2025 NCAA Men's Final Four

The 2024-25 season was the year the SEC took over college basketball. Week after week, the conference stacked up wins, and when the bracket came out in March, the SEC had a record 14 teams in the field. Auburn spent most of the season at the top of the polls and earned the No. 1 overall seed. Florida won the SEC Tournament by beating Tennessee in the title game. Up in Durham, freshman Cooper Flagg lived up to every bit of the hype, and Duke won the ACC Tournament even after Flagg went down with an injury in its opener. Out in the Big 12, Houston won the conference and did not lose a road game all season. Seven years after my first Final Four in this same building, and two years after watching UConn win it all in Houston, the road ended in San Antonio again, and I made it back to another one.

The tournament itself followed the script for most of the way. The SEC put seven teams in the Sweet 16 and became the first conference to send four teams to the regional finals. Duke beat Mount St. Mary’s by 44 in the first round and kept rolling until it held Alabama down in the Elite Eight. Houston survived Purdue 62-60 in the Sweet 16 and then held Tennessee to 15 first-half points, the lowest first half ever for a No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the tournament. Auburn closed its Sweet 16 game against Michigan on a 39-17 run and then ended Tom Izzo’s season, with Johni Broome putting up 25 points and 14 rebounds against Michigan State. Florida’s run started with a statement in the second round, when the Gators beat two-time defending champion UConn 77-75 and ended the Huskies’ 13-game NCAA Tournament winning streak. I watched that streak reach six games when UConn won it all in Houston in 2023. In the Elite Eight, Florida needed the biggest rally of them all, erasing a double-digit second-half deficit against Texas Tech behind 30 points from Walter Clayton Jr. When the dust settled, all four No. 1 seeds were headed to San Antonio for the first time since 2008, which was also at the Alamodome.

The first match-up on Saturday placed two SEC rivals on the biggest stage, and the building was split right down the middle in orange and blue. The crowd was electric from the opening tip, and every run brought one side of the dome to its feet. Florida opened the second half on a 13-3 run and Walter Clayton Jr. took over. He scored 34 points with five 3-pointers, becoming the first player since Larry Bird in 1979 with back-to-back 30-point games this late in the tournament. Johni Broome was playing through an injured right elbow and scored only three points after halftime. Florida won 79-73 and punched its ticket to Monday night.

In the second match-up we witnessed the best game of the weekend. Duke led Houston by 14 with about eight minutes to go, and most of the building had already started thinking about a Duke and Florida final. Then the Houston defense took over. Duke made just one field goal over the final 10 and a half minutes, and Cooper Flagg’s 27 points were not enough. J’Wan Roberts made two free throws with 19.6 seconds left to give Houston its first lead since 6-5, LJ Cryer finished with 26 points, and the Cougars won 70-67. I have been to a lot of games, and that finish is one I will be talking about for a long time.

The National Championship game between Florida and Houston was a fitting end to the season, with two 35-4 teams playing for the title. Houston played the game on its terms for most of the night, and the first half was the lowest-scoring in a title game since 2011. The Cougars led by as many as 12 points, and Clayton did not make a basket until there were eight minutes left. Florida kept chipping away and took its first lead since 8-6 with 46 seconds remaining. The defense forced a turnover, made one more stop at the end, and the Gators won 65-63 in front of 66,602 fans.

This night belonged to Florida. Will Richard led the Gators with 18 points, Clayton was named Most Outstanding Player, and 39-year-old Todd Golden became the youngest coach to win a national title since Jim Valvano in 1983. It was Florida’s third championship and its first since the back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007. Watching the confetti fall over the stage was the perfect way to close out an amazing experience. This was a season of SEC dominance and No. 1 seeds holding serve, but in the end it came down to who made the plays in the final minute. Great close to the college basketball season and let’s begin the countdown for the 2025-26 season.