Walter Clayton Jr. and who? Putting together the ultimate Florida starting 5
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Walter Clayton Jr. helped make the 2024-25 athletic season a special one for Florida.
Considering all the talented players to suit up throughout Florida basketball history, it’s somewhat hard to believe that Clayton is UF’s first first-team All-American. In 2024-25, he was undoubtedly deserving of the high honor, and with 2 spectacular seasons playing for Todd Golden, Clayton will forever be remembered as one of the all-time Gator Greats. Thanks to Clayton, many members of Gator Nation are now pulling for the Utah Jazz.
Clayton left Gainesville as UF’s single-season scoring leader with 713 points. Give him a full career in orange and blue, and he would have done more damage to the record book. For 2 seasons, the Gators could reliably count on Clayton behind the line, at the basket and everywhere in between when it mattered most.
To reach the national championship, there was Clayton’s incredible back-to-back showing of 30 points against Texas Tech in the Elite 8 followed by 34 points against Auburn in the Final Four. When it looked like Houston had Clayton all figured out and kept him scoreless for a half, he flipped a switch and helped lead an epic second-half comeback for the 65-63 championship win.
As the trophy case shows, Clayton, Alijah Martin, Will Richard, Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu made for a fantastic starting 5. But what would the ultimate Florida starting 5 look like?
As expertly told in the Bill Koss book “Pond Birds,” UF already had a rich basketball history before Billy Donovan was hired in March 1996. For this starting 5, however, we’re focusing on the Donovan days to the present.
PG: Jason Williams (1997-98)
Jason “White Chocolate” Williams did not complete his lone season at Florida, but he is still a Gator Great to those who watched his 20 games in orange and blue. In his brief Florida career, Williams averaged 17.1 points, 6.7 assists and 2.8 steals per game, putting the SEC on notice that Billy Ball had arrived in the conference.
Arguably more impressive than his stats was the way Williams repeatedly made jaws drop with how he handled the basketball and put it through the net. Sadly, pre-HD college highlights didn’t hold up particularly well, as the videos from the ’90s are resolution mismatches with today’s screens. Even if a bit fuzzy, Williams is still a joy to watch.
SG: Walter Clayton Jr. (2023-25)
Clayton did a fine job as the point guard in 2024-25, but could you ask for a better shooting guard in the ultimate Florida starting 5? In this lineup, Clayton gets to do what he does best.
SF: Mike Miller (1998-2000)
The first player from South Dakota to ever play for Florida, Mike Miller came to Gainesville with plenty of hype as a McDonald’s All-American. It can be hard to live up to that hype, but Miller did so and more.
Chandler Parsons and Corey Brewer did some spectacular things, but Miller brought a little something extra to the table. At 6-8, Miller could do a little bit of everything. Most importantly, he could score.
Miller led the Gators in scoring 23 times during his 2-season career, including 17 times during the 1999-2000 campaign that saw UF reach the national championship game. Miller suited up for UF 65 times, making 56 starts. He scored in double figures 52 times.
The future first-round draft pick also led the team in rebounds 19 times and assists on 9 occasions. But he’ll be forever remembered for making buckets, especially the buzzer-beater against Butler.
PF: Al Horford (2004-07)
As evidenced by his ongoing NBA career, Horford can do it all down low. The Gators have had some great bigs over the past few decades, but no one fits the “4” better than Horford.
While the 2026-27 team has its sights set on a repeat, we may never see another back-to-back run of Florida basketball national championships like 2006 and ’07. In both tournaments, Horford averaged a double-double.
Horford was good for 11.8 points and 10 rebounds per game in the ’06 run. In the repeat campaign, Horford upped those numbers to 13.5 ppg and 11.3 rpg. Over the whole 2006-07 season, Horford was just half a rebound shy of a double-double per game (13.2 ppg, 9.5 rpg).
At 6-10 and 245 pounds in his UF playing days, Horford was a memorably impressive ball-handler for a big man. Truly the total package at his position, Horford finished with 189 blocked shots in his career, which currently ranks 4th in the school record book.
C: Joakim Noah (2004-07)
There’s a strong case to be made for Udonis Haslem, who averaged over 16 points per game over his final 2 seasons, as the ultimate Florida starting center. Noah wasn’t quite there as a scorer – 14.2 ppg in 2005-06 and 12 ppg in 2006-07 – but there’s more to the center position.
A big reason Noah gets the nod as the starting center is his shot-blocking capability. Noah recorded 95 blocked shots in the 05-06 season, the best mark at Florida since Dwayne Schintzius in 1986-87. In the first championship run, Noah set an NCAA Tournament record with 29 blocked shots, including 6 in the title game against UCLA.
Noah shared some of Horford’s qualities. He ran the floor and handled the ball well for his 6-11, 230-pound college playing frame, an asset that doesn’t show up in the box score.
A bench contributor as a freshman and 2-season starter, Noah finished his Florida career with 55 double-figure scoring games, leading the way 17 times. He was Florida’s top rebounder 33 times, notching double-figure boards in 19 contests. In a stat that might surprise, Noah also led the Gators in assists 14 times during his career.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
