One of the biggest tournaments in America is March Madness. March Madness is an NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) basketball tournament. The single-game elimination style is made for 68 men’s teams and 64 women’s teams. March Madness is known for intense games, major upsets, and mid-major schools making Cinderella runs in the tournament. The March Madness tournament began in March 1939.
The tournament challenge, which is a worldwide challenge where over 20 million each year join in to try to get a perfect bracket, is also very famous.
The odds of picking a perfect 63-0 tournament bracket are estimated to be 1 in 9.2 quintillion.
The chances of getting a perfect bracket are so low that no one has ever won before. Each year, people try to get the perfect bracket for fun and because Warren Buffett offers $1 million to anyone who can do it.
On average, there have been roughly 8.5 upsets every March Madness tournament since 1985. This is one of the major reasons why the tournament is so entertaining for people to watch as they try to fill out a perfect bracket each year.
One of the main reasons why March Madness is so exciting and famous is because of upsets, but this year, there were no upsets. For the last 16 tournaments (not including this year), there has been at least one 12-seed or higher in March Madness. But only two teams that were 12 seeds or higher made it out of the Round 32. The two teams were McNeese State and Colorado State.
The McNeese State Cowboys beat the Clemson Tigers, who were a 5-seed in March Madness. The Cowboys only let Clemson score 13 points in the first half and beat the Tigers 69-67 to advance to the Round of 32. After advancing, they played the Purdue Boilermakers, who were a 4-seed. The run sadly ended for the Cowboys after losing to the Boilermakers 79-62.
The second team was the Colorado State Rams, who were a 12-seed and played the 5-seed Memphis Tigers. The Rams beat the Tigers in a close 78-70 to advance to the Round of 32. In the next round, the Rams had to play the 4-seed Maryland Terrapins, and the winner would go to the Sweet 16. The Terrapins were a good team with a star freshman named Patrick Queen. The Rams were winning with a couple of seconds left and looked like they would advance to the Sweet 16. But then Patrick Queen hit a buzzer-beater layup to beat the Rams 72-71.
These two games broke the 16-year streak of a #12 or higher going to the Sweet Sixteen. The highest seed in the Sweet Sixteen was #10 Arkansas after beating #2 St. John’s, 75-66.
This busted a lot of brackets because many people pick Cinderella stories to go far in the tournament. In the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, the average seed number of the Sweet Sixteen teams was 5.5. This is the third-lowest combined seed since 2000.
The average seed of teams in the Elite Eight is usually around 3.3, but this year the average was 1.6. On average, three out of the four No. 1 seeds make it to the Elite Eight in March Madness. But this year, all four No. 1 seeds made it to the Elite Eight.
Finishing up the Elite Eight, there were some close games and some not-so-close games.
The biggest point differential in the Elite Elite was 20 points in #1 Duke vs #2 Alabama. No. 1 seed Duke held senior star guard Mark Sears of Alabama to only 6 points. Sears averaged 18.5 points for the Crimson Tide in the 2024-2025 NCAA tournament, even scoring a high of 34 points against the #6 BYU Cougars.
The lowest point differential in the Elite Elite was 2 points in #1 Houston vs #4 Purdue. The game was played in the Lucas Oil Stadium and was very intense. The Houston Cougars won the game with a layup with 0.2 seconds left in the game, winning 62-60.
After the four games in the Elite Eight, there were no upsets. For the second time in the NCAA tournament, all four No. 1 seeds made it to the Final Four, the last time being in 2008 when Kansas defeated Memphis in overtime 75-68 to win the championship.
The Final Four finished, and Florida and Houston made it to the national championship after Houston’s crazy comeback against Duke. Houston was down 7 points with 1 minute remaining in the game. Houston won after Cooper Flag missed a shot to take the lead, winning 70-67.
In the national championship, the Florida Gators were trying to win their third national championship, while the Houston Cougars were trying to get their first-ever national championship.
The Cougars started off strong, outplaying the Gators 31-28 in the first half. The Cougars’ defense held the star guard Walter Clayon Jr. to zero points in the first half, going zero for four from three-point range. Clayton averaged 24.6 points in the tournament over a five-game span. He scored a total of 123 points in the tournament, playing in five games.
After Houston’s biggest lead in the game being 12 points, the Gators found momentum in the game, coming back. In the last few minutes, the game came down to the wire.
Houston had the ball with only a few seconds left, down by two with a chance to win their first national championship. Emanuel Sharp caught a pass from L.J. Cryer, squared for a three-pointer with 5.4 seconds. Sharp thought he had enough time to get a shot and lifted up his feet off the ground to try to make the game winner. But right when he left the ground, Walter Clayton came in for the contest, and Sharp decided to just throw the ball to the ground instead of shooting the ball. This move by Sharp caused the Cougars to lose the national championship, 65-63.
This move by Emanuel Sharp left many viewers confused as to why he dropped the ball. Even Houston’s head coach, Kevin Sampson, talked about what happened at the end of the game. This play will go down as one of the weirdest plays in the history of March Madness.
