GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Walter Clayton Jr. and Will Richard were escorted to the post-game interview area at State Farm Arena. The Florida duo had just guided the Gators to a 17-point defeat of Arizona State in their Dec. 17 neutral-site meeting at Atlanta. Clayton topped all scorers with 25 points, banging five 3s, while Richard was next at 16 points and six rebounds. 
 
Before ducking into the media room, the two were handed box scores for prep. Clayton scanned the stat sheet and noticed something. 
 
“Go get Alijah,” Clayton told their UF communications director. “He had a double-double.”

Richard seconded the motion.

 

Indeed, Alijah Martin had tallied 15 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and also had six assists. Clayton and Richard, the two seniors, waited until they were joined by their fifth-year grad-transfer teammate. Clayton even made the double-double guy take the center seat at the interview table.

As the countless moments that have unfolded in this remarkable 2024-24 Florida basketball season go, this one was hardly a blip on a list that includes beating No. 1 teams at home and on the road; or Richard’s circus, game-winning bank shot at South Carolina; or Thomas Haugh’s near-triple double off the bench at 22nd-ranked Mississippi State; or Wednesday night’s thoroughly impressive upset victory at seventh-ranked Alabama. But it was telling in so many ways. 

Don’t think UF coach Todd Golden and his coaching staff won’t be thinking Saturday night about those special anecdotal moments, the kind that dot the team-building process over the course of a season, when their three program-making veterans — Clayton, Richard and Martin — are honored in what figures to be an emotional pregame “Senior Night” tribute before fifth-ranked Florida (26-4, 13-4) squares off against Ole Miss (21-9, 10-7) in their Southeastern Conference and regular-season finale at Exactech Arena/O’Connell Center. 

 

[Read senior writer Chris Harry‘s “Pregame Stuff” setup here]

 

The Gators and their pleasing, picturesque, sharing brand of basketball is rooted in unselfishness. It begins with the examples set by Clayton, Martin and Richard, the team’s first-, second- and third-leading scorers, respectively, who double as its standard-setters on and off the floor. 

 

“It started last summer,” Golden said. “They all came [in] on the right terms. They all came back wanting to raise the profile of our program. When your leaders prepare that way it raises the bar for everybody else to do it. They deserve all the credit for the unselfishness of our team. Our staff did a good job of evaluating guys and bringing in the right pieces. At the end of the day, our message is important, but our guys going out and executing it is everything. They’ve done the work that way.” 

Their paths to get here were both different and similar, but their legacies will be forever linked.
 
“I don’t think about legacy a lot,” Clayton said. “But it’s nice to leave an impact wherever you go.”
 
Consider that box checked. For each. 

“All three have been fantastic,” Golden said. 

First came Richard, the Atlanta-area product who became the first player to commit to Golden and his staff following their arrival in March of 2022. He transferred to UF after an All-Freshman Ohio Valley Conference season at Belmont. The 6-foot-4 wing was the No. 2 scorer on the ’22-23 team that ended with a losing record, but was a reliable spot-up shooter who grew into a steadying influence in the locker room. 

 

Clayton came next. He was a superstar at Bartow (Fla.) High, where he won back-to-back state championships, but went un-recruited by high-major hoops teams, mostly because basketball coaches thought he was going to play football. Clayton was a four-star safety prospect who eventually had to walk away from the game after his sophomore year to prove his commitment to basketball was legit. Still, no high-major takers. Clayton ended up at Iona for two seasons with Rick Pitino. As a sophomore, he was the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Player of the Year on a league-championship and NCAA Tournament team, with Golden winning a transfer recruiting battle against Pitino, who bolted for St. John’s, and luring Clayton back to his home state. He was second-team All-SEC last season and alongside Richard helped guide the Gators to 24 wins and their first NCAA Tournament berth in three years. 

Martin, from Summit, Miss., entered the mix last spring. Another star high school football player, he also went virtually un-recruited in his home state (and surrounding ones) for basketball and wound up at Florida Atlantic. All he did there was win 60 games over his final two seasons and become a driving force in the Owls’ stunning run to the 2023 Final Four. Martin brought a different element to the UF program – a physical, defensive mindset, along with a daily voice and tournament-winning experience – that has defined the team’s leap from the nation’s 94th best defense last season (its Achilles heel) to a top-10 unit this season (one of its strengths). 
 
