With the calendar about to flip over to April, we’re down to three weeks left in the regular season. And that means we don’t have many of these columns left. The finish line is in sight.

It’s safe to assume the last few weeks will be dedicated to breaking down the various playoff races, unless every bubble team in the East just voluntarily folds their franchise to avoid landing a spot it’s clear nobody wants. But in this semi-calm before the storm, a few of you have pointed out we’ve yet to visit an annual tradition around here: recognizing the teams that made it through the entire season without ever landing in either the top or bottom five.

This is the true middle of the pack, although as you’ll see, they come in some very different flavors. And this year, the numbers reinforce that in a pleasingly symmetrical way: 11 different teams showed up in the top five, and 11 more had at least one appearance in the bottom five. That leaves us with an even 10 teams that didn’t appear on either list all season long. Let’s divide them into categories.

Bonus Five: The teams that haven’t made the top or bottom five all year

5. The good teams that could still theoretically find the top five: It’s tough to crack either list for the first time this late in the season, but two teams have been good enough to be in top five consideration at a few points during the year and could theoretically still make it.

That would be the Lightning and the Maple Leafs, two teams battling with the Panthers for first in the Atlantic. The Panthers have been in the top five for much of the season despite having a similar record, which I think is fair given all their recent playoff success. But first place and a matchup with a wild-card is looming large, so if either the Leafs or Lightning got red-hot and ran away with the division down the stretch, they’d have a top-five case. For now, though, they’ve been just short.

4. The teams that weren’t close to the top five but are still happy with their season: I’ll put four teams in this category. The first is the Kings, a classic case of a team that’s been consistently good with occasional gusts up to great, but never all that close to top-five status. I’ll also include the Senators and Blues, two teams that have had their ups and downs but look like playoff teams down the stretch. And then there’s the Flames, a nice story that seems to be fading down the stretch. I’m not sure that finishing 10th in the West would feel like a major success, but this is a team a lot of us wrote off before the season even started, and they spent most of the year proving us wrong.

3. The true mushy middle teams: This would be the Islanders and Utah, two teams that spent the year plugging away, hanging right around the playoff mix without ever looking especially threatening. I’m not sure there was a single week all year in which either team even occurred to me as a legitimate contender for either list. They’re fine.

That leaves us with two teams, each of whom deserves its own category.

2. The disaster: That would be the Bruins. They started slow, fired the coach, never got more than a couple of games over fake .500, faded in the second half, sold at the deadline and are now cratering their way to a miserable finish. They’re actually closer to the bottom of the standings than I’d realized, so there’s a small but non-zero chance they could actually find the bottom five by the end of things. What a mess.

1. The mystery: That leaves us with the one team I still can’t figure out. Yes, it’s the Canucks, a team whose season has fallen well short of expectations but is still in the playoff hunt, if only barely, despite a firehose of drama, trading away one of their best players, key injuries and a coach who looks like he wants to strangle someone at all times. Every game these guys play is a roller coaster. I know they’re not among the five best or worst teams in the league, but that’s just about all I’ve been able to nail down.

On that note … Wow, this game:

The 2024-25 Vancouver Canucks: A lot of things, but definitely not boring.

A bonus note: We managed to avoid the dreaded “team that showed up on both lists” this year. Well done, everyone, we cleared the lowest possible bar there is. On to this week’s rankings …

Road to the Cup

The five teams with the best chances of winning the Stanley Cup.

Nope, still doesn’t look right in that uniform.

No Panthers in the top five this time, as I stay clear of the Atlantic for the second straight week. We’ll figure this out eventually, but when you’ve got time, use it.

5. Carolina Hurricanes (45-24-4, +44 true goals differential*) — They look good, the Devils do not, and Thursday’s meeting with the Capitals feels a lot like a second-round preview.

Also: We have a trade to announce?

