LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The Florida Gators are NCAA men's basketball champions. They beat the Houston Cougars last night, capping a banner year for the NCAA's Southeastern Conference. Reporter Greg Echlin has more from San Antonio.
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UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting) Let's go Gators.
GREG ECHLIN, BYLINE: It was an exciting comeback for a team that now has three championships to its credit. The Florida Gators beat the Houston Cougars 65 to 63 to prove that the NCAA's Southeastern Conference - or SEC - is more than a football league. Florida Gator fans flooded the River Walk area of San Antonio over several hours leading up to the game's tip off at the nearby Alamo Dome. One Gators fan, Lorne Meadows (ph) of Gainesville, Florida, says Florida set out to change a narrative.
LORNE MEADOWS: It's football in the South. I mean, they talk about it just means more, and I think most of the time, they're talking about football. But, you know, what the SEC has done as a conference has really invested in the game of basketball.
ECHLIN: The SEC had 14 of its 16 teams in the NCAA tournament and an all-SEC national semifinal. Florida's title was the first for an SEC team since Kentucky in 2012.
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ECHLIN: Houston from the Big 12 Conference prided itself on defense this season. But it was the Gators' defense that didn't even allow a shot by the Cougars on their last two possessions of the game's final minute. Gators third-year coach Todd Golden was ecstatic.
TODD GOLDEN: That's what made this team special all year is that we could win different ways, and we showed that again tonight.
ECHLIN: Gators guard Walter Clayton Jr. was named the tournament's most outstanding player and tallied all 11 of his points in the second half. He was instrumental in helping the Gators wipe out a 12-point second half deficit.
WALTER CLAYTON JUNIOR: Like I said, our motto, we all can go. So I understand that if it ain't my night, somebody going to pick me up. And we all just picking each other up throughout the year, man. We've been doing that all year.
ECHLIN: It was Florida's first national championship since winning the second of back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007. Todd Golden at the age of 39 is the youngest head coach since North Carolina State's Jim Valvano in 1983 to win a national title. He had to rely on comeback efforts by his team in four of the Gators' six tournament games.
For NPR News, I'm Greg Echlin in San Antonio.
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