March Madness wraps in Florida-Houston matchup pitting tourney’s best defense vs best clutch player

The national title game between Florida and Houston could come down to the NCAA Tournament’s best clutch player against the country’s best clutch defense.

Walter Clayton Jr., leads the Gators into Monday night’s final against a long-armed Cougars defense that has snuffed out every team it has seen over this run to its first title game since 1984. That was the end of the “Phi Slama Jama” era that featured Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon.

Houston (35-4) has never won a title.

The Gators (35-4) are one win away from their third championship and first since they went back-to-back in 2006-07. Clayton, a high school football star who chose basketball in college, scored 34 points in Florida’s semifinal win against Auburn.

He has averaged 24.6 points over five wins in the tournament. In two of those wins, he scored 13 points down the stretch in each to help Florida pull out close games against UConn and Texas Tech.

The Cougars, who lead the nation in points and field goal percentage allowed, held the nation’s best player, Cooper Flagg, to 1 for 5 shooting over the final 10 1/2 minutes of their win over Duke on Saturday. Flagg’s 3-pointer with 3:02 left in the game was the only basket Houston allowed over that stretch.

“We’re going to need to have great mental and physical toughness if we want to give ourselves a chance,” said Gators coach Todd Golden, who at 39 would become the first coach younger than 40 to win a national title since Jim Valvano in 1983.

Sampson, 69, would surpass UConn’s Jim Calhoun as the oldest coach to win a men’s basketball Division I national title. He earned his 798th career victory against Duke but this is his first time coaching for the championship.

Among his strokes of brilliance at the end of the Duke game was a decision to let his defense do its thing instead of fouling with the Cougars down six and less than a minute to go. Houston’s Jojo Tugler blocked Kon Knueppel’s shot, then Houston made a 3-pointer on the next possession and went on to score six straight points to win.

“You’ve been in those situations so many times. It doesn’t always work out,” Sampson said. “If JoJo goes for the shot fake and draws a foul, we’re down nine. All of a sudden I’m the dumbest guy ever.”

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