4. Vegas Golden Knights (45-20-8, +57) — Six straight wins, all in regulation and by a combined score of 28-11, suggests a team hitting its stride at exactly the right time. Home games against the Oilers tomorrow and Jets on Thursday will be great tests.

3. Washington Capitals (47-17-9, +72) — Three straight losses, including one to the first-in-conference Jets and another to the last-in-conference Sabres, isn’t enough to have us panicking. These are the long-term rankings, and Caps fans had to wait for us to get on board, so we’re not going to bail now after a bad week. But let’s get it back on track tomorrow in Boston, OK?

2. Dallas Stars (48-21-4, +63) — I’m nervous about the first-round matchup, I’m nervous about the Miro Heiskanen injury and I’m nervous about having two teams in the same division in the top spots. But they just keep winning, so …

1. Winnipeg Jets (51-19-4, +83) — This absolutely has to happen, and when it does it’s Murat’s fault:

Connor Hellebuyck’s shutout song is Gangnam Style. @WPGMurat asked Hellebuyck after the game about that choice…

“I do know the dance, so maybe one day I’ll do the dance out there.” 😅

🎥: #NHLJets pic.twitter.com/90bR9LldT0

— Connor Hrabchak (@ConnorHrabchak1) March 29, 2025

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*Goals differential without counting shootout decisions like the NHL does for some reason.

Not ranked: Minnesota Wild — Wait, is this now the playoff spot that’s up for grabs in the West?

It sure looks like it. The Wild begin the week in the seventh spot, tied with the Blues at 87 points but with an edge in points percentage thanks to a game in hand. But the switch almost feels like a formality, with the Blues remaining red-hot while the Wild spin their wheels. Saturday’s loss to the Devils was their third in their last four, essentially undoing the gains from a three-game mini-streak the week before. Meanwhile, the Blues have won nine straight, wiping out Minnesota’s eight-point lead in just two weeks.

Getting passed for seventh place isn’t ideal, but it’s far from an emergency. It probably means playing the Jets instead of the Golden Knights in Round 1, and that’s not necessarily a huge jump in degree of difficulty. The bigger question is whether dropping to eighth could be the precursor to dropping even further. And that’s where things get scary for the Wild.

Scary, mind you, but not terrifying. They were still sitting at 90 percent odds in yesterday’s projections, and that will go up with the Canucks losing. They’re six points up on Vancouver with the same number of games played, and seven up on the Flames, who have two in hand. They’ll likely hold the regulation wins tiebreaker over the Blues, and would definitely hold it over the Canucks or Flames. They’re in good shape.

But good shape still feels scary when you were a lock not that long ago. It’s really only been in the last few days that the alarm bells have started ringing, but the slump has been longer than that. After finishing the first half at an impressive 26-11-4, the Wild have gone just 15-17-1 since then, a 77-point pace. Maybe the bigger question than whether they can make the playoffs is whether they should bother, since they don’t seem like much of a threat right now.

They’ve got a three-game road trip against the Devils, Rangers and Islanders this week before returning home to face the Stars and Sharks. Then comes the last road trip of the regular season, a two-game swing against the Flames and Canucks that could be crucial. Or it could be meaningless, if the Wild can bank enough points this week to put this thing away before scary turns into terrifying.

The bottom five

The five teams headed toward dead last and the best lottery odds for a top pick that could be James Hagens, Matthew Schaefer, or someone else.

Pierre had an update on coaching hot seats, which will be of interest to a few of the teams that regularly grace this section.

5. Buffalo Sabres (31-36-6, -24) — Sabres fans, how are we feeling about this recent warm streak with nothing left to play for? Good sign for the future, or infuriating draft pick sabotage? (For the record, there is a right answer here.)

If you missed it, be sure to check out Matthew’s deep dive into just how much misery a fan base can be expected to handle.

4. Philadelphia Flyers (30-36-9, -49) — They made the big headline this week, firing John Tortorella after a weird stretch that included two blowout losses, some strange postgame comments and an apparent altercation with Cam York. Kevin has been all over it, reporting on what exactly happened behind the scenes, just what the deal is with York and the contenders for the full-time job (including three big names currently employed elsewhere).

