WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump honored the 2025 NCAA basketball champion Florida Gators on the White Home on Wednesday, proclaiming that “lesser groups would have crumbled” throughout its nail-biting title sport victory.
“It was trying dangerous,” Trump mentioned, noting that Houston led by as many as 12 factors in a sport Florida rallied to win 65-63 in San Antonio in April. “Did you suppose you had been going to win?”
Florida (36-4) delivered 4 come-from-behind victories in six March Insanity wins. The Gators led the finale for a complete of 64 seconds, together with the final 46 ticks of a contest that was in limbo till the ultimate sequence.
Trump recounted Alijah Martin making two free throws to place the Gators forward to stick with 46.5 seconds left, and requested Martin if he was nervous.
“Lesser groups would have crumbled,” the president mentioned.
Florida secured this system’s third title in basketball, and Trump famous that it’s the solely faculty to have a trio of NCAA titles in that sport and in soccer. When the Gators basketball crew gained back-to-back NCAA titles in 2006 and 2007, the crew visited President George W. Bush on the White Home.
Wednesday’s East Room ceremony featured prime Trump administration leaders from Florida, together with Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Mentioning Rubio, Trump mentioned there’s “no greater Florida fan.”
Additionally available had been Florida Sens. Rick Scott and Ashley Moody, in addition to assorted Home members from the state and former Florida soccer standout Tim Tebow. Trump described Tebow “as a university participant, possibly one of the best ever” and mentioned he was a giant fan regardless of Tebow having spent a part of his skilled profession with the NFL’s New York Jets.
The crew gave Trump an autographed basketball and a No. 47 jersey along with his title on the again. The president additionally hailed the Gators’ 39-year-old coach, Todd Golden, as “nice” and “younger” whereas joking, “Boy, would I prefer to be his agent.”
Final yr, President Joe Biden held a joint ceremony honoring the 2024 NCAA males’s and girls’s basketball winners, honoring South Carolina and Connecticut.
Since taking workplace in January, Trump has hosted a sequence of championship groups, together with the Tremendous Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles. His April ceremony within the Rose Backyard with the NCAA soccer champion Ohio State Buckeyes is greatest remembered for Vice President JD Vance, an Ohio State graduate and Buckeye fan, fumbling the crew’s championship trophy.
