Even in his lowest-scoring game of the NCAA Tournament, Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr. made his presence felt on both ends of the court late in the national final on Monday.
The All-America guard rallied the Gators to a 65-63 victory over Houston in San Antonio, a performance that led to his selection as the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
“The feeling, just surreal,” Clayton said of being a national champion. “It’s a crazy feeling. I can’t even explain it, but it feels good, though.”
Clayton, a senior, finished the title game with 11 points — all in the final 15 minutes — seven assists and five rebounds.
He also made the key defensive play in the final seconds, leaping to prevent Houston’s Emanuel Sharp from getting off a 3-point attempt. The ball fell to the floor, and Florida’s Alex Condon secured it as time expired.
“We work on it in practice, closing out, jumping to the side so you don’t foul the shooter,” Clayton said. “He pump-faked, threw the ball down, ended up being a good play, (Condon) got on it. We won the game.”
On his thought process ahead of that play, Clayton said, “Honestly, my mind was just a little blank. Trying to get a stop. We ended up getting it, getting the win. Happy we got that done.”
With Clayton 0-for-6 from the floor and having committed three turnovers, coach Todd Golden gave him a two-minute break near the midpoint of the second half. After returning, Clayton hit three of his last four field-goal attempts.
“For the first five or six minutes, the first eight minutes of the second half, they still made life really hard on Walter,” Golden said. “When he came out, I thought (Denzel Aberdeen) stepped up, gave us great minutes, gave Walter some rest so we could finish.”
In the Gators’ semifinal victory over Auburn, Clayton amassed a career-high 34 points. That followed his 30-point effort in the Elite Eight against Texas Tech. Clayton was the first player since Larry Bird in 1979 to have back-to-back 30-point games in the Elite Eight and Final Four.
Overall, he averaged 22.3 points, 3.3 assists and 3.3 rebounds in six NCAA Tournament wins as the Gators closed out a 36-4 season. His overall averages for the campaign were 18.3 points, 4.2 assists and 3.7 rebounds.
Clayton explored entering the NBA draft after last season, participating in pro workouts after the Gators went 24-12 and lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to Colorado. That was his first year at Florida after he played two seasons at Iona.
He was chosen the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Player of the Year in 2022-23 after putting up 16.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game for the Gaels.
–Field Level Media
