How Walter Clayton Jr. channeled idol Kemba Walker during Florida’s legendary run through 2025 NCAA Tournament

Like many players, coaches and fans of college basketball of his generation, when Walter Clayton Jr. thought of March Madness, he thought of Kemba Walker. After all, his 2011 heroics are the stuff of legend at UConn: five wins in five days to win the Big East Tournament and then six more wins across the three weeks of the NCAA Tournament to lead the No. 3 seed Huskies to a national championship.

“Man, Kemba on one of the biggest stages was calm, cool and collected,” Clayton said after Florida’s Final Four win over Auburn. “Just watching that, I kind of admired that. He was able to just zone himself out, just play his game.”

Fourteen years later, “Cardiac Kemba” became “Cardiac Clayton.” With 11 points — all in the second half, nine in the last eight minutes — in the Gators’ 65-63 win over Houston in the national championship game Monday, Clayton capped one of the most remarkable individual NCAA Tournament performances ever. He won Final Four Most Outstanding Player as well.

Let’s start with the points, because Clayton absolutely poured them in, Monday’s championship aside. His 34 points in the Final Four were the most by a winning player in the national semifinal since Al Wood in 1981. In the prior round — Florida’s comeback win over Texas Tech — Clayton had 30 points.

As such, he joined Larry Bird (1979), Jerry West (1959), Wilt Chamberlain (1957) and Clyde Lovellette (1952) to score 30-plus in wins in both the Elite Eight and the Final Four. It’s reasonable to argue Clayton’s Elite Eight and Final Four performances are the best we’ve seen in at least 45 years.

Overall, Clayton finished this NCAA Tournament with 134 points. The last player to have more is, perhaps not coincidentally, Walker in 2011.

The final certainly wasn’t Clayton’s most explosive scoring game. With Houston focused on limiting him by having their mobile big men string out screens, Clayton missed all four of his shots in the first half — all long, contested 3-pointers.

Then, it looked like he wouldn’t even get to shoot those shots. He went over 10 minutes in the middle portion of the game without attempting a field goal.

But then came his late-game explosion, similar to the ones on display time and time again. With 7:54 left, he made a layup through the foul and made the free throw. Then, he made another and-1 layup plus the free throw 52 seconds later — six points in under a minute after two points through the first 32 minutes. Clayton also canned a game-tying 3-pointer — his only 3 of the night — with 3:14 left.

So while 11 points on 3 for 10 shooting isn’t pretty, Clayton knew when to turn it on, as he did all tournament. Here were the notable closes he had:

• Second round vs. UConn: 13 points in final 8:00
• Elite Eight vs. Texas Tech: 13 points in final 5:30 (outscored the Red Raiders 13-8 over that span)
• Final Four vs. Auburn: 10 points in final 4:30 (outscored Auburn 10-8 over that span)
• National championship: nine points in final 8:00

Florida’s 12-point second-half comeback was tied for the third-largest in title game history, but it was nothing new for the Gators. They overcame a second-half deficit of at least six points in each of those four aforementioned games. Clayton’s late-game prowess proved the factor that put them over the top; he’s the only player in the last 10 years with 20-point second halves in both the Elite Eight and the Final Four.

Even with scoring and turnover struggles (three) Monday, Clayton had five rebounds and seven assists. He became the seventh player with at least 10 points, five rebounds and seven assists in the title game since assists became official in 1983-84.

Overall, it’s an absolutely immense March Madness for Clayton, who fittingly had the defensive assignment on Emanuel Sharp on Houston’s final possession and helped force a turnover with a strong closeout. In an NCAA Tournament full of clutch offense, Clayton’s defense proved to be the game-winner. Florida is back on top of men’s college basketball, and its star guard led it there.