This moment deserves a trophy of its own.
Indeed, University of Florida’s Walter Clayton Jr. lent a humble hand to University of Houston’s Emmanuel Sharp after a surprise ending to the NCAA Men’s Championships.
While the Florida Gators celebrated their 65-63 win against the Houston Cougars in the final game at San Antonio’s Alamodome, the team’s guard stepped away from his teammates to console a seemingly devastated guard on the opposing team.
“This is what sports are all about,” the official NCAA March Madness account captioned an April 7 post on X (formerly Twitter), alongside a video of Clayton comforting Sharp as he kneeled with his head in his hands. “Even after becoming a National Champion, Walter Clayton still took time to console Emanuel Sharp.”
The game, which had fans on the edge of their seat until the very last second, earned the Gators their first national championship since 2007—and their third overall. After all, the Gators’ men’s basketball team has earned quite a reputation among supporters for being a “second-half team.”
