WATCH: Florida cuts down the nets, celebrates SEC Tournament title
NASHVILLE — The Florida Gators brought two nets and some hardware home to Gainesville, winning their first SEC Tournament title since 2014 with an 86-77 win over Tennessee. It marks the fifth conference tournament championship in program history.
Following the victory, the Gators celebrated on the court in Bridgestone Arena as the team was awarded the trophy, Walter Clayton Jr. was named SEC Tournament MVP and made the All-Tournament team along with fellow senior guard Will Richard.
RELATED: 2 Gators make All-Tournament Team, Walter Clayton Jr. wins MVP
After the confetti fell, Florida coach Todd Golden and his players and staff members took turns climbing the ladder and cutting down the net. Check out videos below from the postgame celebration, trophy presentation and net-cutting ceremony.
Todd Golden on Florida cutting down the nuts
Golden was fired up after he cut down the nets and pumped up the Florida fans in attendance. He described his emotions in that moment.
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“Just really proud. Proud of the group that I’ve been able to put together both from a staffing perspective and student-athlete perspective. That’s really the thing that I think about the most in terms of being the leader of this program, is just making sure we have really talented, really good people in our program that. To put the Gators in front of anything else. Having great attitude, great work ethic, most importantly people that really want to be Gators. You know especially following our program as closely as you do, we have a lot of guys that weren’t exactly five stars or thought of as being great players prior to entering our program. I think our staff has done a really good job of identifying talent that fits the way we want to operate.
“Year one was up and down. Year two we were able to add a lot of guys that met that standard. Most importantly between years two and three, we kept a lot of those guys that we thought were really important to build with and around, just the natural progression of different guys like Condo, Tommy, Zel, Will and Walt taking the next step, elevating their game, bringing in Rueb, Alijhah, Sam, Urby. Denzel, again, I mentioned him, he’s done an incredible job. The thing I’m most proud of in our program, in a time where a lot of these programs and rosters are transactional, we try to do a good job of developing our young guys from the ground up.
“Most importantly, it’s our guys, our players. It’s very easy to have a mentality right now to always look and see what’s out there, to see what situation might be better. We’ve had a number of guys that weren’t starting players, that could easily have left and got a starting job somewhere else, but wanted to really compete at the highest level, be a part of something bigger than themselves. Our team talent is exceptional, and that’s why I think we have a chance to make a deep run.”
