Florida's Todd Golden drops truth bomb on Walter Clayton Jr.-Stephen Curry comparisons

03/30/2025 10:12 AM

For the first time since 2014, when two-time national championship-winning head coach Billy Donovan was still on the bench, the Florida Gators are heading back to the Final Four. Even though the Gators cruised through much of the regular season, winning the SEC Tournament in dominant fashion, escaping the Elite Eight with an 84-79 win over the Texas Tech Red Raiders proved to be much more difficult.

Trailing by nine points with under three minutes to go in the game, Florida not only needed a pair of missed free throws from Texas Tech’s Darrion Williams and JT Toppin to stay in the game, they also needed the heroics of All-American guard Walter Clayton Jr., who has made a habit of throwing on his Superman cape whenever the Gators have needed him most this year. In this instance, the Gators needed Clayton to score 13 of his game-high 30 points over the final five and a half minutes of the game, including a pair of clutch threes that tied the game and then gave the Gators the lead with under a minute left.

Given that this West Regional Final game was played at the Chase Center in San Francisco, home of Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors, it makes perfect sense that the Gators’ 6-foot-3 combo guard would garner comparisons to Curry, who has treated fans in the Bay Area to late-game heroics that resembled Clayton’s countless times over the last decade and a half.

“[Comparing him to Curry] is kind of a lot to put on a young man,” Florida head coach Golden said after the game. “But I’d say the one thing where Walt 100 percent is similar to Steph is their shot-making and their ability to get it off whenever they want. Just like the Warriors want Steph to be able to find a way to get open and get those shots in those moments, we want Walt taking the shots for us down the stretch. There’s a reason why he was an AP first-team All-American. He is, in my humble opinion, the best guard in America.”

Given what we’ve seen from Clayton in the NCAA Tournament, it seems like there should be minimal debate that the All-American is the best guard in the country. Dating back to the beginning of the SEC Tournament, Clayton is averaging 21.6 points per game on outrageously efficient 47-47-89 shooting splits over his last seven games. Those impressive numbers only tell part of the story, as his clutch heroics have been instrumental in this Final Four run.

Will this continue in San Antonio? Stay tuned!

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