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Florida Big Man Has Costly Meltdown In NCAA Tournament Championship

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Jay Postrado | Last updated Apr 7, 2025 11:23 PM ET

The stakes could not get higher between the Florida Gators and Houston Cougars. Both squads refuse to walk out of San Antonio without an NCAA Tournament national championship. With a lot of legacies yet to be determined, Rueben Chinyelu may have just cost the Todd Golden-led squad a shot at basketball immortality.

With a little over seven minutes left in the NCAA Tournament national championship game, the tensions and frustrations grew. This caused Rueben Chinyelu to slam the ball to the ground after getting called for a shooting foul. He was then assessed a technical foul which led Houston to take free throws.

Obviously, Florida fans were not pleased with this call.

"Tie game, national championship, under 8 minutes left and Rueben Chinyelu gets T'd up for spiking the ball after a foul call. You have GOT to be smarter than that," a fan wrote.

Others noted how this was a big thing for Florida, "Woah. Rueben Chinyelu just got whistled for a foul. In anger, he bounced the ball way above his head and yelled at the referee. Terrible mistake when momentum was swinging in favor of the Gators."

These same sentiments echoed throughout multiple fans, "Man, what was Rueben Chinyelu thinking? Slamming the ball down like that after the foul? That’s a huge mistake. He just gave them a free shot—totally unnecessary and a big momentum killer."

While a lot of people off the court and fans watching at home grew frustrated, Florida remained resilient despite this mistake. Coach Todd Golden knew to calm everyone's heads. What was the result? Well, the Gators beat out Houston to become the NCAA Tournament champions of 2025.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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