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Florida’s demolition of Alabama proves Gators are a 1-seed and can win 6 in a row
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NASHVILLE — The Florida Gators come at you in waves, a cold-blooded brace of rapacious reptiles bent on bending opponents into submission.
This is altogether fitting given alligators hunt in groups.
One moment, you’re in the fight. The nest, well, if you’ve ever seen an alligator attacking its prey, you know it will turn loose and snap its fierce jaws shut whenever it wants.
And so it was that in Saturday afternoon’s SEC Tournament semifinal game against Alabama, the Gators descended furiously on Alabama only moments into the second half, just minutes removed from Florida taking the second half floor to Gainesville rocker Tom Petty’s anthem “I Won’t Back Down.”
Alabama entered the second half trailing by just 2 points, forcing 6 turnovers, outscoring the Gators 12-2 in transition and getting to the free-throw line at a higher clip than Florida in the first half. Alabama even took a brief lead in the second half, 48-47, on a Chris Youngblood triple that opened the second half scoring. That’s when the Gators pounced.
By the time the first media timeout came with just under 15 minutes to play in the half, the Gators had rattled off 17 of the next 19 points to open up a 14-point lead.
The game-changing run was Florida’s 31st kill shot (10-0 run or more) this season, the most in the SEC, along with SEC regular-season champion Auburn. Alabama, playing shorthanded in the second half without Grant Nelson, who injured his left knee late in the first half and was held out in the second half for precautionary reasons, never pulled closer than 11 points again.
The Gators overwhelmed Alabama in every facet of basketball, turning stout interior defense at the rim into stops, transition opportunities and a deluge of dunks and timely 3-pointers. Like an alligator that’s dragged its prey underwater, the Gators never let the Crimson Tide come up for air, tacking on runs of 9-3 and 11-2 in the second half to balloon their lead to 23 points by the under 8 media timeout.
Walter Clayton Jr., who this week became the first Florida player to earn First-Team All-American honors, was the best player on the floor, scoring 22 points, dishing out 6 assists, plucking 2 steals and leading the Gators’ offense to a staggering 1.33 points per possession on the evening without a single turnover. Florida’s 104 points were an SEC Tournament record, and the Gators’ 57 second-half points was their best output in SEC play this season, a sign of a team peaking at the right time.
All season, Clayton Jr. has been the anchor of what he calls “the best backcourt in America,” and on Saturday, his fellow seniors, Will Richard and Alijah Martin, were also fantastic.
Richard had 16 points and a steal, finishing a game-high plus-23 in box-plus minus, thanks to his hounding defense on Alabama freshman Labaron Philon all evening. Philon was a non-factor, failing to score until late in the second half when the result was already decided.
Martin, who ranked top 5 in the SEC in defensive win shares and defensive box-plus minus (higher in both than Auburn guard Denver Jones), was mystifyingly left off the Coach’s All-SEC Defensive Team earlier this week. No matter. The Florida staff made snubs like that one a talking point at practice all week, emphasizing the lack of belief and respect for Florida outside the program. Martin, who was on an NCAA Tournament All-Regional Team in helping Florida Atlantic reach the Final Four in 2023, took the slights personally.
All he’s done in Nashville on back-to-back days is take primary defensive responsibilities on SEC Sixth Man of the Year Caleb Grill and Alabama All-American Mark Sears and win both battles. Martin frustrated Sears throughout the game, limiting the Tide star to just 9 points on 3-for-10 shooting, with 3 turnovers, 2 of which were directly forced by driving into Martin.
“He’s raised the competitiveness and fight of every single player in our program, myself included,” Will Richard told SDS of Martin earlier this month. “He plays with relentless effort and energy. He wants the tough assignment. We feed off his energy.”
Florida is more than just stars, though, which is why this roving band of reptilians is made for March, more than capable of winning 4 in a row and reaching Florida’s 6th Final Four.
“We want to win 6 in a row. Two more than I won at FAU,” Martin said last week. “We have to work. We have to play together. Winning is hard. But I think we’ve played through so much adversity, with the injuries (at least 3 Florida starters missed SEC games, including Martin), but also just to get here. All of us, we weren’t supposed to be at a place like Florida, a national championship program in the SEC. We play with a chip on our shoulder because we know what a gift it is to be here.”
