Alex Condon was exhausted late Saturday night, seated on a stool in front of his locker with noticeable patches of red across his body from a bruising battle against Auburn big man Johni Broome.

When he returned to the team hotel, Condon planned to rest with various body parts packed in ice.

“I’m banged up. I’m really sore,” he said. “The most physical game I’ve had all season, I believe. The referees let a lot of stuff go.”

As the Gators moved past their 79-73 win over Auburn in the Final Four, earning a berth in the national championship game on Monday night, Condon watched the end of the Houston-Duke game on TV. Like everyone else, he was stunned at the Cougars’ comeback from a 14-point deficit with 8:17 to play.

Gators center Rueben Chinyelu, back at the Alamodome early Sunday afternoon, perhaps best summarized what had happened about 14 hours earlier in the same building.

“It’s March Madness,” Chinyelu said. “I guess that’s the reason it’s called that.”

The Cougars instigated the madness.

Condon saw the Cougars impose their will on the Blue Devils, create havoc on in-bounds plays and fight for every rebound, including an offensive putback slam by Joseph Tugler that trimmed Duke’s lead to a point. Houston scored six points in the final 33 seconds for an impossible 70-67 victory.

If nothing else, the final minutes reminded the Gators of the challenge they will face Monday night.

“It just shows their team is willing to fight for all 40 minutes,” Condon said. “Rebounding is all an effort thing. I feel like Houston controlled the glass down the stretch. If we take that away from them and make sure we use our height, our length, and make any plays in the rebound margins, we’re going to be good.

“We’ve got to be prepared and be willing to fight for 40 minutes.”

Meanwhile, Condon appeared in better condition Sunday when he spoke to reporters following a night’s rest, eager to play better than his one-point, four-rebound, five-foul outing against Auburn. It won’t be any easier against the Cougars.

Houston (35-4) won its 18th consecutive game by beating Duke and arrived at the Final Four as the No. 1-ranked team in the country in defensive efficiency. The Cougars proved it against Duke, limiting the Blue Devils to just one field goal over the final 9:59.

The Gators (35-4) understand they have to finish with the same swagger they had in Saturday’s defeat of Auburn. They were bruised and battered at times, but in the end, they were not beaten. The Cougars provided a final reminder of what that looks like.

“You’ve got to turn your dog up,” said guard Alijah Martin. “You’ve got to do whatever it takes to win. If it takes a bloody nose, a bloody lip, so be it. It won’t matter. We know who we’re going up against, and I’ve got all the confidence in the world, and everybody is locked in.”

UF head coach Todd Golden spoke confidently on Sunday about this team’s ability to compete against the Cougars. He sees similarities in the Cougars’ style of play to Tennessee, which Houston defeated in the Elite Eight.

Florida crushed then No. 1-Tennessee at home early in conference play, got thumped by the Vols in Knoxville, and in a third meeting in the SEC Tournament championship game, beat them 86-77. If Tennessee and Houston are similar, there is a clear difference.

The Cougars are here. The Vols are home.

“They’re the best defensive team in America,” Golden said. “They have just a great identity as a program of just being both physically and mentally tough. That’s something we’ve tried to pride ourselves on this year.”

In the victory over Duke, the Cougars won the rebounding battle (42-31) and outscored the Blue Devils 19-12 in second-chance points, statistical categories that amplify a team’s willingness to scrap. Cougars 6-foot-8, 235-pound forward J’Wan Roberts led the way with 12 rebounds, and Tugler added eight rebounds and four blocked shots.

The Gators have a strong core inside, with Condon, Chinyelu, Thomas Haugh and Micah Handlogten able to rotate and stay fresh. Despite being bullied in the paint in the first half on Saturday, the Gators responded after the break and outrebounded the Tigers 39-30 while riding the hot hand of guard Walter Clayton Jr., whose game-high 34 points carried the offense.

Golden wants more of the same.

“You look at a guy like Tugler, Roberts. They have incredible length, athleticism, and physicality inside the paint,” Golden said. “They wear you down, make it really hard on you. [The] big-picture goal is going to be to make them take tough twos, fight like hell to get the rebound.

“Every rebound we get is going to feel like we won the game, I feel like.”

Chinyelu agreed. Florida’s sculpted 6-foot-10, 260-pound center grabbed some tough rebounds at key moments in Saturday’s win over Auburn. In his heavy Nigerian accent, Chinyelu described how he is approaching the matchup against the dangerous Cougars.

“You are just going out there to play and look at it like, ‘This is war. You either kill or be killed.’ So, you just have to take that mindset,” he said. “You just have to go out there and pour out your heart.”

The more of that they do, the better chance the Gators have of returning home as national champions.