FINAL FOUR: Florida vs Auburn (Saturday, 6:09 pm)

Florida vs. Auburn

* What: 2025 Final Four
* When: Saturday, 6:09 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Alamodome / San Antonio, Texas
* Records: Florida (34-4) / Auburn (32-5)
* TV: CBS (Ian Eagle, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill and Tracy Wolfson)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD / Stations list
(with Sean Kelley, Lee Humphrey and Steve Egan)
* Ticket info

Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Alex Condon	F	6-11 / 230	Sophomore	10.8 pts / 7.7 reb
Rueben Chinyelu	C	6-10 / 255	Sophomore	6.1 pts / 6.5 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Senior	13.3 pts / 4.4 reb
Alijah Martin	G	6-2 / 195	Graduate	14.5 pts / 4.6 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Senior	18.1 pts / 3.6 reb / 4.2 ast

Auburn	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Johni Broome	F	6-10 / 240	Senior	18.7 pts / 10.9 reb / 2.9 ast
Dylan Cardwell	F	6-11 / 255	Senior	4.9 pts / 5.0 reb
Chad Baker-Mazara	F	6-7 / 180	Senior	12.2 pts / 3.1 reb
Miles Kelly	G	6-6 / 190	Senior	11.4 pts / 3.7 reb
Denver Jones	G	6-4 / 205	Senior	10.9 pts / 2.0 reb

The Breakdown

The Alamodome in San Antonio (capacity 39,500 for basketball) is home to Alamo Bowl, the University of Texas-San Antonio, the UFL San Antonio Brahmas and Dallas Cowboys training camp, among other tenants.

SETUP: Florida, the No. 1 seed out of the West, and Auburn, the No. 1 seed out of the South, face off in the first of the two NCAA national semifinals Saturday night at the Final Four in San Antonio. The third-ranked Gators, Southeastern Conference Tournament champions, got here by defeating 16-seed Norfolk State and two-time defending national champion Connecticut, the 8-seed, in the opening two rounds at Raliegh, North Carolina; then by beating 4-seed and 11th-ranked Maryland, 87-71, in the "Sweet 16" round, followed by an 84-79 win over 3-seed and ninth-ranked Texas Tech in the "Elite Eight," both at San Francisco. The fourth-ranked Tigers, regular-season champs of the SEC, beat 16-seed Alabama State, 83-63, then 9-seed Creighton, 82-70, in the first two rounds at Lexington, Kentucky; then 5-seed and 14th-ranked Michigan, 78-65, in the "Sweet 16," followed by a 70-64 win over 2-seed and eighth-ranked Michigan State at Atlanta. The winner will face either No. 1 Duke (35-3) or No. 2 Houston (34-4), who play in Saturday's late semifinal, for the 2025 NCAA championship Monday night. ... The Final Four is comprised of all No. 1 seeds for the first time since 2008 and only the second time since the field went to 64 teams in 1986. ... UF is in the Final Four for the sixth time in program history and first since 2014, while Auburn is making its second trip. The Tigers also went in 2019. ... The Gators are 3-2 all-time in the national semifinals, while the Tigers are 0-1.

SERIES: Auburn leads 92-84, but Florida got the upper hand in their lone meeting during the regular season, with a statement-making 90-81 upset victory Feb. 8 at insane Neville Arena, making for the first time in program history the Gators defeated a No. 1-ranked team on the road. In that one, UF fell behind by 10 early, but rallied to flip the score into a 10-point lead at halftime, then ran away from the Tigers in the second half. Point guard Walter Clayton Jr., playing without his sidekick Alijah Martin (game-day scratch with an oblique injury), scored 19 points, including four 3-pointers, and added a career-high nine assists. Four other players finished in double-figure scoring, including Martin replacement Denzel Aberdeen, who had 10 points, with a couple huge second-half 3s to help hold the Tigers at bay. The win snapped a 27-home game home winning streak at "The Jungle," one of the toughest environments in the country.

ETC: UF coach Todd Golden got his first high-major coaching job when Auburn coach Bruce Pearl hired Golden away from Columbia in 2014. Their relationship dated to when Golden played point guard for Pearl (alongside son Steven Pearl, now associate head coach at Auburn) in the Maccabiah Games, the so-called "Jewish Olympics," in Israel in 2009. Golden was with the Tigers for two seasons (the first as director of basketball operations, the second as an assistant coach) before being lured away by his coach at Columbia, Kyle Smith, to the staff at the University of San Francisco. Golden eventually succeeded Smith at USF, leading that program for three seasons, before leaving for UF in 2022.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Auburn
85.4	Scoring	83.2
.473	Field-goal percentage	.477
.357	3-point percentage	.361
69.7	Scoring defense	69.2
.400	Field-goal percentage defense	.406
.296	3-point percentage defense	.296
3rd	KenPom.com overall ranking	4th
2nd	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	3rd
10th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	8th
59th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	137th
4th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	2nd
13th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	2nd

The Gators

First-team All-America guard **Walter Clayton Jr.** (1)

