The 86th playing of the NCAA mens and womens basketball March Madness tournaments has come down to just a handful of games before the best team is finally crowned for the 2025 season.  Beginning Tuesday, March17 for the men’s teams and Wednesday, March 19 for the women’s teams, the last two weeks+ of games have been nothing short of a basketball fan’s greatest season.

The single elimination tournament always proves to have exciting wins, devastating upsets, and magical storylines all wrapped up in three weekends of games.  Having played through the first and second round, the Sweet 16 and the Elite 8 games, there are no perfect brackets left standing, signifying the true chaos of the NCAA’s most exciting tournament.  Here’s a quick recap of the 64 games already played.

The tournament play began with the First Four, landing Alabama State(16), North Carolina(11), Mount St. Mary’s (16), and Xavier(11) officially in the men’s tournament and Iowa State(11), Southern U.(16), Columbia (11), and William & Mary(16) in the women’s.

The first round showed few upsets with most high seeds taking the win, although a few underdogs were able to claim the victory Thursday night.  Creighton (9) won over Louisville (8) with a 6 point lead.  McNeese (12) upset Clemson (5) with a single shot, winning 69-67.  Kansas (7) fell to Arkansas (10) thanks to a number of hit free throws down the wire.  Drake (11) came out over  Missouri (6) despite being down at half time 30-23.

The second night of the opening round saw Baylor (9) grab a close win over Mississippi State (8).  Colorado State (12) made a splash as they put down Memphis (5), winning with what their coach called a “suffocating defense.”  New Mexico (10) took control late in the second half to beat out Marquette (7) to advance to the second round of the tournament. 

Round two, beginning Saturday, March 22, saw another win for Arkansas (10) over St. John’s (2), outplaying them on both ends of the court.  Michigan (5) had a commanding win over Texas A&M (4), winning 91-79.  BYU (6) snuck a win past Wisconsin (3), breathing a sigh of relief that the clock expired before the Badgers come-back could take the lead.  Day two of the second round played out with top seed winners in every game except the 6v3 as Ole Miss defeated Iowa State.

The Sweet 16 round didn’t see any surprises as Alabama, Florida, Duke, and Texas Tech all claimed the win on Thursday, March 27.  The following day saw similar results with all the top seeded teams advancing on as Michigan State, Tennessee, Auburn, and Houston pounded out the victory.

Saturday played the first games of the Elite 8, seeing a pair of number 1 seeds — Florida and Duke — punch their tickets to the Final Four in San Antonio.  With less than four minutes to go, the Gators were down by nine points, but managed a 18-4 to clutch the last minute victory.  Duke’s win over Alabama marked the largest win (20 points) in an Elite 8 game since 1999.

The other number 1 seeds --Houston and Auburn-- claimed their spots in the Final Four Sunday night to join Florida and Duke.  Houston nearly claimed the win over Tennessee in the opening half as they kept the Vols from shooting inside the key and capitalized on their poor deep shooting.  Auburn put up 17 unanswered points in the second half to help earn the win and second ever bid to the Final Four.

Looking ahead, the first scheduled game to be played in the Alamodome is between Auburn and Florida.  In their previous matchup during the regular season, it was the Gators that came out on top, but anything can happen with March Madness.  Duke is set to take on Houston next, pitting the number one offense against the number one defense.  The predictions favor Duke but if the Cougar defense plays in their usual fashion, they might just hold back the Blue Devils.  

In the women’s March Madness bracket, Iowa State(11), UC San Diego(16), Columbia(11), William & Mary (16) won in the First Four to officially claim their berth to the NCAA tournament. 

Round 1 highlighted few upsets or surprises for the basketball fans.  Indiana(9) pulled a win over Utah(8), working early in the game to keep momentum on their side.  Oregon(10) snagged an overtime win over Vanderbilt(7), putting up 10-6 in the bonus quarter.  

A similar 10v7 upset happened Saturday, March 22 as South Dakota State won over Oklahoma state.  Their secret- out rebounding their opponent 47-29.  Mississippi State(9) ousted California(8) from the tournament with what they considered their best defensive game of the season.  

Round 2 began Sunday, March 23 in a largely predictable fashion until the 4v5 games were played.  In every instance, the number 5 seed took the game.  Kansas State ended the season for Kentucky in another overtime win.  Ole Miss bested Baylor, putting up 20+ points in three quarters while the Bears couldn’t break the 19 point cap.  Tennessee claimed the win over Ohio State to snag their 37th Sweet 16 appearance.  Monday went according to the chalk, all high seeds punching their ticket to the next round of the tournament.

March 28 opened the Sweet 16 round of March Madness, featuring wins by Duke 47, South Carolina 71,LSU,and UCLA.  Sunday saw wins by TCU, Texas, UConn, and Southern California.

Day 1 of the Elite 8 highlighted a true competition between Duke and South Carolina.  The close game went back and forth between the two teams until a big miss for Duke and a defining rebound by South Carolina to give the Gamecocks the win, 54-50.  UCLA pulled out the win over LSU, redeeming their Sweet 16 loss from 2024.  

UConn brought about another win Monday night over Southern California to return them to the Final Four.   The Texas Longhorns and their smothering defense gave TCU fits all game long as they played for a shot at the Final Four.  Texas forced an impressive 21 turnovers to dominate the game.

The women’s Final Four is set to be played in Tampa, Florida at the Amalie Arena on April 4.  South Carolina and Texas will first clash, a competition that will be won by the team that can pull together the strongest offense.  UCLA and UConn will follow with the late night game, a contest that will surely be worth staying up for.  The Huskies bring a strong outside shooting game but UCLA is predicted to win the game inside the key and at the rim.  

Fans, players, and so called experts may have things all figured out as March Madness closes out with the final games of the tournament, but only time will tell who has the skill and decorum of a champion.