If you are a sports fan, you can’t ask for much more from an excitement and entertainment factor than a championship game that gets decided in the final seconds. That’s exactly what we saw in Monday night’s National Championship Game between the Florida Gators and Houston Cougars. But it still wasn’t enough to satisfy FS1’s Danny Parkins.
On the morning after the title game, won in thrilling fashion by Florida 65-63 after denying Houston on their final possession and playing incredible defense down the stretch, Parkins was left unimpressed on FS1’s Breakfast Ball.
The former radio host turned FS1 personality isn’t known as a hot take guy, so when he says that the game was a “terrible watch” and slammed the quality of the game, he definitely means it.
“I thought that was a terrible game. And I thought it was a terrible watch and I kind of resented I stayed up for the entirety.”@DannyParkins wasn’t a fan of how the NCAA national championship game played out pic.twitter.com/sw1UZFHox9
— Breakfast Ball (@BrkfstBallOnFS1) April 8, 2025
“I really don’t think that a 2 point game to decide a national championship could have been a worse viewing experience than last night,” Parkins said. “I thought that was a terrible game and I thought it was a terrible watch. And I kind of resented that I stayed up for the entirety.”
“Seriously. The first half of the game, and especially the very beginning it felt like we might be in for a classic. The refs had swallowed the whistle, Houston the best defense, Florida one of the best offenses, contrasting styles, a couple of one seeds. Let’s settle it on the court. And the game started out awesome. There were four fouls in the first half. They were playing basketball,” Parkins added, before coming in for the hammer blow.
“Look at how this game ended! By the time this game was done we had two teams who couldn’t crack 40% from the floor, combined to shoot 37%, making less than 1 out of 4 threes, 22 turnovers, 26 second half fouls, so there was no flow to the game, Houston’s guys were in foul trouble, Houston had more fouls called on them but Florida had a technical called on their bench for complaining about it. I didn’t tune in to a national championship game to watch a ref show.”
And the numbers back up Danny Parkins’ take, as unpopular as it may be. The second half was marred by fouls with both teams in the double bonus for the last several minutes. In fact, the last field goal came on a tip in by Houston’s L.J. Cryer with 2:29 left in the contest. Florida won a championship by making one field goal in the last five minutes and seeing 7 of their last 10 points come at the free throw line. Then there was Houston’s complete collapse down the stretch, where they somehow managed to turn the ball over on their last four possessions. That included Emanuel Sharp’s unfortunate non-travel, which was definitely not going to be immortalized on One Shining Moment.
With all that being said, you’d much rather see a close game with the tension and drama of a championship on the line than seeing the result decided well before the final buzzer sounds. Even if you have to watch with one eye open.