3. Nashville Predators (27-38-8, -51) — If you missed it, be sure to read Pierre’s chat with Barry Trotz on how they start to dig out of this mess.

2. Chicago Blackhawks (21-44-9, -69) — There’s nothing left to play for, but Hawks fans will get a look at 2023 first-rounder Oliver Moore as well as 2022 first Sam Rinzel down the stretch. Both have signed out of college and made their NHL debuts in yesterday’s loss to Utah.

1. San Jose Sharks (20-44-9, -90) — There hasn’t been much in the way of good news for the Sharks this year, but fans who could use some optimism and/or a reminder about the big picture will enjoy this podcast.

(Also, while interpreting The Code is always dicey, I’m pretty sure somebody needs to fight the Rangers’ team bus.)

Not ranked: Montreal Canadiens — The losing streak is over. Everybody breathe.

Less than two weeks ago, the Habs were the hottest team in the league, winning eight of 11 immediately after the 4 Nations break. That stretch allowed them to push past the stagnant Eastern bubble field, looking a lot like the only team that actually wanted to be the conference’s eight-seed. After beating the Senators on March 18, the Habs were alone in the final wild-card spot and even seemed to have a potential path to catch Ottawa. But they followed that game by losing five straight while giving up 25 goals, including a high-profile matchup with the Blues earlier in the week that saw them get stomped. They were blowing it.

That’s the bad news, and well, it’s pretty bad. But step back, and the picture gets brighter. They might be blowing it, yes, but let’s remember that the “it” here is a playoff spot nobody really thought they had a shot at this year. The realistic goal heading into the season was to play meaningful games (with apologies to Tortorella) and stay close enough to the race that they could shock the world. Now it feels like a failure that they haven’t been able to lock up a spot with 10 games still left to play. It’s easy to forget how much the expectations have shifted in a relatively short amount of time.

Still, beating a good Panthers team on the road was exactly the sort of win this team needed, especially with a rematch coming tomorrow in Montreal. And it was another reminder that writing this team off has been a bad move pretty much all year long.

Will any of that matter if this team ends up coughing up a playoff spot that was there for the taking? I think it should. That doesn’t mean it won’t sting, because of course it would. But if the season was about progress, it’s already been an inarguable success, one that’s seen the Habs drive past teams like the Sabres and Red Wings who were supposed to be years ahead of them. What more could a reasonable fan want?

A playoff spot, sure. You can’t get this close without locking in on the prize. And that’s where the other half of the good news kicks in: They’re still in this thing. They get the Panthers again tomorrow, which is tough, but the rest of the season-ending schedule is reasonably friendly. The Bruins, Flyers and Predators are up next, three teams that are all but flatlining down the stretch. From there it’s Detroit, Ottawa and a Saturday night showdown with the Leafs, followed by the lowly Hawks and then a playoff-bound Hurricanes team with nothing to play for.

The path is there. None of those games are guaranteed, but they’re winnable. And at the very least, they’re damn sure meaningful.

(Photo of Marcus Foligno and Arber Xhekaj: Matt Blewett / Imagn Images)

Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories from the past week on court.

This week, the Miami Open crowned its champions, with Aryna Sabalenka and Jakub Menšík taking the singles titles. Elsewhere, men’s world No. 1 Jannik Sinner had a great hard-court swing while playing just one tournament, the sun did not shine on home players and Mirra Andreeva used doubles to keep her feet on the ground.

If you’d like to follow our fantastic tennis coverage, click here.

How did Sinner’s absence leave him untroubled as world No. 1?

Adding up the ranking points earned by men’s players at this year’s Australian Open, BNP Paribas Open and Miami Open, the highest tally belongs to someone who participated in only one of those events. The big ATP winner from the first Grand Slam of 2025 and then the post-Melbourne ‘Sunshine Double’ in California and Florida is Sinner, who played neither of the latter two tournaments because of his three-month anti-doping ban.