Golden joins Lon Kruger (1994) and Billy Donovan (2000, 2006-07 and '14) as the third coach in program history to guide the Gators to the Final Four. Since the NCAA Tournament expanded from 48 to 64 teams in 1986, Florida is one of just seven schools to have three different Final Four coaches, joining UConn, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma and UCLA. ... UF has not won a game on college basketball's grandest stage since beating Ohio State in the 2007 NCAA title game at Atlanta. ... Florida got here the hard way. Against Texas Tech, the Gators blew a halftime lead, fell behind by 10 three times inside eight minutes to go and trailed by nine with less than three minutes remaining before striking for four consecutive 3-point shots -- the first two from forward Thomas Haugh, (career high-equaling 20 points), the second two from point guard Walter Clayton Jr. (30 points) -- to commence an 18-4 run to close out the game. The rally would not have been possible without a couple monumental missed front ends by Tech in one-and-ones situations (the first time when the Gators were up by six, the second time when up by three). ... The win was UF's 10th straight and 16th of the last 17, but also a program-record 10th over an opponent ranked in the top 10 this season, with seven of them coming in the month of March. ... Florida ranks second in the country in offensive efficiency and 10th on the defensive end of the floor. The Gators manhandled Maryland on the glass in the "Sweet 16" win, pummeling the Terrapins 42-20 overall and 15-7 on the offensive end. Texas Tech basically rebounded UF to a standoff (35-34), but the Raiders made the most of their second-chance point advantage (23-8), something the Gators cannot allow to happen against a high-scoring team like the Tigers. UF needs to play to its offensive-rebounding bona fides -- the Gators rank No. 5 at 39.5% -- and hit shots from 3 (something like the 13-for-33 in the win at Auburn would be good) against one of the nation's stingiest defenses at the arc.

Clayton has done more than distinguish himself as maybe the greatest player in UF basketball history. He's been no worse than the second-best player in the NCAA Tournament and even Cooper Flagg fans might throw up their hands on that one. In the four tournament games, on his way to being named West Region Most Outstanding Player, Clayton averaged 19.8 points, shot nearly 46% from the floor, made 14 of his 31 attempts from distance (45.3%) and sank 31 of 35 free throws (88.6%). He will be a marked man by the Tigers, especially after the way he riddled them with killer long-range shots in February, when he went 4-for-8 from distance, including a couple with his heels on the Tiger mid-court logo. ... And what about Haugh (9.8 ppg, 6.1 rpg)? He went 0-for-7 from the 3-point line in the two tournament games at Raleigh, then had 13 points (1-for-4 from 3) and nine rebounds against Maryland. Against Texas Tech, he buried a career-high four 3s to go with 11 boards for a tournament double-double. Everyone will remember Clayton's last two 3s, but those daggers were made possible by Haugh's back-to-back clutch long balls to put the Gators in striking distance. He's averaging 13.3 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists in the tournament.

Neither Alijah Martin nor Will Richard shot the ball particularly well in the regional final (Martin was 3-for-10 overall, 0-for-4 from 3; Richard 2-6, 0-2), but Martin grabbed seven rebounds and both players hit big free throws in the final 22 seconds for the close-out. Two nights earlier against Maryland, Martin scored 14 points and buried three 3s, while Richard tallied a game-high 15, dropped six of his nine shots and three of six 3s. ... Martin is 8-1 all-time in NCAA Tournament play, with Final Four appearances at both Florida Atlantic in 2023 and now UF in '25. ... Forward Alex Condon, who shook off an ankle injury in the Maryland game, is averaging just 7.5 points and 5.8 rebounds in the tournament and had three turnovers early in the second half against the Red Raiders. And while he's struggled the last few weeks with more physical players in the post, his effort never wanes. ... Center Rueben Chinyelu has missed some bunnies around the bucket the last couple weekends, but definitely shows up at times rolling to the basket and doing physical things underneath. ... Backup 7-1 center Micah Handlogten (2.9 ppg, 5.1 rpg) made all three of his field-goal tries in 11 minutes against the Red Raiders. ... Reserve guard Denzel Aberdeen (7.9 ppg) had 12 points in the Maryland game, making five of his shots and a couple 3s. UF is 24-0 when Aberdeen makes a 3, something he's done in five of the team's seven postseason wins.

The Tigers

First-team All-America forward **Johni Broome** (4)

