the end, both teams fulfilled their goal and cemented themselves in history as National Champions.