While the back-to-back Australian Open champion was getting some training reps in before his return to the tour in May, his rivals all failed to capitalize on his absence. It’s almost guaranteed now that Sinner will still be No. 1 when he begins his comeback in five weeks on home clay at the Italian Open in Rome.

The nominal world No. 2 Alexander Zverev was also last seen playing proper tennis in Melbourne — the difference between him and Sinner is that he has played in five events since. But the German has looked like a shadow of himself from the moment Sinner beat him in that Australian Open final, and after losing his first match in Indian Wells, he went out to Arthur Fils in the Miami Open round of 16, despite having been a break up in the final set.

Sinner’s main rival, Carlos Alcaraz, was beaten in his first match in Miami. In Indian Wells, he had failed to recover from a first-set horror show in the semifinals, losing to eventual champion Jack Draper. Alcaraz occasionally looked lost during both matches — as he did when losing in the Australian Open quarterfinals to an injured Novak Djokovic.

Djokovic looked refreshed in Miami after his own early exit in Indian Wells, but didn’t have to beat a top-14 player to get to the final. When he got there, he lost precisely the kind of match he’s made a career of winning. His opponent in that final, Menšík, was superb in a 7-6(4), 7-6(4) win, but neutralizing big servers and winning tiebreaks have long been two of Djokovic’s calling cards.

Menšík, 19, had a breakthrough tournament, as did Draper in Indian Wells, but among Sinner’s established rivals, it’s generally been a pretty challenging month.

Sometimes in sport, players’ most helpful results come when they are not even present.

March 2025 undoubtedly strengthened Sinner’s position at the pinnacle of men’s tennis, without him playing a single point.

Charlie Eccleshare

How is Andreeva using doubles to keep her grounded?

It was a sunshine double of sorts for Andreeva too, who followed up her Indian Wells singles title by winning the Miami Open doubles, with her close friend and compatriot Diana Shnaider.

Andreeva, the 17-year-old Russian, is unusual among the world’s top 10 in continuing to play regular doubles, and long may it continue — because the benefits go beyond just her tennis.

She and 20-year-old Shnaider play together with the kind of levity that is generally non-existent in the one-on-one combat of singles, and can only be beneficial to two youngsters getting to grips with the grind of professional tennis. The timeline of the WTA Tour is littered with prodigies burning out because of the sport’s suffocating pressure.

The pair’s sense of humour came in handy Sunday, during the lengthy rain delay that interrupted their 6-3, 6-7(5), 10-2 final win over Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Miyu Kato of Japan.

It is Andreeva and Shnaider’s second title as partners, having first joined forces when they laughed their way to Olympic silver medals in August. Since then, both have spoken about how much they enjoy playing together and the way it benefits them.

“When we play doubles, we both don’t like when it’s very tense,” Andreeva said in an interview at Melbourne Park in January. “So, for example, when the score is 5-4 and we have to serve for the match, we’re both at the same time trying to say some jokes or just chill a bit. 

“We always make fun of ourselves, so if she hits an amazing shot. I’m like, ‘Have you seen that? Are you Roger Federer? I mean, come on, stop it.’ And then after that, I feel like she’s fired up and she makes even better shots. And when I play a good shot, she’s always like, ‘My God, what are you doing? I mean, if you play like this, we’re going to win a slam.’”

Shnaider, who is having a tricky singles season after a breakthrough 2024, also feels the benefits and said in an interview in New York before last year’s U.S. Open: “I need some jokes on court. I need some smiles. I need to have some talks with a partner enjoying doubles. Because for me, I’m just getting released from the stress and some tightness.

“And I knew that she’s a very open person. She’s very emotional. She loves to talk, loves jokes and loves smiling. So I was like, ‘This is the right fit’.”

