SAN ANTONIO — When Alijah Martin went to the Final Four two years ago, he played maybe the best game of his career in the national semifinals, scoring 26 points on 7-of-13 shooting and grabbing seven rebounds. But ninth-seeded Florida Atlantic, one of a handful of Cinderellas that stole hearts that spring, lost to San Diego State 72-71 on a buzzer beater that night, sending Martin and the Owls back to Boca Raton.
Fast forward a year, and Martin was off to Florida, one of seven transfers brought in by third-year coach Todd Golden in hopes of building a championship contender, and doing so quickly. That Martin had Final Four experience was ideal. But if his Gators teammates were curious about it, Martin didn’t share much — and that was on purpose.
“I don’t talk about it,” he explained earlier this week, “’cause we didn’t win.”
But he’ll be talking about this one, he hollered as confetti rained down in the Alamodome, “for the rest of my life!”
Martin scored seven points Monday, including two huge free throws with 46.5 seconds left that gave Florida its first lead of the second half, helping the Gators battle back from 12 down and then hang on for a wild 65-63 win over Houston for the national championship.
It is Florida’s third title and its first since the Gators completed their back-to-back in 2007.
And it is a full-circle moment for the fifth-year senior, the last stop on a Final Four redemption tour with a finale Martin had been fighting for — for himself, and for the FAU Owls.
“I feel like this one was for my boys in Boca,” Martin said as he tied a piece of the net around his championship cap. “We had a chance (in 2023) but somebody hit an unbelievable shot, and they stripped that away from us. So I did it today for the boys in Boca.”
Considering his beginning in Boca Raton, Martin never would have predicted this ending.
Matt Bradley and the San Diego State Aztecs defeated Alijah Martin and the Florida Atlantic Owls during the 2023 Final Four in dramatic fashion. (Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
Martin’s freshman year at FAU, the native of Summit, Miss., started only two games. He scored in double digits just four times, and played nine minutes or fewer in 14 games.
It was, in a word, miserable.
“Man, my freshman year was crazy, bro,” he said. “I remember being in my twin XL bed sitting here thinking like, did I choose the wrong sport? Because I could’ve played football. I couldn’t dribble, I couldn’t pass, I couldn’t shoot, I couldn’t defend. I started looking at myself like, yo, I’m fitting to go to Southern Miss, go play football. That’s what I was thinking. Regroup, do something else.”
But he remembers this, too: “I never cried.”
Instead, he got better, partially because he learned the value of doing things other than scoring. He became a reliable defender, a ferocious rebounder and, when necessary, a solid scorer. His fourth year at FAU was his best, as he earned second-team All-American Athletic Conference honors after averaging 13.1 points and 5.9 rebounds.
With a fifth year of eligibility because of COVID-19, he hit the transfer portal last spring. He included a no-contact notice with his entry, as he didn’t want to be “bombarded” by schools he had no interest in. Instead, Martin studied which teams would fit his style. Florida awed him with a “crazy PowerPoint presentation.” He’s a visual learner, he said, and the Gators staff showed him what it would look like to achieve all his dreams — including a return trip to the Final Four.
But the adjustment to UF, and the SEC, was anything but smooth.
“You go from building relationships with guys for three or four years to switching teams, building new relationships with new personalities,” Martin said. “You gotta learn new names, and I’m terrible with names!”
In Martin the Gators got an athletic guard who could score, defend and dunk (thunderously, as he reminded everyone Saturday in the semifinals). They also got a ruthless trash talker, a player who loves to run his mouth all game, all practice, all the time.
ALIJAH MARTIN TAKES FLIGHT!!!! pic.twitter.com/Dml7ojHD38
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) April 5, 2025
“He’ll do it like he wants somebody to hear it,” said teammate Will Richard, rolling his eyes. “I’m more discreet with mine.”
Australia native Alex Condon remembered having a rough practice after returning from an exhibition match. “He was like, ‘I didn’t know Australians were so soft,’” Condon said of Martin. “He kept saying that the whole practice. It really got me fired up.”
Golden laughed when asked about Martin’s chatter, and the read-between-the-lines answer was clear: Not much of what Martin says is suitable for print (or work). But the impact of what he says goes beyond a clever line or snappy vocabulary.
When UConn traveled to Gainesville in December 2022 and thumped the Gators 75-54 just 10 games into Golden’s UF tenure, it was an eye-opener for everyone. Richard, the only significant player left from that roster, remembers the intensity the Huskies brought every single possession “even when they were up 20.” UConn went on to win two consecutive national titles, the first program to do so since Florida had gone back-to-back. If Florida wanted to win again at that level, it needed a similar toughness.
Enter Martin.
“He’s an incredible competitor,” Golden said. “His addition to our program this past offseason has lifted us to another level. Not just for the program, but for individual players in the way they compete. He really gets after it, has a great sense of competition and mentality. It has definitely bled to the rest of the crew.”
That trash talk has been timely, too. One of Martin’s favorite places to yak is at the free-throw line because “I’ll be bored,” he said. “It’s like 20 seconds of just weird, awkward silence.”
He put that skill to use against Texas Tech in the Elite Eight. With Florida on the brink of becoming the first 1-seed to bow out, Big 12 player of the year JT Toppin stepped to the line with 2:08 to play and the Red Raiders leading by a possession. Florida had just reeled off a quick 6-0 run, and Walter Clayton Jr. was heating up.
Toppin shot 68 percent from the line this season, but was feeling pressure after Tech’s Darrion Williams had missed the front end of a one-and-one only 35 seconds earlier. Martin pounced.
“The second one he was saying something like, ‘You can’t miss another one, because we’re coming right here,’” Condon recalled. “And then he (Toppin) missed short.”
Martin’s biggest trash-talking tip, for those looking to improve, is “randomness.” He couldn’t get much more detailed than that, he said, because he needs to be in the moment, feeding off the crowd, the energy and the vibe of the game.
Monday night, the vibe of the game was not great for long stretches. Clayton couldn’t hit, the Gators were uncharacteristically sloppy with the basketball and a combined 25 fouls the second half killed any offensive flow.
But Martin, who’d scored 17 points in the semifinal win over Auburn, swore he didn’t panic. The Gators have had a habit of dramatic comebacks this NCAA Tournament, and he adamantly believes they are “built for the challenge, built for the last moment of the game, built for everything.”
Then Martin had to go — to pose for photos draped around the national championship trophy, to dance in the confetti, to chest bump his teammates while screaming “we’re national champs!”
But first, he had to give another shoutout to his guys, the ones who brought him here the first time and planted a dream in him to get back.
Could FAU nation get an Owls up, FAU’s signature hand gesture, someone asked. Martin didn’t hesitate.
“It’s in my veins, baby.”
(Top photo: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)
