NCAA announces historic Todd Golden achievement after Florida stuns Houston

There are plenty of incredible feats to go around about this Florida basketball team winning a national championship, but it all starts with head coach Todd Golden. At just 39 years old, Golden did an incredible job leading this Gators squad all the way to the top of the mountain.

There aren’t many like Golden in college basketball history, and his young age makes him a historical outlier for a national title winner. In fact, this win made him the youngest head coach to lead a team to a national championship since the legendary Jim Valvano did it at NC State in the iconic 1983 title game, according to the NCAA.

Golden and company didn’t have it easy at all in this tournament, and they easily could have lost four of their last five games if it wasn’t for their great execution in the clutch.

First, it was the two-time defending champion UConn that had Florida on the ropes in the Round of 32 before a pair of massive 3-pointers helped lift the Gators to a win.

After cruising through a Sweet 16 victory against Maryland, Texas Tech led Florida by 10 points in the second half before Clayton and Thomas Haugh led an improbable comeback to send it to the Final Four.

In the Final Four, Auburn led Florida by eight points at halftime and kept the game close into the final minutes before the Gators came away with the win. Then, Golden’s squad overcame a 12-point deficit in the second half of the title game to cut down the nets in San Antonio.

Golden also came up big for his Florida basketball team late in the championship game. On multiple occasions against a suffocating Houston defense, Golden drew up some great sets to get open looks for his guys, such as a play to get Clayton an open look for a 3-pointer out of a timeout with three minutes to go. Clayton banged it home, and the game was tied at 60.

Golden’s schematic acumen that he has shown all season came up big in the second half of the national title game, and now he has a championship to show for it.