No Gators player more embodies this team’s ability to knock the grin off adversity’s face than Micah Handlogten. The Florida junior suffered a catastrophic leg injury on this very floor nearly a year ago in the opening minutes of the SEC Tournament Championship game against Auburn. The Gators lost, and Handlogten underwent a major surgery and extensive rehab, expecting to be out of basketball for a year and to redshirt in 2024-25. Florida’s impressive start to the season reminded Handlogten how much he missed basketball, and as Florida’s frontcourt injuries piled up and Handlogten’s rehab progressed, Handlogten realized he could come back and help the team win and compete for a championship.
“We have a special team this year,” Handlogten said of his decision to potentially forego a medical redshirt and play in 2025. “I mean, we had a special team last year, but this year, I think that we really have a shot to go all the way. And I got excited about that, and I think that played a huge role in it because I want to be out there with my boys. Like I’ve said it before, they were with me through thick and thin throughout my recovery process. There’s been hardships, but they’ve helped me through that and I see this as a way to help them get to where they wanna be, and where I wanna be, and that’s national championship contenders, and I think that we have ourselves in a very good position to be that.”
On Saturday, Handlogten helped his team through Alabama’s determined physicality on the glass, playing his most impactful game as a Gator in 14 minutes off the bench. Handlogten scored just 4 points but grabbed 10 rebounds, blocked a shot, and Florida was a preposterous plus-18 when Handlogten was on the floor, the best plus-minus per minutes played average in the game for any Florida player.
Handlogten’s willingness to carve out a role — any role — to help the Gators win is precisely why Florida is absolutely good enough to win 6 consecutive games when the NCAA Tournament starts next week.
“Win a championship, and whatever your role, you’re remembered forever,” Martin told SDS last week, before Florida blitzed another NCAA Tournament team from the SEC, Ole Miss, by 19 points on Senior Night.
If the narrative entering Saturday’s game was that the winner of the Florida-Alabama deserved a 1-seed, Florida answered the bell, winning for the 28th time and grabbing its 10th Quad 1 win in the process. Florida ranks second in the country in KenPom, now ahead of SEC regular-season champion Auburn, and their Net Rating of 35.9 is now the 6th highest in the history of the KenPom database, which dates back to 1997. Florida finished 2nd outright in the best conference in college basketball, a historically good SEC that is likely to earn 13 NCAA Tournament bids come Sunday evening. Now, they’ll play for an SEC Championship title.
It’s time to stop moving the goalposts on the Gators. They are a 1-seed, and any bracket that seeds them elsewhere offends the eye test, the résumé test, and justice.
“I would say we are a 1-seed regardless of the result tomorrow,” Todd Golden told the media tonight. “We have 4 losses. (We’re) 29-4 right now. We’ve won, I think, 11 of our last 12. We have the best collection of high-level wins in college basketball across the board. There’s other good teams and candidates. When you look at the full body of work… our conference schedule is different. We had to play some really good teams on the road and didn’t get them at home. We still finished second. Put all those things together, and we are a 1-seed now.”
Golden is right. Florida doesn’t need to win yet another “1-seed game.” That debate is over.
Can Tennessee earn a 1-seed with a win tomorrow? Perhaps. But it certainly shouldn’t come at Florida’s expense.
Tennessee, a marvelous team in its own right, is certainly good enough to make the program’s first Final Four. The Vols have beaten the Gators once this season, a dominant 20-point win in Knoxville after taking a 30-point beating by the Gators in Gainesville. The Volunteers’ bruising defense will disrupt Florida offensively and Rick Barnes will muck the game up, forcing Florida to win with focused defense, first-possession shooting, and ball security.
Tennessee has All-American talent in its own right, too, in Chaz Lanier and consummate winner Zakai Zeigler. The Vols will also have the bulk of the crowd support, and they may win the SEC Championship tomorrow.
Florida is a 1-seed, and yes, the Gators can win the whole thing in San Antonio next month. But that doesn’t change the reality of what Florida’s proven all season and continued to show in dominating Alabama on Saturday.
First, the SEC Championship Game. A chance to hang a banner. A chance, as Alijah Martin said, to be remembered forever.
Neil Blackmon covers Florida football and the SEC for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
