SAN ANTONIO – Here came the inevitable question about Walter Clayton Jr., and the array of spin moves and contested jumpers and lightning-quick drives past the defense that was designed to stop him.
Bruce Pearl, the Auburn coach whose team had spent two-plus hours flailing and failing to slow down the single most dominant player in this NCAA Tournament, closed his eyes, tilted his head back ever so slightly and let out a deep breath.
“I guess you could say all things were kind of equal,” Pearl said. “And he was the difference. Just flat out the difference.”
Despite the conference standings that showed Auburn as the SEC’s regular-season champion, Florida was the best team in the conference this year. It went 2-0 against the Tigers, blew through the SEC tournament and is the only team with a chance to give the league its first national title since Kentucky in 2012.
It also proved what we’ve long known: That Clayton was the SEC’s best guard, and maybe its best player, even though he didn’t take home the hardware.
But even with all the recognition Clayton has earned down the stretch of the season and during this NCAA men’s basketball tournament, you don’t ever expect to leave the arena talking about something that hasn’t happened since Larry Bird.
Yet Clayton, the zero-star recruit who climbed all the way from Iona to the biggest stage in the sport, put himself in that category Saturday with a truly special performance: 34 points, 5-of-8 threes and 7-of-7 free throws in a game that showcased his entire offensive arsenal and a knack for hitting a huge shot in the clutch.
And combined with his 30-point performance in the Elite Eight against Texas Tech, Clayton became the first player to hit that mark in those two rounds of the tournament since Bird did it during Indiana State’s run to the 1979 finals.
“I feel like everybody sees it,” guard Will Richard said. “He’s poised, calm and collected and confident in himself, and we have that confidence in him. We see him practice, we see his work ethic and we’re glad everybody else is getting to see him doing it.”
It is hard, and maybe impossible, to rank the best individual performances we’ve seen in a Final Four without succumbing to recency bias. But one of Clayton’s earliest memories of the NCAA Tournament came in 2011 when he was just 8 years old, watching Kemba Walker take UConn on a legendary run to the title, and he’s doing his best to recreate some of those vibes.
“Kemba on one of the biggest stages was just calm, you know, cool and collected,” Clayton said. “So just watching that, I admired it. He was able to just show out and play his game.”
Though Walker may have been an inspiration, it almost looks at times like Clayton is doing a Steph Curry imitation. Since the start of the postseason, including the SEC tournament, Clayton is averaging 23.1 points while making 49 percent of all his shots and his three-pointers. It’s simply ridiculous efficiency when you consider the high degree of difficulty on so many of his looks, the majority of which he’s creating for himself.
Clayton’s willingness to shoot and talent to make shots from tough positions, with hands in his face and incredible pressure on the scoreboard, got Florida through games against UConn and Texas Tech in which they trailed with only a few minutes left on the clock.
But against Auburn, Clayton slammed the door shut late with a series of drives, blowing by big man Dylan Cardwell, who got caught up on a switch for a layup with 2:15 remaining. Then he got to the rim again with 1:33 left for a basket plus a foul, which pretty much felt like the basket that ended Auburn’s chances.
Clayton credited his teammate, big man Thomas Haugh, for making a three early in the game that forced Auburn to respect him just enough to open some space to drive.
“The guys around me making plays allows my game to open up, and I appreciate it,” Clayton said.
Maybe not as much as Florida fans appreciate the ride he’s taken this program on in the last part of the season. If he can carry the Gators to their third championship, it will go down as the greatest individual performance in program history and one of the all-time NCAA Tournament runs.