The 2025 March Madness tournament came to an end on April 7 with the national championship between No. 1 Houston and No. 1 Florida. Florida beat the Cougars 65-63. Here’s a recap of the upsets, rivalries, cinderellas, and the national championship game, plus a take on how this year’s tournament fared compared to previous years.

March Madness features the top 68 ranked Division 1 teams which face off against each other in single-elimination games leading up to the national championship. For a little background on the event, the first men’s March Madness tournament was played in 1939 and only featured eight teams. The Oregon Ducks, who went 29-5 in the regular season, defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes 46-33 and were crowned the first-ever winners of March Madness. The first women’s March Madness tournament was held in 1982, and the national championship was won by Louisiana Tech when they took down Cheyney University 76-62. The women’s tournament originally featured only 32 teams.

These days, some of the most anticipated games in March Madness are the rivalries. The biggest rivals in college basketball are generally Duke and North Carolina (UNC), which goes back to their first meeting on Jan. 24, 1920. They have faced off 265 times since then, and UNC leads the all-time record against Duke by 145-120 games. However, Duke won their last three matchups.

Upsets are a part of every sport, but some of the hardest ones to get over are in March Madness. This is because it is a very unpredictable single-game elimination tournament. FCHS JV Basketball Coach Brandon Townes says that the biggest upset he has ever seen was when the 11-seed VCU beat a loaded 1-seed Kansas in the Elite Eight.

Assistant Varsity Basketball Coach Jayvon Jackson has his own pick for a memorable game. “One of the biggest upsets I’ve watched was in 2018 when UMBC, a 16-seed, beat number 1 seed UVA in the first round of the tournament,” he said. UVA had the second-best odds of winning the national championship and were 20.5-point favorites going into this game. They went on to lose by 20 points, 74-54. That was also the first time a No. 1 seed lost to a No. 16 seed.

As for Varsity Head Basketball Coach Heath Bralley, his biggest upset moment was when George Mason beat UCONN to go to the final four.

Another reason March Madness is so entertaining is its “Cinderella” teams. A Cinderella team is a low-seeded team that continues to beat high-seeded teams over and over. Some memorable Cinderella teams are the No. 10 Davidson Wildcats in 2008, who were led by NBA superstar Steph Curry, No. 11 VCU Rams in 2011, and most recently, the No. 15 Saint Peter’s Peacocks in 2022. Cinderella runs are fun to watch and are very unexpected. The fact that a bottom-seed team can go up against a high-seed team and not just compete, but win the game, can be shocking for many fans.

“My all-time favorite memory from watching March Madness was seeing VCU make their Cinderella run back to the final four in 2011,” said Townes.

This year’s final match-up between Florida and Houston ended with the Florida Gators on top in a close 65-63 game. Houston looked promising during the first half and led going into halftime 28-31. Their defense was impactful against Florida’s offense, holding Florida’s top scorer, Walter Clayton, Jr., to 0 points in the first half and finishing with 11 points. This just made it easier for other Gators to score, with guard Will Richards making 18 points and forward Alex Condon making 12. Houston’s guard L.J. Cryer had a huge game with 19 points.

March Madness is one of the most unpredictable and exciting sports tournaments. If your team is not all on the same page and giving 100% every play, anything can happen. It truly goes to show that hard work beats talent every time.