Before their doubles win in Miami, Andreeva had endured a stressful singles defeat to Amanda Anisimova in the third round, while Shnaider lost to Anna Blinkova in the second.

They could have both packed up and left Miami then for some rest or practice. Instead, both found something more valuable on the doubles court.

Charlie Eccleshare

Not the ‘Sunshine Double’ the American men were hoping for

A couple of months ago, this looked like it could be a pretty special Indian Wells and Miami swing for American men.

With world No. 1 Sinner sidelined and the sport’s best-ever Djokovic something of a question mark and about to turn 38, it seemed like there could be an opening for a group of rivals who are often at their best on home soil. The top Americans are hard-court players who aim to make hay during the North American hard-court swings — especially this one, which precedes a three-month trip to Europe and its organic surfaces.

Ben Shelton was coming off a run to the Australian Open semifinals. Taylor Fritz wasn’t far removed from being a finalist at last year’s U.S. Open, being runner-up at November’s ATP Tour Finals and winning the United Cup with his country in January. Tommy Paul was a top-10 player. Frances Tiafoe always gets fired up for the home fans.

When it was over, Fritz, still battling a right abdominal injury, had the best showing across the two events, falling to Menšík in the Miami semifinals in a third-set tiebreak. He managed to lose while not having his serve broken all night. A couple of bad decisions in the first and third-set tiebreaks kept him out of the final.

Shelton fell in the quarters of Indian Wells to eventual champion Draper. Not bad, and he seemed to have found his groove on the gritty, high-kicking hard courts in California. But then, in Miami, he lost his opening match to a wild card, Coleman Wong of Hong Kong.

Paul disappeared during his round of 16 match in Indian Wells against Daniil Medvedev. In Miami, he lost his second match to Francisco Cerundolo. He’s 7-4 since entering the top 10. Tiafoe? He went 2-2 in the Sunshine Double, with losses to Fils and Yosuke Watanuki.

And on it went.

Learner Tien didn’t win a match. Alex Michelsen won just one.

Not good weather for the home players in March.

Matt Futterman

Danielle Collins gets a win

Danielle Collins couldn’t retain her title in Miami, but ended up coming away with a different kind of trophy.

Collins came upon a dog that had been hit by a car during her time in the city. She pulled over, took the animal to a local veterinary hospital and saw to it that it got the care it needed, through surgery and five days on oxygen.

With the pup pulling through, Collins announced that she had adopted it and named it “Crash.”

“His breathing is back to normal, his wounds are healing, and he is definitely enjoying all the love he is receiving,” Collins shared on Instagram, showing the newest addition to her family snuggling with her in bed. Crash joins Quincy, who has accompanied Collins on the tour for some time now.

“He is curious, affectionate, and grateful for a second chance at life. It was so incredibly painful to witness a dog in so much pain after being hit by a car, and left in the middle of the road with so many people driving by his curled-up body. I’m just grateful I was able to be there and get him the care he needed.”

Perhaps not another trophy. But maybe something better. And a good thing for Crash that Collins decided not to retire at the start of this season.

Now she has another title to defend this week in Charleston, S.C., where she’ll be looking to stay inside the world top 32 and get a seeding for the next Grand Slam in Paris next month.

Matt Futterman

Recommended reading:

🏆 The winners of the week

🎾 ATP: 

🏆 Menšík def. Djokovic (4) 7-6(4), 7-6(4) to win the Miami Open (1,000) in Miami. It is his first ATP 1,000 title.

🎾 WTA:

🏆 Sabalenka (1) def. Pegula (4) 7-5, 6-2 to win the Miami Open (1,000) in Miami. It is the Belarusian’s 19th WTA Tour title.

📈📉 On the rise / Down the line

📈 Eala moves up 65 places from No. 140 to a career high of No. 75 after her run to the Miami Open semifinals.
📈 Menšík ascends 30 spots from No. 54 to No. 24 after winning the Miami Open.
📈 Tereza Valentová moves up 41 places from No. 211 to a career high of No. 170 after winning the ITF W75 event in Murska Sobota, Slovenia.

