A historically chalky NCAA tournament will rightly crown a national champion with a truck confrontation.
The four serial heads n ° 1 have passed in the Final Four for the first time since 2008 and only the second time in history.
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The first national semi-final on Saturday will issue the two behemoths to the left of the most dominant conference of this season. The champion of the regular SEC season, Auburn (32-5), will face the champion of the dry tournament Florida (34-4) with a place in the national match at stake.
The latest glass of the Doubleper Final Four could offer Duke (35-3) its most difficult challenge in the playoffs. The Blue Devils have drawn a Houston team that has lost once since the Thanksgiving weekend thanks to its Holy Trinity of Defense, rebound and protection of the ball.
Curiously, the Alamodom was also the place the only time that the four seeds No. 1 made the Final Four. In 2008, Kansas overthrew Memphis in overtime to win the first national title of Bill Self, equaling the game in the last seconds of the regulation with a 3 -point Mario Chalmers pointer after Derrick Rose missed a potential dropout launch.
Duke is the favorite to win everything before the Final Four of the NCAA tournament. (Zachary Taft-Imagn images)
(Imagn Images via Reuters Connect / Reuters)
Between 2008 and 2025, there were not many other years when the four seeds No. 1 almost progressed en masse to the Final Four. It was not until 2015 that three teams on the upper series line made the Final Four. Since 2016, the four seeds No. 1 have even made the elite eight.
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“The four teams that are advancing, I think it’s the country’s four best teams,” said Auburn coach Bruce Pearl after his team’s victory on Sunday. “It obviously does not always happen.”
With hindsight, there were signs before the NCAA tournament provided that it could be the year that lowered this trend. According to figures, the NCAA 2025 tournament may have the strongest quartet of the n ° 1 series in recent history.
Duke, Florida, Auburn and Houston each entered the NCAA tournament with adjusted margins of 35 years or over, according to the statistician of university basketball Ken Pomeroy. This is the number of points that they should surpass the average division I opponent by more than 100 possessions.
The gap between the four seeds n ° 1 and even the n ° 2 and 3 of this year was unusually large. The same goes for the gap between the four heads n ° 1 of this year and the previous national champions. Only two of the last 22 national champions have completed the NCAA tournament with an adjusted margin of efficiency greater than 35.
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Anecdotal evidence corroborates what the figures suggest. Auburn and Florida are the two strongest teams of a dominant conference. Houston won the Big 12 by four games and supported this with a crown of the conference tournament. Duke has produced a historic season in an ACC at the bottom, accumulating a more-434 score margin in 20 league games. It was in mid-January the last time that one of them was classified lower than the 6th in the AP survey.
Who is the favorite among seeds n ° 1? Oddsmakers say it’s Duke – and for a good reason.
The first Final Four team from Jon Scheyer is the best Duke team in a decade, better than the Juggernaut Barrett of 32 victories in Williamson-RJ, better than the group led by Paolo Banchero which brought Mike Krzyzewski back to a last Final Four. With Cooper Flagg and his comrades of projected lottery Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach, the Blue Devils dispute the story that a team focused on the first year cannot win a national title at the time of the cowardly seniors and transfers of graduates.
If this Final Four ends up with a duke crown, the Blue Devils will have won their crown.
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Houston will test Duke on Saturday with his best rated defense and his talent to transform offensive rebounds into second chance points. The cougars will be impatient to avenge the defeat of Sweet 16 last year, a match they led until the loss of the star goalkeeper Jamal Shead to an injury in the middle of the first half.
A team looming on the other side of the support is an Auburn team which seems to have rediscovered its peak shape and a Florida team with the most frozen clutch shooter of this NCAA tournament. No one wants part of Walter Clayton Jr. in a tight match in the section. Ask Uconn. Or ask Texas Tech.
Is this the best Final Four field in history? It is certainly in the conversation.
An NCAA tournament without upheaval will end with a Monster Four Final.
Next Saturday cannot happen early enough.
