March Madness is underway in 2025. In the first weekend of the tournament, there were shocking upsets, close games, and players performing in the clutch. There were 48 games played at various locations across the country. These games all lead to the Final Four in San Antonio, which will take place on April 5th, but up next is the Sweet Sixteen on March 27th and 28th.
South Quadrant:
The south quadrant featured the number one overall seed, Auburn Tigers, who have cruised to the Sweet 16. In the first round of the tournament, they dismantled Alabama State by 20 points. They then played Creighton in the second round. Though it was a more competitive matchup, it ended with the same result, an Auburn win. SEC player of the year, Johni Broome has scored just 22 points across the two games, but his supporting cast has picked up the slack. Tahaad Pettiford’s bench presence was paramount in the win over Creighton as he scored 26 points in 32 minutes.
The Big Ten champion Michigan Wolverines struggled in their first-round matchup against UC San Diego, winning by just three points in a game where the Tritons had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds. The Wolverines played the Texas A&M Aggies in the second round and cruised to victory. It was a low-stress victory for Michigan as they won by 12 points. Vladislav Goldin led the team in scoring, averaging 16.8 points per game during the season, and has carried that momentum into the tournament, scoring 23 points in the Wolverines second round win. Michigan has their work cut out for them in the Sweet 16 as they will play Auburn on Friday at 9:39 PM EST.
The Ole Miss Rebels have survived the first weekend of the tournament and advanced to the Sweet 16 where they will face the Michigan State Spartans. Ole Miss withstood a comeback bid in their first-round matchup against North Carolina. The Rebels then went on to win impressively in the round of 32; they beat Iowa State in a game where they shot 57.9% from a three-point distance. Chris Beards Rebels will take on the 2 seed, Michigan State in the Sweet 16 on Friday at 7:00 PM.
Michigan State has been one of the most elite teams in the nation for the entirety of the season. The Spartans rank 7th in Division 1 according to KemPom and they have gone 14-4 in Quad 1 matchups. Tom Izzo has led his Michigan State team to the Sweet 16 for the 21st time in his tenure as head coach. The Spartans opened their tournament run with a convincing 87-62 win over Bryant. They struggled in the first half against New Mexico in the round of 32, despite ending the first half down by 2 points, but they wound up winning the game by 8 points. Michigan State is one of the great traditions in College Basketball and this is another year in a long line of success.
West Quadrant:
The west quadrant has one of the consensus top 3 teams in the field of 68, the Florida Gators. Walter Clayton Jr. has been playing at an elite level, averaging 23 points while shooting 53.5% from three-point distance since the start of the tournament. Florida beat Norfolk State in the round of 64 by 26 points. Before the game, Norfolk State’s head coach, Robert Jones complained to the media about how wide the predicted margin of victory was for Florida, it was set at 28.5 points. Jones gave Florida their respect and complemented their program, but then said “But are we that bad” in regards to the point spread. In the round of 32, the Gators advanced despite playing potentially their worst game of the season. Fortunately for the Gators, the UConn Huskies struggled to shoot and grab rebounds in the final 5 minutes of the ballgame. There was a point in the game against UConn where Florida was down 6 points, but they came back and pulled out a win to advance to the Sweet 16.
Maryland has had an extremely controversial tournament run. Their first-round matchup was nothing too special, but it was dominated by the Terrapins. They beat a scrappy Grand Canyon team by 32 points. But in round 2, they faced off against Colorado State and they trailed late in the game. The Terrapins won the game via a Derik Queen buzzer-beating layup, but many believe Queen took 3 steps on the shot which would have constituted a travel to be called. Nonetheless, Maryland has advanced and will face off against Florida in the Sweet 16.
Texas Tech finished 2nd in the Big 12 this season and they have continued their dominance to the NCAA tournament. JT Toppin and Darion Williams have combined for 78 points over the Red Raider’s first tournament games. However, it was Kerwin Walton who led the way with 27 points in the opening-round victory over UNC Wilmington. JT Toppin also passed the 1,000-point mark for his college career with a hook shot in the final seconds of the first half in their win in the round of 32 matchups against Drake.
The SEC was the best conference in the sport this season and they have carried it into the tournament. 14 teams made the cut out of a conference that is widely considered a football conference. Out of those 14 teams, 7 have advanced to the second weekend of the tournament. Arkansas is a team that had its fair share of struggles early in the season, the Razorbacks started conference play 0-5, but now they are dancing to the Sweet 16. John Calipari in his first year as head coach has brought Arkansas to the Sweet 16 for the second time since 2019. In the first round, Arkansas outlasted Kansas and won by 7 points, it was a battle of two legendary coaches as Coach Calipari and Bill Self faced off. In the second round, the Razorbacks pulled off a major upset in stunning Rick Pitino’s Saint John’s Red Storm. Saint Johns was one of the best stories in College basketball, but Arkansas showed that they were the better team. Arkansas will take on Texas Tech on Thursday at 10:09 PM EST.