📉 Medvedev falls three places from No. 8 to No. 11, leaving the ATP top 10 for the first time since 2019.
📉 Caroline Garcia drops 27 places from No. 74 to No. 101, leaving the WTA top 100 for the first time since 2013.
📉 Thiago Seyboth Wild tumbles 15 spots from No. 96 to No. 111, leaving the ATP top 100.

📅 Coming up

🎾 ATP 

📍Houston: U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship (250) featuring Paul, Tiafoe, Michelsen, Tien.
📍Marrakech, Morroco: Grand Prix Hassan II (250) featuring Tallon Griekspoor, Lorenzo Sonego, Otto Virtanen, Pavel Kotov.
📍Bucharest, Romania: Tiriac Open (250) featuring Sebastian Baez, Gabriel Diallo, Botic van de Zandschulp, Nishesh Basavareddy.

📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel 💻 Tennis TV

🎾 WTA

📍Charleston, S.C.: Charleston Open (500) featuring Pegula, Madison Keys, Zheng Qinwen, Belinda Bencic.
📍Bogotá, Colombia: Copa Colsanitas Zurich (250) featuring Marie Bouzkova, Camila Osorio, Iva Jovic, Alycia Parks.

📺 UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel

Tell us what you noticed this week in the comments below as the men’s and women’s tours continue.

(Top photo: Patrick Hamilton / AFP via Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)

SAN FRANCISCO — In summer 2022, the new Florida men’s basketball staff had zero wins, an auspicious but limited track record and one guarantee: Thomas Haugh, the lanky three-star recruit in the practice gym, was not leaving Gainesville without plans to come back. He was possibly the only human ever to be both a native of New Oxford, Pa., and a die-hard Florida fan. A 6-foot-9 devotee of Tim Tebow Mania. If anyone was going to run to the front of the line, it was him.

“They had to do a lot wrong for Tommy not to show up and be a Gator the next day,” Ryan Haugh, Thomas’ father, said Saturday on the Chase Center floor. “That was his lifelong dream. He bled orange and blue while the rest of Pennsylvania was bleeding blue and white.”

These are the serendipities that college basketball teams ride into April without knowing they’re on that ride until they get there. First, there is a very tall kid from a town of about 2,000 people who plays quarterback. Then that kid falls for the stylings of a Heisman Trophy winner. Then that kid gets too tall to be a quarterback anymore, grows yet another couple of inches and plays basketball well enough to catch the eye of an assistant coach at Richmond.

Thomas Haugh was a BUCKET for the @GatorsMBK tonight 😤

🔥 20 PTS | 11 REB | 4 3PT

A much-needed spark off the bench to help Florida advance to the #MFinalFour in San Antonio 📈#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/RVQ3InMnXZ

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— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 30, 2025

Then that assistant coach becomes an assistant coach at Florida and takes another look. The player can’t say yes quickly enough. And in less than three years, there is Thomas Haugh on Saturday evening, turning to the crowd with a smile on his face and his arms spread wide, celebrating the moment that Florida clinched its first trip to the Final Four in more than a decade. A moment that wouldn’t have happened without him. A moment that is the residue of a lot of other ones that might not have happened at all but did.

So Thomas Haugh scores 20 points, grabs 11 rebounds and hits two 3-pointers in the final three minutes to supercharge a No. 1 seed’s comeback from oblivion. Florida beats Texas Tech 84-79, securing the first spot in San Antonio next week. As fate would have it. “I feel like I’m dreaming,” Haugh said, with a souvenir championship baseball cap pulled low over his brow. “I was watching the round of 64 in the eighth grade, sneaking my phone into science class. Now, to say I’m playing in the Final Four is wild. It’s wild.”

And it’s, of course, not entirely providence.

