How the result of the national title affects both Florida and Houston
Paul Myerberg and Dan Wolken break down for Florida and Houston after meeting the national title.
Sports pulse
- One day when a judge heard arguments that will shape the future of the sharing of university sports income, some things never change: March Madness is great. Good at the last drop of Florida’s return.
- The NCAA tournament still links us, young and old, Todd Golden in Kelvin Sampson.
- Cinderella left this March Madness long before midnight, but that gave way to one of the country’s best teams.
We just can’t leave you, Mars madnessBecause you never give up sports fans.
If you have work ears, you’ve heard everything about how university sports are not what they were. Maybe yes, but March Madness has never stopped being three weeks of basketball splendor.
One day when A federal judge heard arguments This will shape the future of the sharing of income from university athletics, some things never change: March Madness is great. So great.
And although the national title match has not become a beauty contest, this is as a really epic Four Four, with a championship decided in the last seconds.
Not one, not two, but three returns in the second half took place in three games in San Antonio.
Florida appreciated the head His victory for the national championship 65-63 Above Houston for just over a minute, but it led when the buzzer sounded, and if we have learned something in the past three weeks, it is that the score only matters when the clock does not strike.
The semi -finals and the championship were decided by a combined margin of 11 points – one more point than the least 10 points in the end of 1982. It is madness.
The Gators beat Houston to their own game, playing an obstinate defense and counting on the grain, the guts and the courage to fight even when their gunshots did not fall.
And when it was finished, you could not miss the exaltation on the faces of the Gators senior guards, and your heart went to a team of cougars veterans that seemed simply emptied.
Ups and downs: Winners and losers of the NCAA male tournament
Because, yes, these modern college athletes are paid, but if you even watched a few minutes of this match on Monday, you have noticed that the victory of a national championship had a lot to each man who was walking in this court.
I continue to hear how the culture of transfer of university sports, but I then saw Jewan Roberts, a sixth year senior who spent his entire career in Houston, becoming the glue of the resurgence of the program, make two free clutch throws against Duke To secure Houston’s place in the national championship match.
Buy a Florida Championship Book, equipment
I watched Walter Clayton Jr. in Florida offering a performance of six games that ranks among the getaways of all time. He totaled 64 points in the last eight and four Elite, but Clayton proved his courage against Houston even when his gunshots did not fall. Her Defense prevented Houston from leaving an attempted winning shooting.
Clayton has been transferred to Florida to play his last two seasons. He considered Florida his “dream school” of the school, but he was a zero-star recruit. So, in Iona, he went, to play two seasons for a guy named Rick Pitino Before transferring and culminating his career by bringing glory back to Florida, his property school.
These are superb stories that only the madness of Mars can tell.
Alijah Martin, another of the senior guards of Florida, also began his career as a signer of mid-star of zero star. He helped Florida Atlantic to an oven final. Now he is one of those Gator boys who had just won in March and April.
This tournament and its support pools unite the pure and relaxed basketball, young and old. Literally. Todd Golden, 39 years old from Florida, became the youngest coach to win an NCAA championship from Jim Valvano in 1983. While the last seconds were distant, Kelvin Sampson, 69 years of Houston, trying to become the oldest coach to win this tournament, looked at the right face while his cougars received a mercy finals.
A handful of conference commissioners have turned in recent years that March Madness should go under the microscope. From the SEC commissioner, Greg Sankey, to Brett Yormmark of Big 12, they said that the tournament should Develop beyond 68 teams.
Maybe the expansion of the tournament will occur in time. Some additional teams participating in game games would not ruin this event, but you would find it difficult to convince me that March Madness could be improved.
“”A brilliant moment“Is March Madness’s soundtrack, but, in truth, this tournament offers dozens of brilliant moments each year.
This year, these moments have included Houston beating on the brilliant inbound game of Sampson, then Houston Magnificent Duke with the best return of 75 seconds that you will never see.
This tournament has a way of transforming fairy tales into reality.
Auburn’s star Johni Broome injured his elbow, and he first thought he was toast, to come back to the same game later and pierce a 3 -point pointer to help guarantee the second final appearance in the history of the program.
No Mars madness is complete without a buzzer drummer, and Queen Derick Maryland made sure that we were covered on this front.
Outsiders did not put the necklace of their usual quantity of hijinks, but we still saw a drake range full of transfers that played the division II ball last year Fill a team from the powerful second. More, A coach formerly insufficient obtained a takeover in the state of McNeesewhile her Boombox-toting student manager supplied the theme music.
Texas Tech used an epic return to turn around the Arkansas, only to make the virtue of one of the four rallies in the second half of Florida, en route to the championship.
This tournament will not remain memories for its upheavals. Cinderella left the party well before midnight, but it gave way to a final four of the country’s best teams, playing their best ball, with a collection of talented players who have prepared a memorable conclusion to a tournament that refuses to understand its impressive, even in the face of the evolution of university sports.
Blake Toppmeyer is a columnist for the USA Today network. Send him an email to Boppmeyer@gannett.com and follow it on x @BtopPmeyer. Get down To read all his columns.