Many Americans, including myself, consider March to be the best month of the year. Allergies are horrible and classes get serious, but the first days of spring signal something far more important: March Madness.
The 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament’s first two rounds took place last week, and this year may have been the most shocking tournament in recent years. Usually, the tournament sees victory come from some tiny 14 or 15 seeded school like the Oakland University Golden Grizzlies last year, or Saint Peter’s University in 2022.
This year, we have seen something different, as the Southeastern Conference had 14 teams reach the tournament, and seven advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. On the other hand, the Atlantic Coast Conference, who usually dominates March, only had four teams make the first round, and now only Duke University remains.
One of the lowest seeds to pull an upset this year was No. 12 seed McNeese State University. No. 5 seed Clemson University finished the regular season with a record of 27-7; a great record, but not uncommon throughout higher seeds in the bracket. What gave Clemson their high expectations were their two best wins against Duke and University of Kentucky. However, the Tigers looked like an American Athletic Union team playing against McNeese. Clemson shot 37% from the field and 30% from 3-point range. McNeese’s Cinderella run ended with their round of 32 matchup against Purdue University, where even an off game for Braden Smith, the best point guard in the country, couldn’t stop the Boilermakers.
Colorado State University, while facing No. 5 seed University of Memphis as a No. 12 seed, was favored to win. The Memphis Tigers’ starting point guard, Tyrese Hunter, was out with a foot injury, and Dain Dainja’s 22 and 12, combined with PJ Haggerty and Colby Rogers each scoring 18, wasn’t enough to take down the Colorado State Rams. As a lifelong Memphis fan, this one hurt, but I was happy to see the University of Maryland take down the Rams in the second round with a last-second — totally not a travel — shot from Derik Queen. I was excited to see Queen play, since I hadn’t heard much about him since his days with Cooper Flagg and Rob Wright at Montverde last year.
My best pick of this bracket was Creighton University over the University of Louisville. Ryan Kalkbrenner has consistently been a part of one of the best frontcourts in college basketball for the past three or four years. He had a decent game against Louisville, with 14 points, six rebounds and four blocks. His teammate, Jamiya Neal, took the spotlight in round one, pushing the Bluejays into the second round to face Auburn University. Kalkbrenner and Neal were not enough to take down the number one overall team, even with a complete meltdown from Johni Broome.
The No. 10 seed University of Arkansas Razorbacks are putting up a Cinderella-esque run into the Sweet Sixteen to No. 3 seed Texas Tech University, and they might pull together another victory. While Texas Tech’s JT Toppin is one of the best for their team, the third leading scorer for the Red Raiders, Chance McMillian, is questionable on the injury report. In the first round, the star University of Kansas Jayhawk Hunter Dickinson flopped with 11 points, giving Arkansas their first upset against the No. 7 seed. The Razorbacks, with their new head coach, John Calipari, blew past St. John’s University stifling defense to cruise into the next round.
The No. 1 seed Duke Blue Devils have been smashing through opponents left and right, and they have lost just three games all season. Their star power forward Cooper Flagg is averaging 18 points, eight rebounds and four assists, and is currently favored to win the Naismith College Player of the Year Award, above Johni Broome. The Blue Devils beat No.16 seed Mount St. Mary’s University 93-49 and went on to defeat nine seed Baylor University 89-66 who played with the huge prospect VJ Edgecombe, and former Duke guard, Jeremy Roach. Their next matchup against No. 4 seed University of Arizona will be another interesting one, as the Wildcats’ best player is Caleb Love, who played before Arizona at University of Chapel Hill at Chapel Hill, Duke’s biggest rival, and perhaps the biggest rivalry in sports.
No. 2 seed University of Tennessee boasts several great players including Chaz Lanier, who leads the tournament with 24.5 points per game, Zakai Zeigler, who is averaging 14 points and seven assists per game and Igor Milicic Jr. with seven rebounds. Their next matchup against powerhouse team No. 3 seed Kentucky will be a close game, and definitely one to watch.
No. 1 seed University of Florida is on a tear as well, and they haven’t lost a game since Kentucky on Jan. 4. They boast a 32-4 record, just behind Auburn. Their next game is against the Maryland Terrapins, and the Florida Gators should breeze right by, then into the Final Four once they beat either Texas Tech or Arkansas.
Outstanding players so far include Cooper Flagg, Chaz Lanier, Derik Queen, University of Alabama guard Mark Sears, JT Toppin, Florida guard Walter Clayton Jr. and several other picks. You may have noticed that Johni Broome was snubbed from the list, as he has been playing terribly this past week. I expect he will show out in the next game, but I can’t be too sure.
While this season hasn’t put the spotlight on many true Cinderella teams like Loyola University Chicago in 2014 or St. Peter’s in 2022, I am excited to see who will cut down the net on April 7.
