For many sports fans, when they think about the best sports month, they may think of March. This is due to the “madness” of college basketball. Going into this year’s March Madness Tournament, the favorites to win were the Duke Blue Devils, followed closely by the Florida Gators.
To kick off the tournament, the first four games were two games of 16 seeds and two games of 11 seeds playing each other. This included 16-seed Alabama State making the first round in a very tight game against St. Francis with a game-winning shot with a second left on the clock, and then 11-seed North Carolina dominated San Diego State to get the win. The next day, 16-seed Mount Saint Mary’s battled American U and came out with the win. 11-seed Xavier then beat Texas in a close game to close out the First Four.
The first round was finally underway with 9-seed Creighton vs. Louisville, with Creighton winning by a convincing margin, and the next four games following were no surprise, as the higher ranking teams won. That was until Clemson vs McNeese, where 12-seed McNeese held Clemson to only 13 first-half points, and even after Clemson came back in the second half, they held on to advance to the next round.
After this, 10-seed Arkansas beat seven-seed Kansas for another upset. Then, following this, 11-seed Drake upset 6-seed Missouri, closing up the first day of upsets.
To kick off the second day of madness, there were a few games without upsets until 12-seed Colorado State faced off against 5-seed Memphis, beating them 78-70. As the day progressed, the better-seated teams continued to win, until 10-seed New Mexico defeated Marquette. There were no more upsets for the rest of the first round.
The second round started with a big early upset where 10-seed Arkansas took down 2-seed Saint John’s. Later in the day, six-seed BYU eliminated three-seed Wisconsin. To start the second day of the round of 32, 1-seed Florida faced off against 8-seed Connecticut, and it was a nail-biter, all the way to the end, when Florida won by only two points.
A few games later, 12-seed Colorado State vs. 4-seed Maryland. This game came down to the last second when Derik Queen hit a buzzer-beater shot to win the game for Maryland. To close out the second round, the last upset was 6-seed Ole Miss defeating three-seed Iowa State.
The first day of the Sweet 16 had no upsets; however, an exciting game was when 3-seed Texas Tech defeated 10-seed Arkansas in an overtime thriller. They won by two points after coming back from being down 16 at a brief point in the game. The next day had no upsets but included 2-seed Michigan State beating 6-seed Ole Miss in a close game, winning by three. Also, 1-seed Houston won on a last-second layup to win the game against 4-seed Purdue.
Now we’re into the Elite Eight, and this started with a close battle between 1-seed Florida and 3-seed Texas Tech. Florida won this game after coming back from a 10 deficit and winning by five.
Next, 1-seed Duke played 2-seed Alabama and destroyed them by 20 to advance to the Final Four. The next day started off with 1-seed Houston defeating 2-seed Tennessee by 19 points. Also, they held them to only 15 points in the first half. The last game of the Elite Eight for a trip to the Final Four was 2-seed Michigan State vs 1-seed Auburn. Auburn had the lead for the majority of the game and came out with a six-point victory.
This meant that the Final Four was set: 1-seed Florida vs 1-seed Auburn and 1-seed Duke vs 1-seed Houston. This is only the second time in March Madness history that the Final Four were all 1-seeds, the only other time being in 2008.
First was Florida vs Auburn, and coming into this game, Florida was favored to win, but by a small margin. Auburn was in the lead most of the first half and was up by eight at the half. However, Florida had a great second half, outscoring them 41-2,7 with point guard Walter Clayton leading the way with 34 points. This pushed Florida to a 79-73 victory for a trip to the championship.
The last Final Four game and the last game before the championship has arrived: Duke vs Houston. Duke had the lead for most of the game, but Houston kept it close the whole time. Houston was down by seven points with only 1:24 to go in the game. They then hit two free throws to make it a five-point game, but when Duke was inbounding the ball, Joseph Tugler committed a technical foul by hitting the ball out of the inbounder’s hands. Duke then hit the free throw, but then Houston blocked their shot during their possession. This made it a six-point game with only 45 seconds left to go. Emmanuel Sharp for Houston then hit a clutch three to make it a three-point margin. They then stole the inbound pass, dribbled it out to the three-point line, and missed the three. However, they got a putback dunk to make it a one-point game with 25 seconds left. Duke finally got an inbound pass in, and Houston quickly fouled them. It was a one-and-one free throw, so if they missed, it was a live ball. Tyrese Proctor missed the shot, and Houston didn’t get a rebound, but they called a foul on Cooper Flagg for over the back. J’Wan Roberts from Houston hit both free throws to get a one-point lead. Cooper Flagg got the ball, dribbled, and took the shot, it was short. Houston got the ball, and L.J. Cryer made both free throws after he got fouled. Duke missed the long-range three, and this was the game. It was a crazy comeback from Houston to advance to the Championship.
Florida vs. Houston, the last game of the madness, the championship. This game was very tight the whole first half, but with Houston holding the lead most of the time, other than the first couple minutes. At the half, the score was Houston 31 and Florida 28. This was a surprisingly low-scoring first half for both teams, and for Florida, their star player, Walter Clayton, had zero points through the whole first half. Houston was off to a good start coming out of halftime and even got their lead to 12 a couple of minutes into the second half. However, Florida came back, and with less than eight minutes to go, Walter Clayton got his first field goal of the game (points other than free throw) with a layup. About a minute later, he got another one, meaning that he is finally starting to score, which could really help Florida. Even though Florida kept tying the game up, their first lead since the first minute of the game came with only 46 seconds left and was a one-point lead. Then, Emanuel Sharp got the ball for Houston and lost the ball out of bounds after Florida’s Will Richard hit it off his leg. Then, Florida inbounded the ball and passed it to Denzel Aberdeen, who quickly got fouled. He missed the first free throw but made the second, giving them a two-point lead. L.J. Cryer dribbled down the court, passed it to Milos Uzan, then got it back, and passed to Emmanuel Sharp. He went up for the shot, but a Florida player jumped to contest it, so he dribbled it back to the ground. However, he couldn’t touch the ball, or else it would be a travel, so he tried to box out the Florida players and have somebody else get the ball. Florida’s Alex Condon dived for the ball and stole it. The game was over without Houston even getting a shot off.
This closes out the 2024-2025 NCAA basketball season, and some may be disappointed that there was only one seeds in the final four. However, the game was very close and entertaining, so it was another successful year of madness!