In summation: Three players who were lightly regarded out of high school, but to date have combined to amass 5,326 collegiate points, including 2,680 at Florida, with 1,303 of them this season. And now they’re flirting with a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
 
“We were all underdogs. … We weren’t supposed to be here,” Martin said. “It just shows you that if you put your head down, you work and put God first, you could be anywhere you want to be.”
 
Their agendas aligned from the beginning; all the way back to when Martin came on his recruiting trip and was hosted by Clayton and Richard after the two dipped their toes in the NBA evaluation process, but opted to come back and tend to some unfinished UF business. 
 
“We each had the same goal in mind,” Richard said. “All we cared about was winning. That was it.”

CHARTING THE GATORS: The seniors numbers (before and after) 

Senior	Career games / Starts	Career points	Scoring avg.
Walter Clayton Jr.	129/100 (65/65 in two seasons at UF)	1,898 (1,127 at UF)	14.7 pg (17.3 at UF)
Alijah Martin	152/112 (28/26 in one season at UF)	1,883 (407 at UF)	12.4 pg (14.5 at UF)
Will Richard	131/125 (98/95 in three seasons at UF)	1,545 (1,146 at UF)	11.8 pg (11.7 at UF)
Totals	412/337 (191/186 in six seasons at UF)	5,326 (2,680 at UF)	12.9 pg (14.0 at UF)

 

Now, on the eve of their final home game, the ’24-25 Gators have more regular-season wins than all but one team in UF’s 119-year history. That would be the 2013-14 squad that featured an incomparable four-member senior class – Scottie Wilbekin, Patric Young, Casey Prather and Will Yeguete – that came in together, won three SEC titles and a program-record 120 games, including 30 straight their final year when they exited their careers at the Final Four.

 

The transfer portal changed college basketball’s landscape, but teams and teamwork – regardless of how players are stocked – still have to be created and culled, with the end-goal of a championship being the same. That’s what Richard, Clayton and Martin seek. Together.  

 

But there has been another common denominator this season. 

 

“The love. We all just love being here and being around each other,” Clayton said. “A lot of teams say that, but you’ve got to show it and I think this team shows it every night. When we’ve won and somebody maybe didn’t have a great game, it’s all smiles, with everybody enjoying being around each other and celebrating the team. We enjoy one another’s success and love that for each other. It’s just been like that all year.”

That love has manifested itself (with trickle-down effects) through the acts of the team’s oldest and most marquee players. Like in October, when Golden was struggling to pick which player (Richard or Martin?) would represent the Gators alongside Clayton at SEC Media Days in Birmingham, Ala. They flipped a coin for it. Martin won and got a well-wishing hug from Richard. Like when Martin and forward Alex Condon each returned from injuries that sidelined them multiple games, but willingly remained on the bench while the players who performed so well in their stead took a couple more turns in the starting lineup. Like when 7-1 center Micah Handlogten opted to forgo a medical redshirt three-quarters of the way through the season to fortify an injured front court (at the personal expense of losing a full season of eligibility) for the good of the team.
 
Random, behind-the-scene acts that have added up over the course of a seven-month campaign. 
 
“It flew by so fast,” Martin said. 
 
That Arizona State game in Atlanta was nearly three months ago. During one sequence that day, Martin, on the way to his double-double, had a steal that he turned into a crowd-pleasing slam-dunk that was one of the highlights of the game. The next day, Martin texted Golden and asked him to make sure to include and emphasize in the team’s ensuing film-review session how junior guard Denzel Aberdeen made the play possible, by running between Martin and the chasing ASU defender to give his teammate a clear path to the basket.
 
“It’s been our biggest strength,” Golden said. “We’ve been able to assemble a group of guys who are unselfish, but also secure. It’s all very unique and I do not take it for granted. It’s all about the people and those guys. I’m not naïve enough to think that everybody that comes in here will be that way. But we’ve leaned into it with this group.”
 
And leaned on the seniors. Their ultimate legacy is to be determined, but their place in Florida basketball history is assured.

Celebrate them.

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Check out these archived long-form stories on how UF’s three seniors got here:

Clayton: “From Gael Force to Gator” (July 18, 2023)

Richard: “The Skinny on Will Richard”  (March 8, 2024)

Martin: ” ‘He got that dog on him’ “ (Sept. 23, 2024) 

Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu