SAN ANTONIO — “Walt, you’re giving up football?”
Terrence McGriff, head coach of the boy’s basketball team at Bartow High School in Polk County, had to make sure his ears were working properly. It was 2019 and Walter Clayton Jr., the sensational 6-foot-3 senior guard who has guided Florida to the 2025 Final Four, was then one of the most promising football prospects in the area. Clayton had just transferred from Lake Wales to Bartow for his junior year and intended to focus solely on basketball, which was … stunning, to say the least. He was an incredibly gifted defensive back who had already picked up offers from Florida, Florida State, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Georgia and more football powerhouses.
“I was a little bit nervous,” McGriff tells Hoops HQ, “because I’m from Florida and this is football country. People don’t give up high-major division one offers to focus on basketball. And a 6-foot-3 guy. It’s not like he’s 6-foot-8.”
It was a massive bet on himself, but Clayton’s mind was made up. He was much happier on the court than on the gridiron. He had informed his mom, Cherie Quarg, of his decision following his sophomore year and the two had made a trip to IMG Academy in the hopes that Clayton could join its esteemed basketball program to get better exposure. After a long tour of the campus, it became clear that the school was more interested in Clayton for a football scholarship. “It was a real downer because that’s what we were diverting from,” Quarg tells Hoops HQ. “We rode home almost two hours and I was like, ‘I will pay for you to go to that school. You don’t have to get a basketball scholarship.’ And he was like, ‘No, we’re not doing that. I’m not paying to play anywhere.’”
Clayton was sure that he could make it work someplace else, even though he wasn’t on the radar of any Division I colleges at the time. He enrolled at Bartow, a public school with an exceptional reputation for basketball, and asked McGriff on day one, “What do I have to do to be a high-major guy?”
“At your size, you better be able to shoot the blood out of the ball,” McGriff responded.
“So let’s go,” Clayton said. “Let’s get started.”
Less than six years later, Clayton is playing on college basketball’s biggest stage and garnering comparisons to Stephen Curry. “I’ve always believed that I could go as far as I wanted to go,” Clayton tells Hoops HQ. “But obviously you don’t really put yourself in the Final Four. That isn’t just something you do. It’s tough to get here.”
Through four NCAA Tournament games, Clayton has averaged 22.3 points on 45.8 percent shooting from the field and 45.2 percent from three. He was named Most Outstanding Player of the West Region and is one of five finalists for the Wooden Award. Florida was pushed to the brink by both No. 8 seed UConn and No. 3 seed Texas Texas en route to San Antonio, but in each game, Clayton refused to let his team lose. In the Elite Eight, the Gators trailed the Red Raiders 72-64 before Clayton went berserk, scoring 10 of his 30 points — including two huge three-pointers — in the last 3:35. “No matter what the score is or how bleak it might look, he always is certain that we’re going to win,” Florida assistant coach John Andrzejek says. “He doesn’t just believe we’re going to win. He is certain we’re going to win. And with his talent and composure, we usually do.”
According to Quarg, that sort of composure was evident in Clayton as early as the fifth grade. “He just went with the flow,” Quarg says. “How he is on the court, that’s how he is in person. He does not get rattled at all. And if he does, you’re not going to know it.”
Clayton practically lived in the gym, always staying late to put in extra work. He focused specifically on developing his jump shot, making slight tweaks to his mechanics and expanding his range well beyond the three-point line. Throughout his time at Bartow, Clayton’s confidence — both in himself and the team — shined. After his first practice, he walked into the locker room and boldly proclaimed, “We’re winning state.”
And they did.
Bartow went 31-1 and claimed its fifth state championship in program history with a 66-61 overtime win over Dillard at the RP Funding Center. “To us in high school, we’re playing on a G League court, which is longer than a high school court,” Joshua Simons, one of Clayton’s teammates at Bartow, says. “This man was pulling up from seemingly NBA range, doing it in front of thousands of people in this huge arena. I remember that stuff fondly.”
