SAN ANTONIO — Florida is one sleep away from playing for the national championship game. Forty minutes away from etching its name as one of the elite teams from the modern era of college basketball history. Two grueling halves from breaking the historical precedent of how a national title winner is supposed to be constructed.
These Gators have zero top-100 recruits on the roster. No national champion in the internet era of recruiting rankings has ever done that.
Walter Clayton Jr. earned dozens of high-major football offers, but he was an unranked basketball recruit who Rick Pitino plucked for his first Iona team. Alijah Martin wasn’t quite as prized of a football prospect as Clayton, but the former North Pike High School quarterback was a three-star on the gridiron and unranked on the hardwood.
“He was a legit high school quarterback,” said Andrew Ivins, the Director of Football Scouting for 247Sports. “Threw for 6,000 yards and ran for 4,000 yards.”
Will Richard was the No. 330 recruit in the Class of 2021 who chose Belmont. Alex Condon (No. 214) and Thomas Haugh (No. 185) were off-the-beaten-path prospects. Condon was in Australia and Haugh was lodging in rural Pennsylvania.
“They’re way more athletic than people give them credit for coming out of high school,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “Both undervalued, under-recruited places.”
And yet, talent isn’t a question for this roster anymore. Florida has at least three players who will be firmly in the mix to play in the NBA one day.
Condon had little NBA buzz before the Aussie flew across the pond to Florida, and now he’s firmly in the mix to be a potential first-round pick in June’s 2025 NBA Draft. Haugh has been a massive March stock-riser for NBA evaluators thanks to his blend of size, shot-making and defense. Clayton’s skyrocketing stock is a no-brainer after Florida’s flamethrower brought his blowtorch from Gainesville to Nashville to Raleigh to San Francisco to San Antonio.
That’s not to say no one saw some of this coming. Rival coaches were raving about Clayton two years ago.
“I was jumping on my desk when I heard both (Daniss Jenkins) and (Walter) Clayton were not going to be at Iona anymore,” said Dan Englestad, the former Mount St. Mary’s coach who is a top assistant on Syracuse’s staff. “You don’t want to jump the gun, but I think that kid is going to make a lot of money playing the game and could see him in the NBA. We tried every sort of coverage against Walter Clayton. Seems like a great kid. Very stoic on the court. Doesn’t get too high or too low. We tried to limit his touches, but he finds a way. He gets to his pull-up. He shot it decent from three. He’s very athletic. He’s very explosive. He’s got that toughness from his football days, too. He’s a winner, man. I think he’s special. I think he’s a name that you’re going to hear not for the next couple years, I think you’ll hear it beyond it. Athletically, Clayton is going to be just fine (on defense). You don’t worry about guys like him.”
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Martin was a good player at Florida Atlantic for a team that made the 2023 Final Four, but the 6-foot-2 linebacker with pogo-stick bounce is having the most efficient season of his life at Florida.
Golden had a vision for Martin, so he laid out in a nifty presentation last spring when the FAU veteran entered the portal weeks after Dusty May took the Michigan job. Golden knew he needed to buff up Florida’s perimeter defense to make a deep run, and Martin’s vicious on-ball defense made him a coveted target for the Gators’ staff. But Golden believed there was unlocked potential for Martin offensively. Like a lot of other Florida gambles, that one has aged well, too.
“I saw the potential and how it could play out,” Martin says. “Honestly, this year has exceeded my expectations. They had pros and cons of the way I was being used at Florida Atlantic and how they’d use me here. It played in my favor and how I envisioned myself playing in more of a guard role. That’s what I needed to put on film for NBA scouts. Hopefully, I hear my name called in June, but let’s worry about getting this win first.”
Martin told CBS Sports last weekend he did not seriously consider a reunion with May in Michigan, citing his desire to “spread my wings and get some new coaching and learn some new things from different coaches because I had been with him for four years.”
How it works
The pivot points for this roster-construction blueprint have all coalesced into something great with an opportunity to earn something special.
- Giving Clayton more on-ball reps has worked.
- Doubling down on a double-big lineup has been outstanding. The Gators’ quartet of big men (Condon, Haugh, Rueben Chinyelu and Micah Handlogten) have willingly embraced playing fewer minutes because they can wear the opposing big fellas down with waves of physicality.
- Backup guard Denzel Aberdeen did not leave when he could have, and he was rewarded with 20-point efforts on back-to-back nights in the dog days of mid-February when the Gators needed a spark.
- Richard has ramped up his defensive intensity to new levels. Florida doesn’t rally in the second half against Auburn without Richard’s on-ball pressure.
- Clayton’s Damian Lillard-level of shotmaking is the story of this tournament, but Condon would tell you Clayton’s give-a-darn on defense has breathed fire into this group.
“We have done a really nice job of finding the right young guys to recruit and to bring into our program,” Golden said. “We’re in this position because we retained Walter, Will, Condo, Tommy and Denzel. We were able to fit and bring in the right pieces.”
The pieces are one thing. The development is the thing.
Only Houston stands in the way of glory.
No. 1 seed Florida plays No. 1 seed Houston 8:50 p.m. ET on CBS – or stream it on March Madness Live or Paramount+.
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