Walter Clayton Jr. reflects on perseverance through national championship scoring drought

Walter Clayton Jr. couldn’t get involved in the first half of the season’s biggest game. Still, Florida had several players help him out until he got some things going in closing out the national title game.

Clayton credited his teammates with the Gators for contributing while he struggled to start during their postgame press conference after the 65-63 win over Houston. While the Cougars’ defense gave him trouble, they showed up again by scoring themselves in his place to keep them in it.

“Yeah, for sure, uh, Houston was guarding us great, you know. They threw a great defense out there. Obviously, everyone knows them for that. But, man, we’ve got multiple guys on this team that can go,” Clayton said. “Tonight was one of those nights with Will (Richard), man. He done showed up multiple times this year. You know, never know whose night is going to be, man. We showed that as a team.

“Man, these guys around me, man. Like I said, our motto? We all can go. So, I understand that, if it ain’t my night, somebody going to pick me up. We understand that we all just picking each other up throughout the year, man. We’ve been doing that all year and tonight was nothing different. I think the way we won tonight is just, is just exclamation mark on the year. It’s just great to win like that, knowing the fact that we’re just a brotherhood together and we’ve just been picking each other up all year.”

Clayton went into halftime with zero points on just four shot attempts, all from three, and two turnovers as the focus defensively for Houston. He did what he could as a facilitator with five assists but, for the most part, the Cougars completely removed him from the game to that point. Despite that, though, Florida entered the locker room down only three because of a huge first half from Richard (14 points (5-8 FG, 4-6 3PT), five rebounds) and the early play of Alex Condon (6 points, 4 rebounds).

Clayton would then come out and be their leading scorer in the second half with 11 points (3-6 FG) as a pair of and-ones and a three-pointer being key buckets in the final eight minutes as Florida made their comeback. He’d also give them three boards, with some solid defensive play, and a pair of assists.

It wasn’t the best night for Clayton despite going on to be named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. It was a team effort by The Gator Boys, though, in winning their program’s third national title in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.