The season ended on March 7, 2020, and a few days later, the world shut down due to COVID. Clayton found himself stuck at home during the most important time for his recruitment. The offers he expected weren’t coming in, largely because coaches weren’t able to see him play. “I reached out to every high-major, power-five college in the state and most of the mid-majors and nobody would bite,” says McGriff, “partially because they hadn’t seen him enough and partially because they didn’t think he was big enough or good enough.” Coaches also expressed concern that Clayton might accept a scholarship and then bail on basketball for football.
As frustrating as the recruitment process was, Clayton stayed the course. He had called McGriff in April in a minor panic because Bartow’s gym was closed and there was nowhere for him to work out. For several weeks, McGriff, Clayton and teammate Amarion Frazier snuck into a local church gym every day to keep training.
In late June, Clayton was invited to participate in a recruiting event in Orlando. The event was closed to spectators but streamed online so that college coaches could tune in. After an impressive performance, Clayton received numerous mid-major offers, including one from Iona, which was then being coached by Rick Pitino. “I wanted a winner and he was a winner,” Pitino says. Clayton relished the opportunity to learn from Pitino and was also cognizant of the increased attention the Hall of Famer’s presence would bring to the program. In his mind, Iona gave him the best platform to showcase his skills. He committed without even taking a visit.
Once there, Clayton was tested by both Pitino and his new teammates. Senior guards Tyson Jolly and Elijah Joiner, the Gaels’ starting backcourt that season, did not go easy on him in practice. The trash talk was relentless, the battles epic. “I would go give him a bucket and he’d come right back down and go right at my head,” says Jolly. “He has the mindset that he’s going to get it. He’s not backing down. He’s not turning down a challenge.”
“Tyson got me better every day, honestly,” Clayton says. “He used to fry me in practice when I was a freshman, I’m not going to lie. I could always talk back if I was having a good day. Sometimes I was a little quiet. There were some days it was obvious he was just frying me.”
Though he averaged just 7.3 points in 16.1 minutes per game, Clayton “carried himself like he was a star,” says Jolly. “He was already on another level mentally, how he approached college in general. He was really just locked in on basketball and being great.” Clayton rarely attended parties, spending his free time either in the gym or playing video games. “He didn’t even go to prom with us,” adds Frazier. “That’s how locked in he was.”
In his sophomore season, Clayton took a major leap, averaging 16.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists, while shooting 45.5 percent from the field, 43.1 percent from three and 95.3 percent from the line. He won MAAC Player of the Year and led the Gaels to conference regular-season and tournament titles. Pitino left in the off-season for St. John’s and Clayton entered the transfer portal, where, at long last, he was pursued by high majors. Florida eventually won him over, but it was a very tight race with St. John’s given Clayton’s bond to Pitino.
Since arriving in Gainesville, Clayton has lived up to all of the program’s expectations. He made the transition from the MAAC to the SEC look effortless, immediately helping Florida get back to the NCAA Tournament and receiving All-SEC honors. He has earned a reputation as perhaps the most clutch player in the sport, seemingly unfazed by the bright lights of March.
Asked if he has ever played with someone with Clayton’s self-belief, Florida’s 6-foot-11 sophomore center Rueben Chinyelu thought for a while and said, “It’s tough because Walt is different. He’s just different. I think I’ve been around guys who are poised in moments like that but I would say, Walt is Walt, you know?” As Andrzejek put it, “He’s just got that moxie.”
That moxie has carried Clayton through all the ups and downs. Those who know him best are not the least bit surprised to see him at the Final Four, starring on one of the nation’s best teams. “I’ve just been sitting back waiting for it to happen,” says Quarg. “He knew what he wanted to do and he’s been going at it ever since. He didn’t look back. I’m super proud of him for that. We’ve had a couple hiccups along the road, but it still didn’t deter him.”
“We never once thought about if it doesn’t work,” adds McGriff. “There was no turning back. There was no alternative. This is what he wanted to do. These were his goals, dreams and aspirations and he was going to do whatever he could to accomplish them. And that he has.”
