SAN ANTONIO — “7 KILLS.”
That was the only thing written on the whiteboard in Florida’s locker room after the Gators’ 79-73 national semifinal win over Auburn on Saturday at the Alamodome. The Gators face Houston on Monday night with a chance to claim their third championship in program history.
A“kill” is a commonly used basketball term defined as three consecutive defensive stops. Each game, the team’s goal is seven kills. At halftime against the Tigers, the Gators had just one and trailed 46-38 as a result.
Still, the mood in the locker room was upbeat. Florida was confident it could flip the script, partly because it hadn’t played as well as it’s capable and partly because it has Walter Clayton Jr., a 6-foot-3 senior who has ice water running through his veins and has proven to be the best guard in the country. Despite the eight-point deficit, “it was all smiles,” said 6-foot-5 junior guard Denzel Aberdeen.
Well, mostly smiles.
Assistant coach Carlin Hartman was steaming — and for good reason. The Gators had failed to match Auburn’s physicality and weren’t executing their defensive game plan. Hartman felt compelled to speak up, delivering a speech that, as one Florida staffer put it, is the “stuff of legends.”
“We all thought that we were just getting punked,” Hartman told Hoops HQ shortly after the game. “They were dictating the terms of the game, and it was everything against what we had talked about throughout the course of the week. It’s about their tendencies and trying to do as good of a job as you can on sitting on their tendencies.”
Auburn 6-foot-10 star Johni Broome dominated the first half, scoring 12 points without much resistance. Hartman was frustrated that Florida repeatedly allowed Broome to spin over his right shoulder, which is where he is most comfortable. As a group, the Tigers had scored 26 points in the paint and shot 51.5 percent from the field.
Hartman implored Florida to “man up,” specifically calling out the bigs. “I told them what the truth was,” Hartman says. “‘If we want to win this game and get to Monday night’ … Now, I wasn’t saying it that nicely.”
“You don’t want to hear all of what he said!” 6-foot-10 sophomore center Rueben Chinyelu told Hoops HQ with a laugh when asked about Hartman’s speech. “He was furious because he was like, ‘This is not how you guys have been playing all year. You guys are playing soft. This is not us. We have to get back to us.’”
Hartman singled out Chinyelu, known as the team’s primary enforcer, challenging him to be more of a force inside.
“To a man, we felt like we didn’t play well in the first half,” assistant coach John Andrzejek said. “I think we felt like the control was still in our hands and if we executed better, made some shots and were a little more physical, that could change the outcome. And it did.”
After a brief pause, Andrzejek added, “It also helps to have Walter Clayton go for 34.”
Ah, yes. That certainly helps, too. Out of the break, two critical things happened to flip the game in Florida’s favor: The big men responded to Hartman’s speech, cranking up the intensity on defense, and Clayton took over on offense. The Gators held Broome to just three points on 1-of-4 shooting in the second half, doing an excellent job of preventing him from getting the ball and competing with more physicality when he did. The Tigers had just eight made field goals in the second half, and their 73 points were 10 below their season average. They also turned it over 12 times in the final 20 minutes.
Once again, Clayton was the best player on the floor, which Auburn coach Bruce Pearl specifically said couldn’t happen if the Tigers were to win. Clayton erupted for a career-high 34 points on 11-of-18 shooting, making him the first player since Larry Bird in 1979 to have back-to-back 30-point performances this deep in the NCAA Tournament. “Clayton was the difference,” Pearl said. “He was just flat out the difference. We couldn’t contain him.”
“I just let the game come to me,” Clayton said. “I know I have a bunch of other guys around me who are threats also.”
Clayton did get help from his backcourt mates, 6-foot-2 senior Alijah Martin (17 points) and 6-foot-4 senior Will Richard (7 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals). During one key stretch, Florida rattled off a 9-0 run on a Richard and-one, a Clayton three and a Martin three to even the score at 49. Martin also had perhaps the highlight of the tournament so far — a slam over two Auburn defenders with 5:27 left. He also had a dunk where he took off from about a step in front of the foul line.
With just under three minutes remaining and Florida up 69-68, the Gators forced a turnover and Clayton cashed in on the other end, slicing to the basket for a layup. Fifty seconds later, he kissed a shot off the glass and got fouled; the three-point play extended Florida’s lead to 74-68 and effectively sealed the outcome. Asked to describe Clayton’s game in a word, teammates Richard, Martin and 6-foot-9 sophomore forward Thomas Haugh all used the same one: “Special.”
“They controlled the game in the first half. We stuck around and we were hanging in, but we kind of felt like we were getting knocked around a little bit,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “We controlled the game in the second half.”
When the team returned to the locker room, a fired-up Golden grabbed a marker and scribbled “7 KILLS” on the whiteboard. With six kills in the second half, Florida reached its goal — and is playing for the national title as a result.
