MARLER: Impossible to ignore tough, battle-tested Gators
04/06/2025
By Chris Marler
In late January I wrote the following:
Auburn has the best resumé in the country.
Alabama has the best roster in the country.
But, Florida may be the most dangerous team in the country.
Florida showed us, once again, on Saturday why they are cut from the same cloth as the champions in this sport that have come before them.
Florida trailed by eight at halftime and by as many as nine during their national semifinal against Auburn, but, as usual, they responded in waves.
And it didn’t stop.
The Gators outscored Auburn by 14 in the second half and held the No. 1 overall seeded Tigers to just 27 points. That was an Auburn team that was No. 8 in the country in second half scoring offense, averaging 43.4 points per game before Saturday.
They got everything they could have asked for. Their stars were on full display, as Walter Clayton had 34 points and hit five threes. Their depth was fantastic, as Thomas Haugh continued to be one of the best players in the entire tournament, finishing with 12 points and seven rebounds.
WALTER CLAYTON JR. IS NOT HUMAN.#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/KTJN8TMaYB
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 6, 2025
In the end, one of the best teams, and stories that we heard about all year long was sent home one game short of the mountain top.
Florida, however, is still standing. On Monday, the Gators will have a chance to hoist another national championship trophy—symbolically clearing one final SEC hurdle on their path through the gauntlet to get here.
Duke lost? Oh no.
Listen, I will not pretend to understand all the ins and outs of the neverending amounts of analytics that college basketball teams are graded by. Ken Pom, Evan Miya, NET Ratings, etc. I am more old school, and the number that jumped out to me all season wasn’t their offensive adjusted efficiency rating or total “kill shots,” The number I kept going back to was—zero.
As in “Duke had beaten zero ranked opponents from December 5th until the ACC Championship Game.” That is almost impossible to do in a college basketball season.
I am not naive enough to think that the AP Poll, made up of schlubby beat writers from around the country, should have their rankings as gospel. I will not die on that hill. The hill I’ll die on is this: no matter how talented the roster, how sharp the coach, or how hyped the freshman unicorn from Maine may be, I’ll always take the battle-tested teams over one that cruised through a skip-the-line schedule like Duke had.
In the end, the team that played Duke had also been tested. They played great defense. They had a great coach, and ultimately their ability to weather the storm was enough to beat Duke.
“Didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but still an incredible year” 💙
Cooper Flagg reflects on his freshman season as a Blue Devil.#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/YkwsIt0TK4
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 6, 2025
The Blue Devils held a 14 point lead with just over eight minutes left. However, they went cold from the 10:31 mark to the under four minute timeout, scoring just three points in that span. Houston was able to come back in what is undoubtedly an instant-classic.
Now, the two teams the media chose to put on the back burner for most of the season, as well as in San Antonio, will play for the crown that felt like it was all but given to Duke and Auburn already.
That’s why they play the games.