The Florida Gators are the NCAA basketball champions for the third time in school history after beating the Houston Cougars 65-63 Monday night. Normally the Gators score about 85 points per game and the Cougars awesome defense typically holds opponents to 58 points per game. The fact that this game was in the 60's shows you that this was Houston's game to win. In fact, they had a 12 point lead in the second half.
What the Gators did next was reminiscent of Houston's come from behind win over Duke Saturday night in the Final Four semi-final. Houston trailed that game by 14 with ten and a half minutes to go before stealing the victory.
THE FLORIDA GATORS
On Monday the Florida Gators chipped away at the Cougars and started to beat them at their own physical game. They forced Houston into four straight turnovers on their last four possessions. The ball never hit the rim on their final three possessions. In fact, they didn't get a shot off at all on their last offensive set.
Coming from behind big deficits in big games is nothing new for Florida. They trailed Texas Tech by ten points in the Elite Eight. They trailed Auburn by nine in the Final Four. When they trailed Houston by twelve points in the second half, ESPN's analytics gave the Cougars a 93.9 percent chance to win. The Florida Gators tied for the third largest deficit to win a national championship game.
So congrats to the Florida Gators! They seemed like a team of destiny since about mid-January. That was when they started to look unbeatable! Now in early April they can call themselves champions! For more Florida Gators and college basketball talk tune in each weekday to Craig Shemon and Company from 2-6pm on ESPN Southwest Florida.
