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The right to be called kings of the college basketball world belongs to the Florida Gators again after a very long time. Before Monday, the last time Florida basketball won the title was during the mid-2000s when Joakim Noah and the Billy Donovan-coached Gators won back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007.
Noah, however, was not able to be in person at the Alamodome to watch Walter Clayton Jr. and company play against Kelvin Sampson's Houston Cougars in the finale of the 2025 NCAA Tournament. So where was Noah? Apparently, he was not even on the same continent as the Gators; he was in Morocco particularly in Casablanca, as shown in a video shared on X (formerly Twitter) by Marc J. Spears of ESPN.
Former Florida star @JoakimNoah salutes his alma mater on their NCAA title that he watched in the early morning from Casablanca. @GatorsMBK @andscape pic.twitter.com/6yfVZISgfV
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) April 8, 2025
In the video, the 40-year-old Noah revealed that he was “wearing a Gators jersey” for the remainder of his trip in the North African nation, but it wasn't one of his during his time with Florida basketball.
Instead, Noah showed a No. 4 jersey of his former Gators teammate Adrian Moss, who was among Noah's teammates in Florida's national title run in the 2005-06 campaign. Moss left after that season but Noah and the Gators were the last team standing again in the 2007 edition of the Big Dance.
Noah played three seasons with the Gators and won two national titles before being selected by the Chicago Bulls ninth overall in the first round of the 2009 NBA draft.
Florida basketball's 65-63 victory over the Cougars will be talked about for years to come. The Gators were down by as many as a dozen points in the second half but willed their way into overcoming that deficit on their way to bagging the national crown. They also beat the like of the UConn Huskies, Maryland Terrapins and Auburn Tigers on their way to the national championship game at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
Will Richard paced the Gators in the Houston game with 18 points with eight rebounds, two assists and two steals while Walter Clayton Jr. was given the Final Four Most Outstanding Player award after averaging 22.3 points while shooting 43.5 percent from behind the arc in six games in the tournament.
