How Florida and Todd Golden beat St. John’s and Rick Pitino for Walter Clayton Jr.: ‘Benefits of being Jewish’

SAN ANTONIO — The West Region of the 2025 NCAA Tournament bracket didn’t produce the matchup between No. 1 seed Florida and No. 2 seed St. John’s that many expected after the Red Storm took a second-round loss to No. 10 seed Arkansas.

But Florida’s place in Monday night’s national championship game against Houston can still be traced to a Todd Golden victory over Rick Pitino.

When Pitino landed the St. John’s job in 2023 after two seasons coaching Walter Clayton Jr. at Iona, the Hall of Fame coach tried recruiting Clayton to follow him to the Big East. Clayton, who is from Lake Wales, Florida, had a decision to make.

Stick with Pitino, who had believed in the basketball potential of Clayton when he was better known as a high school football prospect? Or head home to play in the SEC under Golden?

“Really hard to beat Rick Pitino, man,” Golden said.

The Gators did it, though.

Now, they are on the cusp of a national title as a result. Clayton became the first player to drop 30-plus points in a national semifinal since Carmelo Anthony for Syracuse in 2003 on Saturday night as the Gators erased an 8-point halftime deficit to topple Auburn 79-73.

Clayton is averaging 23.1 points on 49.2% 3-point shooting over eight postseason games, lifting the Gators into the title game and boosting his 2025 NBA Draft stock. Without Clayton, Florida is not here. And without a frenzied recruiting push from Golden two years ago, neither is Clayton. 

After Clayton entered the transfer portal following his sophomore season at Iona, there were plenty of suitors. Florida emerged as a top contender, in part because it was an easy drive from his home.

“We brought him down for a visit,” Golden recalled. “Obviously, he grew up about an hour and a half, two hours south of our campus. A lot of his family came up for the visit. I thought we had a great visit. Thought it went really, really well. Thought we were in a good shape.”

But then Clayton went back to New York and had a visit with Pitino and the Red Storm as he mulled the possibility of reuniting with Pitino and former Iona teammate Daniss Jenkins at St. John’s.

“I remember Easter Sunday – he was finishing up his visit (at St. John’s) – getting a call from his mom,” Golden said. “She was a little concerned that it maybe had started swinging the other direction for him, following Pitino.”

It was a holiday weekend, but Golden couldn’t risk it. He got on a plane with assistant coach Korey McCray and flew up to see Clayton.

“I guess one of the benefits of being Jewish is that we don’t celebrate Easter,” Golden quipped.

The trip paid off.

“I think that kind of showed how bad they wanted me,” Clayton said.

“Before we left that night, he let us know he was going to come home,” Golden said. “I think that extra effort, going up there and sitting with him, reconfirming our vision for him, what our program would be like was really important. Obviously I’m really glad we got on that plane. It was really well worth it.”

Well worth it, indeed. Clayton is producing at a historic clip for Florida, drawing comparisons to Stephen Curry and rising on NBA Draft boards. He’s making good on the promise Pitino originally saw in him.

That promise began manifesting itself during Clayton’s sophomore season at Iona, when he earned MAAC Player of the Year and led the Gaels to a No. 13 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

“I wanted a winner at Iona, and he was a winner,” Pitino said Friday while in San Antonio to accept the AP co-Coach of the Year award. “Even though he was a football player, I liked the way he passed the ball. I liked what he was doing. When he first came in, he struggled a little bit like all freshmen do. Then, he became the MVP of the league his sophomore year. He was a killer basketball player, as he is now for Florida.”

If not for a first-round matchup with eventual national champion UConn, Pitino said he believes that Iona team anchored by Clayton and Jenkins could have reached the Sweet 16. 

“I had one of the best back courts,” Pitino said.

It’s tough to dispute that assertion. Jenkins became an all-Big East performer for Pitino’s first team at St. John’s in 2023-24, and Clayton is now one of college basketball’s top stars. It’s also tough not to play the “what if” game. How might the 2025 NCAA Tournament might have played out differently for St. John’s with Clayton on the roster? His best skill, outside shooting, was the Red Storm’s biggest weakness.

But Clayton chose a new path that took him home and ultimately to the doorstep of college basketball immortality. 

The Florida staff made sure of it with their Easter plane trip.

“It was very smart of them,” Clayton said. “Me and my high school coach talked about it afterward, how they got to see me basically just after I left St. John’s…I was able to spend like three hours reflecting on Florida visit, St. John’s visit, thinking about some things, some family stuff also. 

“They came up and I ended up committing that night.”