Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr. is rolling into the NCAA title game. Next up: Houston’s rugged defense

By Canadian Press on April 6, 2025.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Walter Clayton Jr. is running hot and playing with unshakeable belief, fueled by his Florida teammates’ insistence that any shot he takes is a good one.

Even if he can’t see the rim.

“Sometimes you can’t,” Clayton said with a chuckle.

That’s good, considering the Gators’ opponent in Monday night’s national championship game often erases any clean looks at the basket.

Houston has been the defensive force of the tournament, either slowing or downright locking down some of the best offenses in the game. Now the Cougars — who pulled off an improbable comeback in Saturday’s semifinals to beat Duke — are the final hurdle for Clayton to complete Florida’s title push that would almost certainly make him the Final Four’s most outstanding player considering his March Madness dominance.

It could offer a memorable capper to an all-chalk Final Four that put four 1-seeds onto college basketball’s biggest stage for only the second time ever.

“Obviously he hasn’t been perfect all year,” Florida coach Todd Golden said Sunday. “But he’s been pretty dang good over these last couple months.”

The 6-foot-3 Clayton, an Associated Press first-team All-American who started his career under Rick Pitino at Iona, is averaging 24.6 points through the five NCAA games, with his 123 points standing 18 more than Duke star freshman and AP national player of the year Cooper Flagg as the next-closest player.

Yet it’s more about the way he’s making that impact, with big shots, efficient shooting and clutch focus.

Clayton scored 13 of his 23 points in the final eight minutes, including two crucial 3-pointers down the stretch, to help Florida push past two-time reigning national champion UConn in the second round. Then came Florida’s escape against Texas Tech in the Elite Eight, with Clayton scoring 13 points in the last five minutes — including two 3s in the final 2 minutes — in a Superman act lacking only a cape.

“There’s not another player in America you would rather have right now than Walter Clayton with the ball in his hands in a big-time moment,” Golden said afterward.

Then came Saturday’s semifinal win against Auburn, when he had a career-best 34 points on 11 for 18 shooting.

Now comes Houston, a team that leads on defense, rebounding and relentlessness to wrestle opponents into submission.

The Cougars are ranked No. 1 in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency and have been tested in their five-game tournament run in matchups against Gonzaga, Purdue and Duke offenses that ranked in the top 10 of KenPom’s offensive efficiency metrics.

Yet Houston has locked down on its NCAA opponents to hold them to a rate of 98.7 points per 100 possessions. The highlight was holding Tennessee to a rate of 89.3 in the regional final, then grinding the Blue Devils to a halt by allowing just one field goal through the final 10 minutes in a comeback from 14 down.

Now they get Clayton, who is a reason why the Gators have been one of the country’s most efficient offenses all season.

“Honestly we’re the No. 1 defensive team in the country for a reason,” Houston guard Milos Uzan said. “I wouldn’t change up anything that we do. I just think you’ve got to be aware when he has the ball in the ball screen, you’ve got to be a little bit more in sync with the bigs.”

The Cougars’ ability to blitz ball screens is a key piece of their defensive efforts, with the Cougars sending the defender of both the ball handler and screener at the ball. That can lead to ball handlers backpedaling to work further from the basket against what begins taking shape as a trap.

They can recover quickly when the ball moves out of danger, then frequently run second defenders at the post.

That combination worked against the Blue Devils, who had trouble getting much of anything going other than Flagg after halftime. Duke No. 2 scorer Kon Knueppel had just four second-half points, while Houston shut off lobs to rim-running big man Khaman Maluach (six points, zero rebounds in 21 minutes) and completely took Tyrese Proctor out of the game (seven points on 2-for-8 shooting in 37-plus minutes).

Stopping Clayton’s heater could be the toughest challenge yet considering his momentum. Notably, that includes him hitting 19 of 39 3-pointers (48.7%) and 38 of 42 free throws (90.5%) in the tournament.

“Just the guys around me, they tell me any shot I take is not a bad shot,” Clayton said. “So they say any time I’ve got a look at the rim, just let that thing go.”

One thing’s certain: He won’t hesitate on the final Monday night of the season.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here.

Aaron Beard, The Associated Press

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