Florida’s staff has built this monster of a roster by relying on its instincts and calculations in player evaluations, entirely unconcerned if they don’t align with whatever the consensus is. It’s a belief in seeing things a little differently that traces back to operating as part of an Ivy League operation years and years ago. It’s comfort with risky convictions. And it’s the process that gets you a hero of an Elite Eight game.

Haugh was, in the words of Florida assistant coach Kevin Hovde, “an insane late bloomer.” Six feet 7 going into his senior year of high school, maybe not as comprehensively serious about basketball as Division I coaches would prefer until a couple of years before that. He was on the radar when Hovde worked at Richmond. He was not, however, a must-sign no-brainer.

But Haugh did bloom, even if he needed a prep school stopover to do so. And once Hovde joined Todd Golden’s new coaching staff at Florida, the pair doubled back. Their re-evaluation recommended Haugh as a player worth adding, even if the particulars of the picture remained fuzzy. “He has a very high floor in his game,” Hovde said amid Florida’s celebration Saturday. “I thought he could defend at this level, and he has a great feel. He’s easy to play with. So I thought no matter what, he’s going to be able to play a role. But he’s surpassed our expectations.”

They imagined a steep trajectory. They got a player who is nimbly climbing a sheer cliff face.

Haugh’s per-40-minute rebounding is basically static from his first season to this one. But he’s almost incomprehensibly gone from a 45.7 percent free-throw shooter as a freshman to 80.4 percent as a sophomore. He’s better than doubled his assist rate (6.9 percent to 14.1), becoming what Golden calls a “pressure release” for the Gators guards. His 3-point shooting jumped from 25.5 percent to 33 percent, and through 37 games, he led one of the deepest and most talented teams in the nation with .225 Win Shares per 40 minutes.

Also, he comes off the bench. For all but seven of the games he’s played in two years. “He’s a winning player,” Golden said. “He just finds ways to impact the game and to help the team. One of, if not the most unselfish guys out there, just being comfortable coming off the bench when he could be starting for pretty much any team in America.”

Haugh is, essentially, the avatar for Florida’s plan and the success it’s engendering. The Gators have welcomed players other power-conference programs might not take. Though the idea was to create depth that can overwhelm teams, this also requires players willing to be depth components. The Gators, meanwhile, have been unflappable — their longest losing streak this year is one game — because they have so many alternatives for whomever might not have it on a given night.

So here was Haugh, a 9.5 points per game scorer once again content in a reserve role in the Elite Eight. Then he logged 30 minutes — third most of any Florida player against Texas Tech — and stepped into a 3-pointer to make it a six-point game with 2:50 to play. And another to make it a one-possession contest less than 30 seconds later. Walter Clayton Jr. might have taken it from there, but there was nowhere to take it without Haugh’s confidently seizing those two moments.

“I just got the ball and I was like, probably need a 3-pointer here, so just throw one up and see if it goes in,” Haugh said with a laugh. “No, my teammates found me, and I made the shots. Which, thank God, I did.”

His parents still might not quite grasp why a football player from Gainesville, Fla., caught hold with a kid from a pin dot in Pennsylvania — “I questioned every day why there was orange and blue in our house,” said Ryan Haugh, a former football player at Division II Shippensburg University — but they rolled with it. Jennifer Haugh even put Tim Tebow’s book in front of her son. And at any rate, there were worse idols to have.

“His drive, his tenacity, just never quit,” Ryan Haugh said. “That sunk in a little bit. As you saw today.”

And that brought everyone to Florida, and that brought Florida to a Final Four. Amid the postgame hubbub, Thomas Haugh wondered aloud about meeting Tebow someday. This almost surely will happen after what transpired Saturday at the Chase Center. The happy coincidences in Thomas Haugh’s story are being steadily replaced by sure things.

“Obviously,” Golden said of the selfless sophomore who helped will the Gators to San Antonio, “he’s going to start for us next year.”

(Photo: Kyle Terada / Imagn Images)