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SAN ANTONIO — On Monday night, 10 Florida Gators and Houston Cougars stepped onto the hardwood in the Alamodome to battle for a national title. Not one of them was a freshman.
The Gators outlasted the Cougars during a low-scoring, yet exhilarating 40 minutes. The Florida Gators started slow, as they often do—and so did star Walter Clayton Jr., who didn’t score until the second half. But in the final minutes of the game, the teams traded leads several times, and spent most of the final minutes of regulation within one or two points of each other. Will Richard led the team in scoring with 18 points, and Alex Condon followed with 12. Clayton Jr. got going late in the second half, contributing 11.
The game itself was the function of a new era in college sports. “Unrestricted free agency” has made it easier than ever for teams to build older rosters, a winning strategy that brought both the Cougars and Gators to the end of the Big Dance.
In 2021, the NCAA changed its rules, allowing players to transfer one time without penalty. Experience has always been a plus in previous Final Fours, though even champions during the first few years of the portal era had freshmen starters, like UConn’s Stephon Castle in 2024.
But at the end of 2023, after a federal court decision, the NCAA amended its rules to let players transfer as many times as they want. That new rule, combined with a lack of restrictions on NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals, has ushered in a period of “unrestricted free agency” that allows teams to stack experienced players from their sophomore seasons all the way up to grad school.
The Gators have a similar age makeup, but have relied more heavily on transfers for their starting lineup. Senior Clayton Jr., grad student Alijah Martin, senior Richard, and sophomore Reuben Chinyelu are all transfers, having arrived at various points during the Todd Golden era, which began in 2022. Condon, also a sophomore, was recruited to the Gators out of high school.
Houston had fewer transfers, but all five starters had plenty of experience. The youngest: sophomore Joseph Tugler. The program boasts two graduate starters in L.J. Cryer and J’Wan Roberts. Roberts is home-grown—he was on the 2021 Houston team that lost to Baylor in the Final Four. Cryer, however, was a transfer—from the Baylor team that won the national championship that year. Transfer Milos Uzan is a junior, as is Emanuel Sharp.
The trend isn’t limited to the two title game contenders. During this year’s tournament, everyone from Arkansas coach John Calipari to St. John’s coach Rick Pitino has talked about the lack of spots that freshmen currently have at top programs. “It’s very difficult to win with freshmen,” Pitino said earlier this week, referencing the freshman-heavy Duke team that lost to the Cougars just one day after Pitino made those comments.
The biggest question going forward: Does the new era of college sports mean that the days of the young teams cutting down nets, like Mike Krzyzewski’s 2015 Blue Devils squad, have come to an end?
