Charles Barkley watching the Auburn-Florida Final Four matchup Photo Credit: CBS
ArticlesCBSCollege BasketballBy Reice Shipley on

Charles Barkley came into Saturday’s Final Four matchup between the Auburn Tigers and the Florida Gators with the hope that he might get to see his alma mater reach the National Championship for the first time ever. Instead, he was sent on a rollercoaster of emotions while covering the game which ultimately ended in disappointment.

Starring on the CBS studio coverage of the game from the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, Barkley was confident in his Auburn Tigers after the team entered the locker room with a 46-38 lead at the half.

During the Halftime Show on CBS, Barkley was quite complimentary of Auburn’s efforts in the first half, calling it the “perfect first half” in his eyes despite playing at Florida’s typical high pace.

“I hated the first five minutes of the game; man, we don’t want to play at that pace,” said Barkley. “I said coming in that, if the score was 70-75, Auburn’s going to win this game. If it goes above that, I think we’re going to struggle. But that was a perfect first half of basketball.”

As Florida has done so many time throughout the 2025 NCAA Tournament, they battled back from their deficit in the second half and chipped away at the lead.

Ultimately, Walter Clayton Jr. was ultimately too much for Auburn to handle, scoring 34 points en route to a 79-73 comeback victory, breaking Barkley’s heart in the process.

In a video shown on the broadcast during the CBS postgame coverage, Barkley was seen with a wide range of emotions on his face throughout the game, at first quite happy and excited about the Tigers’ performance, and later burying his head in his hands in disgust as Florida pulled away down the stretch.

Barkley then provided commentary on the game as a whole, detailing how he believes that the “better team won, despite his bias in favor of Auburn.

“You know, the best team won,” said Barkley. “Our guys played valiantly. It was a heck of a game. I’m so proud of our team, Coach Pearl and those kids. Yeah, I am disappointed. But Florida is the better team. You said it, and Clark said it, Mr. Clayton is the real deal. Mark Jackson would have said ‘Mama, there go that man.’ Because he is the real deal. He kept them in it when they were struggling. And then the rest of the guys joined the party. But congratulations to the Florida Gators. And also, I just want to thank my guys from Auburn for making it up to the Final Four.”

Additionally, Barkley had high praise for Florida head coach Todd Golden, calling his strategy in the game “fantastic” in how he “lulled Auburn to sleep”.

“I want to say this. I want to give Coach Golden some love too,” added Barkley. “His strategy was fantastic. Clark (Kellogg) and Jay (Wright) talked about it. What he did was, Auburn got lulled to sleep. You could tell Coach Pearl said he didn’t want to get into a run-and-gun situation. So while we were walking the ball up and down the court and going to (Johni) Broome, they just wore him down with those three big guys. But I thought the biggest problem with Auburn was our guards could have sprinted out there into some fast breaks. I thought we should have changed out strategy in the second half.”

Ultimately, it may not have been the end result Barkley is looking for. But at least he got to watch his alma mater lay it all on the line in what was an excellent effort from start to finish from both teams.

About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.

View all posts by Reice Shipley