Auburn and Florida meet in the Final Four as last of the 14 SEC teams that packed March Madness
Auburn and Florida are the last two standing of a record 14 Southeastern Conference teams that made the NCAA Tournament
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Auburn and Florida are the last two standing of a record 14 Southeastern Conference teams that made the NCAA Tournament. Only one of them will get to play for the national championship.
In a Final Four filled with No. 1 seeds, the SEC regular-season champion Tigers (32-5) play the conference tournament-winning Gators in the first national semifinal game Saturday in the Alamodome. The matchup pits All-Americans Johni Broome and Walter Clayton Jr. against each other yet again.
“The success that the league has had in the tournament has been pretty amazing,” Gators coach Todd Golden said. “The league obviously (got) a lot of respect, a lot of notoriety after the non-conference. Once you get to elite play, people wonder how real it is. I believe the results we have had so far in the NCAA Tournament speak to that.”
Florida (34-4), which has won 10 in a row since the start of March, twice during the regular season beat No. 1-ranked SEC teams. The Gators first won by 30 points at Tennessee, then a month later had a 90-81 win at Auburn on Feb. 8 that solidified how they felt about their team.
"It just gave us confidence because we always believed that we (were) the No. 1 team after we beat them,” said Alijah Martin, the only Gators player with Final Four experience (with FAU two years ago.)
“They just out-toughed us that game, they did everything that we didn’t do,” Auburn freshman guard Tahaad Pettiford said.
After the tournament's first Final Four matchup of SEC teams, the winner will play Duke or Houston with the opportunity to clinch their league's first national title in men's basketball since Kentucky in 2012. The last before that were Florida's back-to-back championships in 2006 and 2007.
Auburn, the No. 1 overall NCAA seed, began this season with an in-flight disturbance caused by players on the way to a win at Houston. The Tigers were 21-1 before losing to the Gators — the lone setback before that was at Duke in the eighth game. They lost three of their last four games before the NCAA tourney.
“Just continue this streak that we’re on these past four games. We’ve been the most physical team every team we’ve played against,” starting center Dylan Cardwell said, adding that the Tigers knew they could become a big bust or maybe the greatest team in school history. “We chose the latter.”
Alex Condon, Florida's 6-foot-11 post from Australia, had no problem being physical with Broome when the teams first played. He plans to be again.
“He’s going to be wanting to come out and prove that he’s a better player than me,” Condon said. “So I think I did a good job last time just coming out and initiating the physicality with him. And yeah, I know I’m going to be ready to go.”
Condon had 17 points and 10 rebounds in that win over the Tigers. Broome had 18 points on 8-of-19 shooting with 11 rebounds.
Broome had 25 points and 14 rebounds in the South Regional final win over Michigan State last Sunday, but briefly left in the second half after his right elbow bent awkwardly during a hard fall. He grabbed several rebounds and with one arm after returning, but also swooshed a 3-pointer.
Even with some kind of brace on his right elbow covered by a sleeve, the Tigers leading scorer said he had no pain and no limitations for the Final Four.
“I felt great in practice yesterday, I feel great today and I'll be even better tomorrow,” Broome said Friday.
The only game Clayton has played every minute this season was against Auburn, four days after he missed a game while dealing with a sore ankle.
With fellow starting guard Martin out injured against the Tigers, Clayton had 19 points, six rebounds and nine assists.
Clayton was big when the Gators had to rally twice in March Madness. He scored 13 of his 23 points in the final eight minutes in a 77-75 win in the second round that ended UConn’s pursuit of a third national title in a row, then last Sunday hit two late 3s as Florida came from nine points down with less than three minutes left to beat Texas Tech.
Since Kentucky last cut down the nets in 2012, the SEC has won seven more national championships in football and four in women's basketball.
The fall after Kentucky's eighth's basketball title, Alabama won the league's seventh national football title in a row. The league added six more since 2015.
The last time two SEC teams made the Final Four together was Kentucky and Florida in 2014.
When Bruce Pearl became Auburn's head coach in 2014, his first staff included Golden as an assistant.
“Even though I only had Todd for two years, he helped lay the foundation,” said Pearl, who took Auburn to it first Final Four in 2019.
Golden was then 29, newly married and became a father while still at Auburn.
“I was one of the first to hold his son. There's a close connection,” Pearl said. “All the while he becomes best friends with his fellow assistant, Steven Pearl (the head coach's son). The relationship has lasted.”
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