With the conclusion of the Elite Eight in the men’s college basketball postseason tournament and the Sweet 16 in the women’s tournament, 2025 March Madness is off to a not-so-mad start.
In the men’s tournament, the Final Four is set to be a matchup of all four No. 1 seeds, Auburn University will face the University of Florida on the South/West side of the tournament, and Duke University will face the University of Houston on the East/Midwest side.
Leading up to this point, there have been far fewer upsets and unexpected outcomes in the tournament compared to previous years, where fans can typically expect a handful of double-digit seeds to prevail over some college basketball blue bloods.
This year, the lower seeds mostly handled business in the first round of the tournament, with the biggest upsets being 12-seed Mcneese State University over five-seed Clemson University, 11-seed Drake University over six-seed University of Missouri and 12-seed Colorado State University over five-seed University of Memphis.
Since the first round, upsets have been few and far between, but 10-seed University of Arkansas did beat two-seed St. John’s University, who many predicted to go deep in the tournament, in the round of 32.
The back-to-back defending champion University of Connecticut had an early round of 32 exit as well. Despite seeing lots of success over the last two years, the Huskies did not look like the same caliber of team as they have been, and they lost to Florida in a very tight game.
Perhaps the biggest story coming from the past few rounds was the University of Alabama’s unreal shooting night against Brigham Young University.
The Crimson Tide could not seem to miss against the Cougars, shooting 25-52 from three-point range, setting the men’s tournament record for three-pointers made. The Tide won 113-88 before losing to Duke with a score of 85-65 in the Sweet 16.
“Seeing Alabama go deep in the tournament was really cool to see,” said Dylan Lewis, a senior marketing major and Alabama fan. “They’re known for being a football school, so setting that kind of record in basketball is unbelievable.”
The men’s Final Four begins on Saturday, April 5.
The round of 64 in the women’s bracket saw even fewer upsets than the men’s.
Many of the lower seeds staged blowouts against the higher seeds, and the biggest upsets came from 10-seed University of Oregon, who defeated seven-seed Vanderbilt University, and 10-seed South Dakota State University, who defeated seven-seed Oklahoma State University.
One of the hottest teams in the tournament right now is two-seed Texas Christian University.
The Horned Frogs, led by veteran guard Hailey Van Lith, defeated their first-round opponents by 22 points and their second-round opponents by 15 points. In the Sweet 16, they defeated a very talented University of Notre Dame team by 9 off of a 26-point game from Van Lith.
TCU will face the University of Texas at Austin next, who have won their games up to this point by a combined 69 points.
Similar to the men’s bracket, all of the No. 1 seeds have a chance to make it to the Final Four, with the defending champion University of South Carolina and the University of California, Los Angeles claiming the first two spots.
The University of Southern California, despite having a phenomenal season behind star guard JuJu Watkins, will likely have the most trouble moving on due to Watkins’s season-ending ACL injury against Mississippi State University. However, the Trojans bested Kansas State University without their star player, so they will not go into their Final Four matchup with a losing mentality.
The women’s Elite Eight concluded on Monday, March 31.
As teams fight for their spot in the tournaments, fans eagerly watch to see who will be crowned the 2025 champions.