East Quadrant:
Duke has a strong basketball tradition, this year is no different. Led by Cooper Flag, the Blue Devils are rolling to the Sweet 16. With wins over Mount Saint Mary’s and Baylor, Duke’s net rating for the tournament is +39, it is the highest net rating for a Duke team since 1998-99 (+43). This team is not all about Flagg though as Tyrese Proctor led the team in scoring with 25 points in the round 2 victory. In the win over Baylor, Duke shot an astonishing 64.4% from long distance, which is the highest single-game percentage out of any team in this year’s tournament.
The Arizona Wildcats have made 12 Sweet 16 appearances since their last Final Four which came in 2001. The Wildcats are trying to avenge their loss to Houston and go on a March Madness run after losing in the Big 12 tournament championship. Arizona opened the tournament with a promising 28-point win over Akron and followed it up with a 4-point win over Oregon in the second round. Caleb Love dominated the second-round matchup against the Ducks, scoring 29 points and snatching 8 rebounds in the win. The Wildcats have their work cut out for them as they will face off with Duke in the Sweet 16 on Friday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ.
BYU had a thrilling round 2 victory over the Wisconsin Badgers in a game where John Tonje poured in 37 points for Wisconsin and Dawson Baker was ejected after committing a flagrant 2 penalty for the Cougars. John Tonje had a chance to run the distance of the court in an attempt to tie or win the game for his Wisconsin team with 13 seconds remaining, but Keba Keita made an impressive defensive play to win the game for BYU. The Cougars will be making their third Sweet 16 appearance in school history when they take on Mark Sears and Alabama on Thursday evening at 7:09 PM EST.
Alabama has one of the most high-powered offenses in the nation, in fact, they lead the SEC in points per game with 91.1. It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for the Crimson Tide as they only won by 9 points in a round of 64 matchups with Robert Morris. Round 2 was back to normal as Bama had 6 players in double figures and beat Saint Mary’s by 14 points. Alabama was eliminated in the semifinals of the SEC tournament, but they were ranked as high as second in the nation in the weekly AP Poll rankings this season. The Crimson Tide are well on their way to making the Final Four for the second straight year, it would be just the second time in school history they were a part of the final four teams.
Ethan Frenda ‘27 said “I’m highly anticipating this year’s Cinderella story” when asked about what he’s most excited about this March Madness.
Midwest Quadrant:
Houston is the final 1 seed and they are considered to be the weakest of the top seeds, but Kelvin Sampson and LJ Cryer have been in lockstep as of late. The Cougars have not lost a game since February 1st, that loss was to Oklahoma State. The game against Gonzaga went down to the final minute, Houston won by 5, but it was a 1-point game in the final 15 seconds of the game. Senior guard LJ Cryer was unstoppable in the Cougar’s second-round victory over Gonzaga, Cryer scored 30 points in 37 minutes of playing time. Kelvin Sampson has been building Houston’s basketball program since 2014, and they are finally at the pinnacle of College basketball.
Last year’s runner Purdue has done damage to their opponents. They beat High Point in the first round by 12 points. In the second round they played viral student manager Amir Khan and Mcneese State and it was a similar result as the Boilermakers won 76-62. For Amir Khan, it was an astonishing March as he racked up six figures in NIL contracts without even touching the court. First-team all-American point guard, Braden Smith has played the entire 40 minutes in both opening weekend matchups for the Boilermakers. This is not anything new for Smith as he averaged 36.9 minutes per game throughout the regular season. Purdue will try to knock off the first 1 seed in the tournament in the Houston Cougars on Friday at 10:09 PM EST.
In previous years, Kentucky has had the reputation of being a team that doesn’t show up when the lights are at the brightest. This year is different though as the Wildcats will be playing Sweet 16 basketball for the first time since 2019. Some people will credit the new head coach Mark Pople, but others will credit the players on the floor. Otega Ogweh scored 20 points in a game where he shot 8-13 in Kentucky’s 19-point victory over Troy in the round of 64. But it was Koby Brea who got the job done in the second round as he poured in 23 points in the win over Illinois.
Tennessee is the 2 seed in this region, and another team out of the SEC. Chaz Lanier has shown up for the Volunteers in his first NCAA tournament games. In round 1, he had 29 points in a victory over Wofford. He followed that performance up with 20 points on 4-5 shooting from three-point distance in the Vols win 9-point over UCLA. 5’9 guard, Zakai Ziegler has had every reason to give up in his career, whether it’s losing his house to fire, or his mom working multiple jobs to provide for her family. Ziegler has stayed working at his craft and now it is paying its dividends as Ziegeler averaged 13.5 PPG, 9 AST, and 1.5 REB over the first weekend of the tournament. Tennessee will take on Kentucky in the Sweet 16 on Friday at 7:39 PM EST.
This year’s tournament has not featured as many upsets as many people are used to. In the first 2 rounds, there were just 11 upsets over the first weekend this year. This is also the first year since 2007 in which there is no team seeded 11th or higher in the Sweet 16. This year features just 4 conferences across the 16 teams remaining, every other Sweet 16 since 1975 included at least 7.
This year’s tournament is off to a riveting start, but there is more to come before the Final Four begins in San Antonio on April 5th.
