Fans will be talking about the 2025 March Madness for a long time despite criticism that the tournament lacked intrigue. But that criticism couldn’t be further from the truth.
Is the 2025 NCAA Tournament One of the Greatest in Recent Memory?
The following is an opinion piece.
The 2025 NCAA Tournament resulted in four No. 1 seeds in the Final Four, which has caused chatter amongst fans and some analysts alike that the tournament, coined by the phrase “March Madness,” lacked the expected madness. Some even went as far as to say that this year’s edition of the tournament lacked memorable moments.
ONE SHINING MOMENT 🙌#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/cjKbdhot3l
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 8, 2025
Boy, were they wrong.
In fact, I’d argue that the 2025 March Madness was one of the best we’ve seen in recent years—for a couple of reasons.
At the root of it all was the extremely high levels of competition. Yes, every top seed won their region—the first time since 2008—but it produced three extremely entertaining games in the Final Four and national championship.
The statistics show that fans tuned in, registering 16.4 million viewers on average across the three games, per March Madness Men’s Basketball TV. That was a 21% increase from 2024 and the highest mark since 2017.
Two major stories came out of Final Four weekend: Florida Gator Walter Clayton Jr.’s insane scoring run and the Houston Cougars’ miraculous, unreal, unexplainable — insert any word here — last-minute comeback to stun the Cooper Flagg-led Duke Blue Devils.
The championship game was appointment viewing despite being arguably the least-desired matchup for fans. The Auburn Tigers, whom Clayton and the Florida Gators defeated, and the Blue Devils had been ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, for most of the new year.
Regardless, the Cougars and Gators produced a game to remember.
Houston looked to be in a good position to take the game as the second half progressed. They used their hounding defense to hold Clayton scoreless for the first 25 minutes of the game.
They extended their lead to 12 points before the Gators finally found a rhythm as Clayton scored 11 points down the stretch of the game, nailing a key triple to even the score at 60 with three minutes to go. Houston’s L.J. Cryer responded with a layup—which turned out to be the final field goal of the game for either team.
From that point on, the Gators converted five free throws and pulled out a 65-63 victory.
Cougars’ Emanuel Sharp provided an infamous moment in the final seconds as he went up to shoot a potential game-winning three-pointer before Clayton came out of nowhere and contested.
Sharp, seeing Florida’s guard at the last second, bounced the ball on the floor. The game was, in effect, over once he made that fatal mistake as it turned into a scrum with the final seconds ticking off.
The celebration was on as the Gators claimed their first national title since 2007.
While that ultra-competitive Final Four ended March Madness in 2025, the moments in the rounds before also contributed to its excellence.
The very first game of the tournament—a First Four matchup between St. Francis and Alabama State—produced an amazing finish. The Hornets launched a pass down the floor and ended up with a game-winning layup as time expired.
While Alabama State went on to lose by 20 points to Auburn, it was a reminder of the moments college basketball fans were about to witness once the first round began.
On the first Thursday of the tournament, the 12th-seeded McNeese Cowboys and their social media viral manager, Amir Khan, knocked out the fifth-seeded Clemson Tigers in the first round amid rumors that their head coach, Will Wade, had already agreed to become the NC State Wolfpacks head coach.
Despite the potential distraction, the Cowboys held the Tigers to a meager 13 points in the first half and held off a furious run to secure the upset.
The evening session began with Bennet Stirtz and the storybook “D-II Drake” Bulldogs producing a double-digit upset victory over the Missouri Tigers.
Just a year after head coach Ben McCollum and four of his Bulldog players had been at Division-II Northwest Missouri State, they found themselves with a spot in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Similar to Wade, McCollum parlayed that win into the Iowa Hawkeyes’ head coaching job.
At the same time, two head coaching legends were going at it: Kansas’ Bill Self and Arkansas’ John Calipari. Calipari’s Razorbacks defeated the Jayhawks, beginning a surprising run to the Sweet Sixteen.
To finish the night, the UC San Diego Tritons—a popular upset pick—and the Michigan Wolverines were set to tip-off. The game came down to the final buzzer, as the Tritons’ leading scorer, guard Tyler McGhie, had a good look at a tying three-pointer that just rimmed out.
And that was just the first day.
While Friday of round one didn’t produce as many close games, Sean Pedulla and the Ole Miss Rebels took down the North Carolina Tar Heels—who many questioned their spot in the field—and the top seeds continued to flex their muscles.
The second round brought immediate intrigue as the Big East champions and second-ranked St. John’s Red Storm were convincingly upset by the Razorbacks.
The Maryland Terrapins, battling a frisky Colorado State Rams 12-seeded squad, took it all the way to the final buzzer as freshman Derik Queen banked in a one-legged fading floater as the buzzer sounded. The shot proved to be a signature moment in the tournament.
Former PAC-12 rivals, the Oregon Ducks and Arizona Wildcats gave us a duel for the ages to finish off the second round. The Ducks jumped out to a 17-4 lead before Wildcats’ Caleb Love awoke, finishing with 29 points and leading his team to a come-from-behind 87-83 victory.
The Sweet Sixteen was also extremely entertaining. The Alabama Crimson Tide couldn’t miss against the BYU Cougars, scoring 113 points and making 25 three-pointers—yes, 25, an NCAA Tournament record.
Cooper Flagg and the Blue Devils finally faced some competition in the form of Arizona and Love. Another duel was in place, as this time Love finished with 35 points but was outdone by Flagg, who produced 30 points, dished out seven assists, and grabbed six boards.
Oh, and he also blocked three shots—showing the entire nation why he’s the eventual top pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. Duke reached the century mark and won, 100-93.
San Francisco hosted arguably the best game of the tournament, as the 10th-seeded Razorbacks and third-seeded Texas Tech Red Raiders battled it out.
Arkansas led by 16 points with under 10 minutes left before the Red Raiders stormed back, forcing overtime on a tying three-pointer by Darrion Williams. In the extra period, Williams also produced the game-winning bucket, putting the finishing touches on a monumental comeback victory.
Additionally, the Sweet Sixteen gave us a coaching masterpiece, as Houston coach Kelvin Sampson once again proved himself to be one of the top coaches in college basketball against the Purdue Boilermakers.
Tied at 60 with just over two seconds showing on the clock, the Cougars were set to inbound the ball. Sampson, knowing that the Boilermakers switch off the inbounder before the ball is put into play, designed a genius set that resulted in a wide-open Milos Uzan layup for the win.
In order to even get to the Final Four, Florida was put through the wringer against Texas Tech—which also happened to be the first time fans took notice of Clayton’s offensive explosion in the tournament.
The Gators were down nine with under three minutes remaining before a flurry of buckets by Thomas Haugh and Clayton, including a Steph Curry-like turnaround three-pointer to take the lead, gave the Gators a stunning victory.
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It was an incredible finish for Clayton and Florida. And it turned out to be just the beginning, as he was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player after scoring 34 points against the Tigers and engineering yet another late-game comeback against Houston.
So, what wasn’t to love about the 2025 edition of March Madness?
Yes, the expected teams made the Final Four. But in turn, it produced one of the most competitive weekends we’ve seen in college basketball in a long time. It was truly a battle between the four best teams in the sport, with the Gators sustaining multiple body blows but coming out on top.
In the end, there were myriads of late-game situations, buzzer-beaters, viral moments, and, best of all, competition. More, I’d argue, than we’ve seen in a while.
That’s why it was the greatest March Madness in recent memory.
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