And so it ends. After 67 games, one team remains: the Florida Gators are the 2025 Men’s NCAA Tournament champions. It’s been a rocky road for the official Bracketologist of The Mac Weekly, but with the dust settled, the one prediction that really mattered came to fruition. Now it’s time to look back on another Mad March together.
The Biggest Winner: Florida cut down the nets in San Antonio on Monday, just as I predicted. The Gators played elite defense down the stretch to force a catastrophic Houston collapse, winning a game in which they trailed by as many as 12 and only led for a total of 64 seconds. They finish the season ranked third in KenPom with the second-best offense, sixth-ranked defense and a 36-4 record.
Walter Clayton Jr. was a standout throughout the Gators’ tournament run, and Will Richard was an invaluable second option when Clayton Jr. went cold in the first half of the National Championship game. While he won’t get nearly as many plaudits, Thomas Haugh was an unsung hero for Florida; his +28 plus/ minus was the best of any player in the Final Four.
The Biggest Loser: Being the only top-2 seed to miss the Elite Eight is rough. Flaming out against an inconsistent 10- seed with 14 losses is even rougher (I should know, I’m a Kansas fan). Yet, somehow, Saint John’s managed to do just that. A sensational regular season (the Red Storm lost just four games by a combined seven
points) went up in flames as they caved meekly to Arkansas by a score of 75-66. Saint John’s has yet to reach the Sweet Sixteen this century. Oof.
The Upset: Upsets were few and far between this March. I saw Drake and Colorado State’s wins coming from a mile away (I know ball), but what I did not see coming was McNeese State’s dismantling of the Clemson Tigers, a team I picked to go all the way to the Final Four. McNeese played a ferocious and disruptive game that caught the Tigers on the back foot from the opening tip. Ultimately, Clemson went out with a whimper in the first round, scoring fewer first half points than any other team in the history of the tournament.
Conclusion: Elsewhere in the bracket, my predictions proved hit or miss (mostly miss). Duke played exceptionally, as predicted, but fell short to a tough-as-nails Houston squad that I massively underestimated. For more insight on that game, I recommend checking out diddukewin.com. Michigan State played well but failed to push past the Auburn Tigers, who in turn proved no match for the eventual champions. As for my remaining Final Four pick, the less said about them, the better.
The word of the tournament was chalk — this was the first tournament since 2017 in which all top-4 seeds won their first game, and the first since 2008 that all four 1 seeds made the Final Four. Their collective success was a testament to their dominance all season long; the four 1 seeds finished the year with just 19 losses between them.
While the lack of upsets across the first two weekends was both disappointing for neutral viewers and devastating for any bracket-maker with a spine, it paid off later in the tournament. We were still privy to some spectacular games, particularly in the Final Four. Expect the madness to return next March.