It's the 11th seasons under Pearl (242-124 with the school) and the Tigers spent the majority of it as the No. 1 or No. 2 team in the country. It wasn't until the Tigers ended the regular season with consecutive losses (at Texas A&M and home against rival Alabama) that Auburn fell from atop the ranks. The team's second-round loss to Tennessee in the SEC Tournament had them on a 1-3 tailspin heading into NCAA play, but the Tigers' righted themselves and made a statement with the convincing defeat of Michigan State -- always a tough out this time of year -- to get back for Pearl's second Final Four foray. ... Auburn shot 42.6% against the Spartans, but went 53% in the 2-point area to offset a tough showing from distance at 7-for-25 (28%). The Tigers, as has been one of their calling cards all season, were sensational on the defensive end, holding the Spartans to just 34% overall and seven of 23 for deep. ... Offensively, Auburn is among the best nationally at protecting the ball (only 4.7% of possessions end in non-steal turnovers, which ranks 2nd) and almost always gets decent shots (55.7% from 2 on the season, 36.1 from 3). They've also been known to take bad ones at times. ... The Tigers aren't as good as the Gators on the offensive glass, but still very sound (34.4% is 48th nationally). On defense, their 45.8% effective field-goal rate is seventh nationally, their block percentage of 15.9 is fourth, 2-point defense (46.6) 25th and 3-point defense (29.6) eighth. ... Besides the the four losses to SEC foes, Auburn's only other defeat came Dec. 4 at Duke, 84-78, in the ACC/SEC Challenge.

Auburn starts five seniors and there's no debating the best of the bunch. Forward Johni Broome was named 2025 SEC Player of the Year, as well as first-team All American and MVP of the South Region. Broome, who left the Michigan State game with a shoulder injury and eventually returned, is highly skilled in the post and an outstanding passer (second on team with 102 assists), has shot 59.3% from the 2-point area this season and is dangerous enough from deep (28.4% on 88 attempts) that he needs to be accounted for. He's one of the nation's best rebounders on both ends (128 offensive boards), as well as an elite shot-blocker. The Tigers play through him, evidenced by his 14.2 usage rate, which is 37th nationally. Broome finished No. 2 in the country in KenPom's Player of the Year ratings, behind only Duke's Cooper Flagg and just ahead of Clayton. UF did a good job of frustrating him into an 8-for-19 afternoon in the first meeting by forcing Broome to his right hand. The Tigers will be ready for that again. ... Mercurial wing Chad Baker-Mazara does a lot of everything. He's scoring at 51% from 2, better than 37 from 3 and makes 79% percent of his free throws. His 100 assists are third on the team. He's also an emotional wild card, who gets flagrant fouls that cost his team, as he did in being ejected in the opening minutes of Auburn's 2024 first-round NCAA upset loss to Yale. ... Backup freshman guard Tahaad Pettiford, the 2024 McDonald's All American, is the team's third-leading scorer and assist guy (109 vs. 59 turnovers) despite starting just one game this season and playing the sixth-most minutes on the team. Pettiford's 70 makes from the 3-point line (37.4% on 187 attempts) are third-most on the team. ... Dylan Cardwell only plays about half the game, but he brings muscle, power and athleticism in the post; different kinds than Broome. He's at 69.9 percent from 2, but is a huge liability at the free-throw line (31.8%).

Miles Kelly is in his first season with the Tigers after coming from Georgia Tech. He's one of two perimeter guys at better than 40% from the arc (38.1%on a team-high 226 attempts). .... Denver Jones was a SEC All-Defensive Team selection and is frighteningly efficient from distance (41.8%) and the free-throw line (91.1 on 101 attempts). ... Backup forward Chaney Johnson (9.2 ppg, 4.1 rpg) is another senior (albeit via the junior college route) who plays starters minutes and provides tremendous energy in the paint while converting at 63.7% from inside the arc.

Numbers of Note

Virginia guard **Kyle Guy** (5) eyes the rim -- while blocking out the noise and antics from Auburn guard **Bryce Brown** -- before converting three consecutive free throws with 0.6 seconds to go to give the Cavaliers a 63-62 victory (and the Tigers a bitter and devastating defeat) in the 2019 NCAA semifinals, the only other time the Tigers have played in the Final Four

* 0.6 —Seconds remaining when Virginia guard Kyle Guy was fouled attempting a 3-point shot and subsequently hit the ensuing three pressure-packed free throws for a 63-62 lead that ultimately stood up in Auburn's last (and only) trip to the Final Four. The Cavaliers trailed by four inside 10 seconds remaining, but outscored the Tigers 6-1 over the final five seconds, with Guy, the All-America guard, accounting for all six points.

* 3 — NCAA Tournament games when a Florida player has scored at least 30 points. KeVaughn Allen scored 35 in the 2017 Sweet 16 victory over Wisconsin, while Clayton has the other two: 33 in the first-round loss against Colorado in '24 and 30 last weekend against the Red Raiders.

* 4 — Times the Gators have rallied from double digits to win during the '24-25 season. They did so against South Florida (down by 13), at South Carolina (12), at Auburn (10) and against Texas Tech (10).

* 9 — Points needed by Clayton, currently with 668, to break the single-season Florida scoring record of 676 points set by Andy Owens during the 1969-70 season.

* 2014 — The last year Florida was in the Final Four. That remarkable team lost a buzzer-beater on Dec. 2, 2013, at Connecticut, then won a school-record 30 consecutive games, rolling through the SEC regular season and tournament undefeated (with three wins over Kentucky along the way), entered the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed and eventually lost 63-53 in a rematch with UConn in the national semifinals at Arlington, Texas.

Bottom Line

This team already has made history, but there's so much more -- including legend status -- on the table.

Email Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu

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