{"id":1153973,"date":"2025-04-08T10:05:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T16:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/?p=1153973"},"modified":"2025-04-08T10:05:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T16:05:06","slug":"gators-win-title-to-capture-first-sec-hoops-championship-since-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/gators-win-title-to-capture-first-sec-hoops-championship-since-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Gators Win Title to Capture First SEC Hoops Championship Since 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It was a historic season for the Southeastern Conference on the basketball court, and thanks to the Florida Gators it has been capped off the right way.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday night, Florida won an instant classic national championship game 65-63 over the Houston Cougars to deliver the SEC its first men\u2019s basketball title since the Kentucky Wildcats last cut down the nets in 2012.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Entering Walter Clayton Jr. time&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ttogcZ7jTZ\">pic.twitter.com\/ttogcZ7jTZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CBS Sports (@CBSSports) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CBSSports\/status\/1909440208380084423?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 8, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">&#8220;FLORIDA IS BACK ON TOP OF THE COLLEGE BASKETBALL WORLD!&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/IeLecOAcSb\">pic.twitter.com\/IeLecOAcSb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CBS Sports (@CBSSports) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CBSSports\/status\/1909444159976448413?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 8, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also the third in the history of the Gators program after they won back-to-back championships in 2006 and 2007. It took a comeback effort for Florida as it did against the Auburn Tigers, trailing by 12 points in the second half after coming back from down eight against the Tigers at half.<\/p>\n<p>As for the SEC, it seemed inevitable for a team from the conference to cut down the nets.<\/p>\n<p>The conference\u00a0blew the previous record out of the water\u00a0with 14 of their 16 teams making the NCAA Tournament field, though they also proved it when they got there.<\/p>\n<p>Sending seven teams to the Sweet Sixteen\u00a0was also a new tournament record along with tying the record for the next round as well by sending four teams to the Elite Eight.<\/p>\n<p>Though the way things shook out prevented a chance at an all-SEC national championship matchup, the Final Four showdown between the eventual champs and Auburn was one of the best showcases of talent in the entire tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Having been at the center of the college football landscape already, it appears the best conference in collegiate athletics has taken over on the basketball court as well.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t count on it going anywhere anytime soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>It was a historic season for the Southeastern Conference on the basketball court, and thanks to the Florida Gators it has been capped off the <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/gators-win-title-to-capture-first-sec-hoops-championship-since-2012\/\" title=\"Gators Win Title to Capture First SEC Hoops Championship Since 2012\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4874,"featured_media":479013,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,33],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1153973","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured-news","8":"category-sec"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/NAILEDIT-SECCC-copy-e1744128189369.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1153973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1153974,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153973\/revisions\/1153974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1153973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1153973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1153973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}